Participating in culture is increasingly becoming an approach brands are using to engage more of their ideal customers.
It makes sense that this is the case. Culture is how people connect. And as brands work to be seen as relevant, to build relationships with their communities, and to ride the visibility wave of trending topics, engaging in culture feels like a natural way to get in front of consumers.
The problem? Not every brand gets it right. Even though participating in, and especially shaping culture, can be powerful when done well, the way brands show up doesn’t always deliver the impact they intend.
When Culture Works
There are plenty of smart ways brands have engaged in cultural moments. When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement, lots of brands seized the opportunity to elevate their brand in that moment.
The Oakland History Museum offers another example. The team jumped in on the viral “six-seven” trend sweeping Gen Alpha in 2025 (apparently it was its most requested video for them to make), in a manner that was 100 percent true to the brand.
And perhaps the most iconic example of this comes from Oreo’s “You can still dunk in the dark” Tweet, during the infamous blackout during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout. Like a joke delivered with perfect timing, it was witty, relevant, and perfectly aligned with Oreo’s brand voice. No posturing – just cultural fluency in action.
These moments worked because they aligned perfectly with each brand’s identity and timing — not because they tried to force relevance.
When Brands Miss the Mark With Culture
For every brand win with brand culture, there are others that just don’t quite get it right.
For instance, some brands engage in culture in a way that is inauthentic to who they are. Many brands add social media comments saying things like, “periodt.”,“slay queen,” or “spilling the tea,” terms rooted in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and LGBTQ+ culture. Too often on social media, it’s mislabeled as Gen Z slang. Brands who engage in using this terminology, when it isn’t a part of its natural and documented brand voice, it reads inauthentic at best, and cultural appropriative at worst.
Then there are brands that comment on trending posts purely for visibility. Instead of feeling like a part of the conversation, they come across as clout-chasing. People can sense when a brand is commenting to contribute and participate versus commenting just to be seen.
The line between good and cringe is a fine one. It’s the difference between being relevant and trying to be relevant.
Consumers want to connect with brands that have their own identities. Your conversions will tank if consumers interact with you based upon how you show up on social, and find that you’re completely different in other parts of your customer journey.
How to Tap Into Culture the Right Way
What matters is showing up in culture in a way that feels true to your brand voice and values.
If hyping people up in the comments is a part of your brand character, do it. If jumping into conversations connects naturally to your partnerships, audience, or expertise, go for it. But if it feels off-brand, it probably is.
I recommend that brands don’t just look for ways to participate in culture, but to shape it. You make the biggest impact when you add to the conversation or move it forward, instead of just piling onto it. That’s what separates reactive brands from culture-shaping ones.
Prebiotic drink brand Agua de Kefir advanced culture when it came to their collaboration with Love Island USA Season 7 stars Nic VanSteenberghe and Olandria Carthen. The brand not only featured the new couple in an ad campaign soon after the show finished, they provided NicOlandria fans with weeks and weeks worth of spicy content that quenched their thirst (pun intended) for the couple whose stars continued to rise rapidly, but forged a relationship with fans in the process. Months later, the brand even hosted a themed Halloween party featuring the duo, and invited hardcore fans of the couple to come and interact with their favorites.
Cultural relevance isn’t about chasing trends – it’s about knowing and staying true to who you are and the communities you serve.
Brands that lead with authenticity and focus on building lasting relationships don’t have to perform relevance. They naturally create it.