RIP brat summer

or, this is what happens when the grown-ups get involved.

Dear reader,

It’s been the most significant summer for green since the release of Shrek 2 back in April 2004. But like all good things, brat summer must come to an end.

Scrolling through LinkedIn on a Saturday afternoon (giving myself the ick for using LinkedIn on a Saturday afternoon), I’m bombarded with a deluge of posts unpacking brat summer, commenting on brat summer, exploring what brat summer is and why it’s so popular. This is nothing new. It’s been happening for several months as the brands get to grips with what brat summer is and how they can apply it to their marketing strategies. But why has this led to brat’s untimely demise?

bra(t)nd relevance

Nothing sums up the brat summer bandwagon better than this post from 4 days ago (friendly reminder that the album has been out for over 2 months):

First, PSA to any businesses ‘bumpin that’ - you may get in trouble with the police for some very illegal activity akin to Wolf of Wall Street, so I wouldn’t start bandying that around too soon. And second, there’s a key question missing here - should you hop on this 2 month old ‘fresh trendy approach’?

As we all know, this modern world of ours has completely spoiled us for choice. Over-consumerism is the dish of the day and over-consumption of trends, ads, screens, etc. makes competing for attention - particularly the ever aloof Gen-Zs - incredibly difficult. Hell, Rishi Sunak had to make an apology for single-handedly killing the comeback of Adidas Sambas for God’s sake. And things come as quickly as they go (see my previous comments on 2 months basically equalling old news). So I do sympathise.

But all of this exposure to trends, ads, screens, etc. means inauthenticity is sniffed out a mile away. There’s a time and a place and a need for relevance that’s going to help a brand or a product have its moment.

Some have done this really well, like plant-based sausage brand Field Roast and their ‘brat wurst’ billboard. Green’s already in their packaging. Brat’s in their product name. They even share a consumer base with Charli XCX. The job’s a good’un and it makes me laugh (not out loud but in my head).

Others, like Deutsche Bank, are making me laugh for the wrong reasons.

‘we’re looking for a brat in finance’ their now-deleted Instagram post reads (in the wrong font), taking down not just brat but the man in finance trend in some ill-advised cross-over to appeal to…who? They clearly couldn’t say ‘we’re looking for a man in finance’ even though they may as well have, so they’ve shoehorned ‘brat’ in their too. If we are to take Charli’s original definition as our north star, Deutsche Bank are looking for a “girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes”. Just what every employer wants to see on a CV.

Now, I know this is all in good fun and they’re clearly just hopping onto a trend to appeal to an Early Careers demographic. But if I can sit here and pull their post apart, you can sure as hell bet I’m not the only one.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

To very quickly touch on Kamala Harris’s brat campaign, I will simply say Charli herself ordained that

“kamala IS brat”

and who are we to argue with the mother of brat herself? The other politicians following suit and declaring themselves '“demo(b)rat” with a new merchandise range to boot are a bit more iffy. But this piece is not about politics, so all I’ll say is that it caused CNN to host a panel discussion which featured insights like “aesthetic is a Gen Z word” and “brat is a cool thing.” Make of that what you will.

Your brat summer doesn’t have to end

In a similar proclamation of the death of brat summer, Dazed puts the blame on everyone - even you.

It’s easy to blame other people. But if you really want to know who killed brat summer, you must only take a look in the mirror.

Unlike Dazed, I don’t believe that we have “memed too close to the sun”. Honestly, you do you. The music still slaps and the original meaning still means something to the non-generationally specific girlies who will never be over Chloe Sevigny’s cameo in the 360 music video.

But the over-commercialisation of brat summer as a marketing ploy that anyone and their mum is getting on board with is not it. It has to end. Barbiecore met a similar fate last year and as we watch brat summer become similarly defiled, all we can do is stand on the sidelines and laugh at the attempts to really try to ‘appeal to the Gen-Z demographic, yo.’

That is most certainly not so Julia.

Thanks for reading,

~ Cesca