Thinking about jumpin' on the brand wagon? Think again.

Brands. You are not obligated to hop onto every trend.
By now, you’ve seen the Empire State Building Couple from Netflix’s 2024 documentary Skywalkers: A Love Story illegally climb the iconic New York landmark to plant a flag at the top of the spire, bearing the powerful messaging:

“When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.”

Then, there was a proposal…
Then, there were arrests…
Then, came the brands…

Feeds were flooded with imagery of the couple, boldly bearing a flag with…poorly placed taglines, logos, and phrases?

Brands love to hop onto trends, but something about this one, in particular, rubbed me the wrong way. It’s like they never acknowledged the original message. They just saw the opportunity to hijack a moment.

Jack Appleby of Future Social has been beating this drum for years. He recently argued that many brands need a trend detox, suggesting marketers may be forgetting to make content that's genuinely entertaining or useful without leaning on viral moments.

“We should be able to make our brands interesting on the internet without relying on what’s happening on the Internet,” Appleby writes. “That’s where 99% of brainstorming power should be concentrated—not on the ~culture~.”

I, for one, agree. Trends should not replace true creative strategy. If you’re going to hop on a trend, give it a little spin that’s uniquely relevant to your brand like DoorDash did. The Plaza Hotel posted a sign reading, “you don’t need to scale the building to propose at the Plaza.”

Even the Empire State Building — arguably the only brand account with the right to post — did their own thing.