Foreword
We apologize for being a day late, TikTok is chaotic and you never know how far down the rabbit hole you can go! I myself just made it out of a 41 hour scrolling frenzy and am trying to get back to reality for you all. Regardless, the trends this week have been Pushin 🅿️ to the largest extent and if you don’t know what that means, well neither do most, so we will try to explain it the best we can! Join us as we explore through the trends and popular culture that surround the app every week, and how you can utilize it to best engage with your audience.
The Trends
#1 Pushin P
128.3k videos on the sound
Usually it is a struggle in and of itself to explain TikTok humor to an older audience, but with pushin 🅿️, even Gen Z and the younger generation have no idea what is going on. Last week famous rapper Gunna released his new album and one of the prominent popular songs from it was titled “Pushin P”. The song references the line constantly but never once tells what P is or means. Talk show hosts and people around Gunna have asked him what 🅿️ is and his explanations are hilariously unhelpful in providing any clarity regarding the matter. The joke is that nobody really knows what pushin 🅿️ means, other than that it references something that is cool and down to earth. TikTok users have used the vagueness to create a trend where they show interpretations of pushin 🅿️, whether it be literal or metaphorical. The results are amazing and we highly suggest you check them out right below.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to associate “cool” parts of their brand with Pushin 🅿️ and if there is anyone with a deeper understanding of the term they can make TikToks determining what competitors are/aren’t Pushin 🅿️
#2 Screaming excitement
143.1k videos on the sound
As it turns out nobody is better at a poker face than a girl in the talking stages and this trend has been a fun way for girls to show their internal excitement from interactions with significant others vs their real world reaction. Under the audio girls are acting as if they are screaming with excitement to a text they received from a significant other, but when they go to respond the excitement cuts and they act very confident and nonchalant about it.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to use this format to represent customers getting extremely exited to use their product.
#3 Abowww
285.5k videos on the sound
If you thought Pushin 🅿️ was nonsense, well just get ready for this one. Over the past two weeks mainly female users on the platform have popularized this “abowww” audio. The sound reads, “She told me bring it back, abowww” and honestly nobody really knows what this means. Girls are using it to show themselves looking pretty or to represent themselves as alphas with text scenarios about their life. If any audio were to associate with the phrase “hot girl sh*t,” this would be it.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands should be on their “hot girl sh*t” and use this audio when they are presenting the brand as really cool.
#4 Vanessa
Multiple audios not trackable
As you might recall two weeks ago the material girl trend was going strong on TikTok. One of the audios that appeared after the trend was of an audio saying, “Freddie you’re supposed to be on lockdown… but Vanessa I’m a material girl.” The joke was that the user was using being a material girl as an excuse for some action in their life. Now this audio has expanded and much like the Berries and Cream trend from a few months ago, users are creating countless edited versions with different meanings. All of them still start with the premise of “Freddie you’re supposed to be on lockdown” and lead into some relatable phrase for the second half. There are dozens of versions so we can’t explain them all but make sure to check out down below for examples.
Examples:
Applicability:
Each audio will have to be adapted to a new scenario, brands should try to reflect user feelings from example videos in their personified brand.
#5 The man was too stunned to speak
106.7k videos on the sound
A few weeks ago an audio went semi viral with the shock effect and a line saying “The n**** was too stunned to speak.” The premise was that a user would present an unlikely or shocking scenario in text and react as if they were “stunned.” However because this audio was racially aligned, people outside of the black community didn’t really use the audio which caused a new version to be created. The super recognizable sound effect remained and the line “The n**** was too stunned to speak” was completely removed so and now we are left with the same trend, just much more widespread.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to bring up workplace scenarios and dilemmas with lots of drama to cause the shock factor.
#6 Why you acting like this is fun Rue
17.5k videos on the sound
This past week season 2 of the virally popular show, Euphoria, was released and clips from the new episodes are already presenting themselves as trend audios. In one scene the main character from the show, Rue, was being a little too light hearted after being in a near death experience and her friend Fez snaps at her to think about how terrible the situation is. Thus users are reflecting this feeling and showcasing times in their life when a friend or relative is acting a little too comfortable in uncomfortable situations.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands will want to showcase stressful workplace situations or dilemmas that they have to get through in contrast to a worker who is taking the situation lightly.
Trends from last week that keep climbing
#7 You look so dumb right now
78.1k videos on the sound
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, the majority of trend content on TikTok has to do with making fun of oneself or others and this trend is no exception. Users are presenting extremely funny play-on-words which portray themselves as if they know more about a subject than somebody who is well versed, and they consequently vastly oversimplify the idea. Each video is more creative than the next so we’d suggest you watch some of the examples below to get a better idea.
Examples:
Applicability:
This trend is inherently self deprecating and brands should use it to buy into the culture on the platform. By conceding a point against a competitor brand in a sarcastic way, brands help gain the trust of users as they are showing they aren’t trying too hard to simply make money.
#8 The photo
173.7k videos on the sound
You know when someone asks you to pull up a photo of your significant other and you have that one go to photo? Well that is “the photo” which has made its way into a trend format on TikTok. Many mainly female users have taken this idea, found their “the photo” and posted it to some music on TikTok. It’s a very simple trend which creators are utilizing for the single purpose of showing off themselves looking good. And if things stay true to past times on TikTok, stay tuned for next week when the trend adapts to be sarcastic variations making fun of people that try so hard to look good.
Examples:
Applicability:
Brands can find very random or weird brand images to use as their “the photo” in a sarcastic sense.
Bonus:
Lenovo has made their foray onto TikTok and their brand representative is absolutely killing it. As we’ve outlined in the past, TikTok content is accepted more and more when it is self deprecating or joking in some way. Lenovo has executed on this perfectly and one video caught our eye for having a hilarious variation of this. Their brand rep made a video which makes fun of other brands for doing a bad job at engaging with TikTok culture. He essentially breaks the fourth wall as he is in and of itself trying to do the same thing but the result is amazing and just a little snippet of the creativity that has been coming from brands on the platform recently.
Summary
This week TikTok has been defined by new phrases which nobody knows the meaning of and adaptations of previous popular audios. New trends and old ones alike are evolving week by week and it’s interesting to see how users are adapting them to have new meanings for their life. Stick along for the ride and we’ll make sure to guide you through the tumultuous world that is culture on TikTok, and how to navigate it with your brand in the coming year!