Ryanair has been quite the sasspot on Twitter of late, and it seems everyone, from GB News to the Independent, is loving it. Yes, that Ryanair — the one that charges you £55 if you forget to check in before arriving at the airport; the one whose CEO once floated the idea of paid-for loo visits and who advises customers seeking a refund to kindly “f*** off”.
“A genuinely safe seat . . . and North Shropshire”, the budget airline’s official Twitter account posted last week in the wake of the Tories’ by-election defeat, accompanied by a picture of a row of Ryanair plane seats and a map of the constituency. That came just a few days after the company tweeted an image of a chart showing “Coronavirus alert levels in UK”, alongside “Downing Street party levels”. Level 4 was “Boris topless, asking Thatcher’s portrait if she comes here often”. “God help me bc I’m about to like a funny meme from a corporate account”, one user wrote. Ryanair’s tweet got over 100,000 such “likes”.
The company has taken many swipes at the flailing British prime minister and his government in recent weeks. And you have to hand it to them: these jokes are actually funny. This is corporate trolling of a non-budget calibre; the kind that gives you warm, fuzzy and even — if you happen to have a surname like mine — vaguely patriotic feelings about the airline.
But not every we-just-want-to-be-funny-and-likeable corporate social media post manages to strike the right tone. Contrast Ryanair’s Twitter account with that of Pepsi, whose bio alone makes me grimace: “If you’re looking for hot takes and cold Pepsi, you’ve come to the right place.” Yeesh. It turns out you don’t get either of those things from Pepsi’s Twitter page; what you get instead is one of the biggest companies on the planet trying to pretend it is just a regular Joe — and rather an irritating Joe, at that.
“Yup. We did that. Introducing Pepsi Mic Drop — our genesis #NFT collection,” the company tweeted earlier this month, as it announced it was launching a series of non-fungible tokens — the digital “collectibles” being flogged by everyone from Adidas to Melania Trump. “This is going to look great in the metaverse,” replied the company formerly known as Facebook (now Meta). “You know it, fren!” said Pepsi. “Welcome brand friend. WAGMI,” was Budweiser’s response. Pepsi: “Thanks, fren! WAGMI”.
Is there anything creepier on the internet than a bunch of corporate behemoths speaking to one another like they’re 24-year-old tech bros? The “WAGMI” acronym they keep repeating has become popular in the cryptosphere in recent months and stands for “we’re all going to make it” — itself a disingenuous slogan.
And nobody, not even crypto fans, seems impressed: “Pepsi calling Facebook ‘fren’ on Twitter makes me want to jump immediately,” one tweeted. “Literally just turn the internet off,” said another. A popular crypto site ran a piece lamenting the fact that “corporations like Pepsi, Budweiser, and Adidas are buying NFTs and metaverse land and tweeting ‘WAGMI,’ making crypto less cool, more cringe.”
Of course the person coming up with these tweets probably is a cool and clued-up Zoomer who earns a fraction of what their bosses in the C-suite get paid, but that doesn’t really help matters. Pepsi has a history of trying too hard to be relevant and getting it wrong: back in 2017, the company had to pull an advert starring Kendall Jenner after it was accused of trivialising Black Lives Matter protests.
It should be noted that likeability — or lack thereof — doesn’t always correlate with profitability. Ryanair’s newfound Twitter fans are surely welcome but they are not needed: Brits might have voted the airline the worst in the world for seven years on the trot, but during that period the airline’s customer numbers almost doubled.
Nevertheless, given that these brands appear desperate to be loved, perhaps some basic rules should be followed: don’t talk about “making it” when you’re raking in profits of more than $10bn a year; don’t engage in empty virtue-signalling; never use rocket emojis; don’t chat to each other like mates; do make good jokes at the expense of politicians who deserve it. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but: brands, be more Ryanair.
