Social media trends: post-game posts and chocolate syrup hair

Each week, Marketing Brew recaps what people are talking about on social media, the trends that took over our feeds, and how marketers are responding.

Super Bowl wind-down: Sunday was the height of Super Bowl ad buzz, and our feeds were full of questions and comments around the religious ads in the game, why Temu repeatedly told us to “shop like a billionaire,” and where to get the Dunkin’ tracksuits. Other things we saw:

• Cetaphil ran into some pushback on its Taylor Swift-inspired ad from a creator who claimed the ad was based on content she created with her stepdad.
• The person running President Biden’s social accounts posted a reference to a “Dark Brandon” meme about Democrats rigging the Chiefs’ win, and sparked conversation around whether certain jokes belong on government accounts.
• Paramount’s decision to air an alternate broadcast of the Super Bowl on Nickelodeon seemed to pay off, based on the number of Dora and SpongeBob posts alone.
• And, of course, the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce content was abundant.

Regardless of where you and your fellow marketers watched, we hope you weren’t bringing this vibe to the function.

Bring back the color wheel: If you thought calling blue nails “blueberry milk nails” was bad, now we’ve got Vogue rebranding brunettes as having “chocolate syrup hair.” Please, we as a people are begging for it to stop.

Taco talk: Taco Bell hosted an Apple-style “Live Más Live” event in which it debuted its new menu items for the year. And people were hyped about it…for the most part. Who’s excited for the Mountain Dew Baja Blast pie?

More FOOH: Much like H&M seems to be doing, Poppi is also leaning into fake out-of-home social posts. The brand also got attention this week for its Super Bowl ad from surprised viewers—as well as from possible buyers, it seems.

Late-stage capitalism check-in: You know it’s bleak when a joke about ad-supported healthcare has people saying, “Well…”