A new TikTok trend begins with a simple question: How often do you think about the Roman Empire?

The viral videos typically feature a woman posing the inquiry to her male partner, whose unwitting response serves as the punchline. “Every day,” “Once a week” and “A lot” are a few of the common responses. Without fail, the women holding the cameras launch into incredulous laughter. 

The trend has gone viral for uncovering a strange and seemingly widespread habit of men, who for the life of them cannot seem to explain why they think so often about the Roman Empire. They just shrug and shake their heads. “Lots of history,” a few vaguely offer.

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#RomanEmpire currently has 1.3 billion views on TikTok, so it was only a matter of time before brands joined in on the action. 

Wheat Thins commenced a chain of posts on Threads with a slight spin on the original punchline.

Other brands soon piled in, including Wheat Thins’ corporate sibling Ritz, quoting the previous post with their own take on the same format.

Brands such as Sonic and Converse referenced the trend in their own ways.

Here’s a sense of how many brands eventually cited the Roman Empire, stoking the ire of some users:

Interestingly, Threads appeared to be the primary social media platform on which brands entered the trend. X, formerly Twitter, has typically played this role, but the platform has hemorrhaged trust and advertisers over the past year. Whether Threads can fully supplant X as the domain for brand memes is up in the air.

Indeed, several big-name marketers stuck with X when making their Roman Empire jokes.

Brands that capitalized on the trend with real-life offerings include Barnes and Noble, which set aside a display of Roman Empire-themed books in one of its stores, as well as United Airlines, which promoted a sale on flights to Rome on TikTok.