Got a genuinely interesting question sent in recently, kind of a silly one but worth digging into. Someone works at a tech company and their CEO just launched a brand new website and brand identity without really consulting the wider team first. The thing that stood out to them was heavy use of terms like “AI maxing” and “productivity maxing” all over the marketing materials. Their concern is that the “maxing” suffix is strongly tied to internet meme culture, stuff like “looksmaxing,” and that leaning into that could come across as unprofessional or alienate certain audiences. The CEO apparently has no idea this could be a problem. So the question was basically – am I overthinking this, or is this a real branding risk?
Honestly? Respect to anyone who can successfully pull off meme based advertising, genuinely. If you can go all in on a meme and make it actually work for your brand, that’s impressive and I tip my hat to it. But you have to understand the risk your taking on. Memes have a shelf life, and its short. The average meme lifespan is something like four months before it either dies off completely or gets absorbed into normal internet vocabulary. If your entire brand identity is built around a phrase that might not even be relevant in half a year, thats a real gamble.
The bigger issue though is who your actual clients are. If you’re operating in a more traditional, well respected industry with clients who come from a certain upper crust, professional world, they generally do not want to be associated with meme culture. You risk alienating higher value clients who see that kind of branding as unserious or even embarrassing to be associated with. Now, some would argue if a client doesn’t want to be associated with meme culture, maybe you don’t want that client anyway – and that’s a fair philosophical point, but it doesn’t pay the bills if that client is a huge chunk of your revenue.
Worth noting too – “looksmaxing” specifically has actually been around for close to two years at this point. It started as a more niche, semi-serious self improvement term before it fully mutated into meme territory, and now “maxing” as a suffix has basically become its own little piece of internet vocabulary that keeps spreading. Which honestly means its lifespan as a “fresh meme” is probably already limited, since its spilled into more mainstream pop culture in just the last few months.
This actually reminds me of a scene from Better Call Saul (for anyone who watches it) – Jimmy gets hired by a law firm because his brother’s firm wont take him on, and he runs this incredibly successful ad that generates a ton of calls. Problem is, it completely pisses off the partner lawyers at the firm, because even though it “worked,” it only appealed to a specific narrow type of client, and it directly conflicted with the image they needed to maintain for their actual high value clientele. They basically had to explain to him that just because something generates results doesn’t mean its right for the business as a whole.
So the real advice here is – look at this from a pure business risk perspective. If leaning into meme branding risks alienating the clients that actually keep your lights on, steer clear. If your company is more in the “hip and now” space where that kind of tone fits naturally, go for it. But either way, go in with your eyes open about how much you’re willing to spend and lose on it, and don’t bet your entire company identity on a joke that has a four month shelf life.
