I recently shared my most popular LinkedIn post of the year; generating over 115K views and an array of comments. It called out brands for jumping on a TikTok trend where people mocked the height of Gary Barlow's son with memes.
I think it's so important that social media teams do better. With the arrival of TikTok, it's been refreshing to see Social Media Managers given more trust and freedom to share content on there creatively, express personality and have fun, including by incorporating viral trends. There are many examples of brands absolutely killing it on TikTok.
But when does this start to veer into dangerous territory i.e. trolling and bullying an individual for their body size because that's a viral trend at the moment? Some of the brands taking part in this latest Gary Barlow trend list the importance of being kind and having a zero-bullying policy in their company values, so why have these been disregarded for the sake of a TikTok post?
What's ironic is this happened during Anti-Bullying Week and Men's Health Awareness Month, which highlights the mental health struggles of men. Did none of these marketing teams stop to consider this?
I have low expectations for the general public when it comes to trolling online but businesses should know better. It really is alarming seeing the toxic side of social media on a regular basis. In the year leading up to One Direction star, Liam Payne's tragic death, TikTok was filled with content that mocked him. I remember wondering how one human being can cope with so much embarrassment and shame.
Brands must pause to consider if they want to be associated with the latest TikTok trend. Because if they think it's OK to be a bully, then the general public will definitely think it's acceptable to troll.