How TikTok’s ‘demure’ trend quickly caught brands’ attention

Until just a few days ago, the “Brat Summer” craze sparked by Charli XCX’s viral album “Brat” was the trend dominating social media discourse, driving brands, anxious to stay relevant, to coat their social content with the album cover’s distinctive shade of lime green and declare themselves “brats.” Now, social media has entered a new season, “Demure Fall,” spearheaded by TikTok beauty creator Jools Lebron. Dozens of brands and creators have swiftly embraced the newest viral fad and, similarly to “Brat Summer,” are proudly calling themselves “demure.” The internet’s fixation on being “demure” isn’t related to the word’s dictionary definition of modesty and shyness—it’s rooted in Lebron’s meme-able reimagining of the term. More: How TikTok’s ‘demure’ creator partnered with major brands The trend first emerged from a TikTok video Lebron posted early last week where she shares tongue-in-cheek tips for “how to be demure and modest and respectful at the workplace.” In her video, which has garnered over 18 million views as of this writing, Lebron subtly insults her co-workers’ over-the-top makeup looks by comparing them to her “demure” rosy cheeks, simple winged eyeliner and pink lipstick. @joolieannie #fyp #demure ♬ original sound - Jools Lebron “You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful,” Lebron tells viewers. “I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much—I’m very mindful while I’m at work.” “A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma,” she continues, referring to the unkempt appearances of Marge’s older twin sisters. “Not demure.” Also read: Inside TikTok’s underconsumption trend Over the past week and a half, Lebron has followed her viral TikTok with several dozen videos offering additional sardonic advice for how to remain “demure,” “mindful,” “cutesy” and “considerate” in a variety of scenarios, such as boarding or exiting an airplane, shopping for painkillers at CVS while hungover or picking up an ID accidentally left behind at a gay bar. Each video follows the same basic format as Lebron’s original video, starting with her asking viewers to “see how” she “demurely” performs different activities. @joolieannie #fyp #demure ♬ original sound - Jools Lebron The “demure” trend has transcended TikTok and swept across social media as a whole at a particularly rapid pace, said Dayna Castillo, a social media marketer and contributing editor at internet culture newsletter Silence, Brand. She attributes the trend’s meteoric expansion to its simple and versatile format that centers on an easy-to-understand set of vocabulary, she said, and noted the trend doesn’t require a (potentially copyrighted) audio clip or other element that would limit it to TikTok. “I think ‘Brat Summer’ happening was a really good exercise for brands in capitalizing on this type of trend,” she said, noting that “brat” and “demure” are both “states of being” that lack formal definitions but reflect an abstract energy that brands and creators can channel. Being “demure,” for instance, involves adopting a confident, elegant attitude and avoiding needless drama by minding your own business—though the term can also be sarcastically applied to situations or actions that are decidedly “un-demure,” such as Lebron’s aforementioned journey to a CVS in a stained T-shirt and blotchy spray tan. “Now that brands have been able to clear the red tape around ‘Brat Summer,’ it’s going to be faster and easier for brands to hop on ‘Demure Fall,’ because ‘Brat Summer’ was already a case study for how brands navigate this,” said Castillo, “which is why I think you'll see brands hopping on [‘Demure Fall’] so much faster.” Patrick Ta Beauty, a cosmetics brand founded by makeup artist and influencer Patrick Ta, rushed to partner with “Miss Demure” herself, flying Lebron out to the brand’s New York influencer event on Wednesday. During the event, Lebron collaborated with Ta on a video modeling his brand’s new foundation, saying, “We don’t do a nasty dry foundation around here … We’re very creamy, very saturated, very dewy, very mindful.” @joolieannie #fyp #demure ♬ original sound - Jools Lebron “Collaborating on this trend felt like perfect synergy between our two brands, as we both celebrate beauty and embracing what makes you feel authentic and powerful,” Ta said in an email. “We had the best time filming together and that’s what I love about social—it brings communities together.” Dozens of brands are also diving headfirst into “Demure Fall” with posts across social media describing their own demure and mindful qualities. Taco Bell, for example, said eating its food in a parking lot at sunset is a “very mindful, very demure” activity, and Aldi said the same of shopping at its grocery stores. eating taco bell in the taco bell parking lot at sunset, very mindful, very demure— Taco Bell (@tacobell) August 12, 2024 Sour Patch Kids referred to its “sour then sweet” flavor as “mindful” and “demure,” while Tinder indicated the best qualities in a potential romantic partner are being “very mindful, very cutesy” and “very demure.” A slew of other brands, including Poppi, Colgate, and Oreo, have also described “demure” behaviors associated with their products. Post by @tinder View on Threads Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs On Instagram, MAC Cosmetics leaned into “Demure Fall” with a pair of posts offering its followers advice on how to engage in the trend, including a “demure + mindful starter pack” of MAC products to create a makeup look similar to Lebron and a Reel listing the “demure” workplace practices of some of its employees, including wearing a “full face of MAC” products to the office. View this post on Instagram A post shared by M·A·C Cosmetics (@maccosmetics) Naturally, TikTok has been a hotspot for “demure and mindful” brand posts. Netflix has racked up more than 11 million views on a “Gilmore Girls” clip in which Rory’s grandmother calls her “so demure.” ABC’s young adult TV channel Freeform similarly pulled from a “Mulan” scene where the titular character describes qualities her family expects her to embody: “Quiet and demure, graceful, polite.” Freeform’s video, captioned “mulan is the OG demure girl,” amassed over 15 million views and roughly 3 million likes within 24 hours of being posted. @netflix the demurest is actually @joolieannie ♬ demure - Netflix Several brands on TikTok simply leveraged the audio from Lebron’s viral video about her “demure” and “mindful” makeup look for their own videos. The TikTok account for “SpongeBob SquarePants” set Lebron’s audio to a scene from the cartoon, prompting Lebron to comment “lmfao hello?!” Scrub Daddy harnessed Lebron’s subtle insults toward her coworkers to playfully criticize non-Scrub Daddy sponges. Other brands, including Kiehl’s, Free People and Kate Spade, have instead used a TikTok remix composed of clips from Lebron’s videos to show their employees being “very cutesy” and “very mindful” at work. @kiehls Very cutesy, very mindful ✨ #kiehlsoffice #demure ♬ Very Demure Jools House of Evo Remix - CasaDi Lebron, for her part, seems eager to help other brands embrace “Demure Fall.” On Tuesday, she pitched a potential collaboration with Airbnb in a TikTok video, telling the brand she wants “to take her grandma to Puerto Rico.” Airbnb responded to Lebron’s offer of a “demure collab,” commenting, “Hmmm. Demure? Mindful? Cutesy? Let’s do it. DMing you now.” Follow us on social media X Bluesky Instagram LinkedIn YouTube

How TikTok’s ‘demure’ trend quickly caught brands’ attention

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