Providing Gen-Z Context: The Marketing Behind Brat Summer

It’s summer 2023 - Barbiecore is monopolizing everyone’s FYP, Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour is in full effect, and clean girl, quiet luxury aesthetics are in. It’s a wholesome summer of girlhood.

Flash forward to summer 2024  - it’s an election year, and “brain rot” has been dubbed an official term for the chronically online. It’s a chaotic time for the history books.   

Enter: Brat Summer 

Our savior in the form of a 31-year-old British pop star.

Brat is the sixth studio album by English singer Charli XCX, released in June of this year. Within one month, its media impact value surpassed $22.5 million. 

If you don’t know what brat summer means - that’s okay. We’re here to give you a 360 comprehensive overview. 

WTF is Brat?     

We idolize Charli XCX, embrace our hot mess, and are proudly donning the slime green of the season. The Brat album has become Gen Z’s generational anthem, promoting all things grunge, messy, and effortlessly cool. 

Charli isn’t selling polished pop star and flawless filters - she’s promoting rawness and realness, something that resonates deeply with an audience who craves authentic connection. The singer may be a millennial, but we have no problem claiming her as a Gen-Z - she’s so Julia.

Brands like ColourPop, Kate Spade, and Adanola have hopped on the bratty branding bandwagon (say that 5 times fast), and it’s proven to be an incredibly lucrative trend for marketers. Just ask the UK’s Green Party. 

Brats In The Media 

So, how did brat shift from a disciplinary term to a nationwide rally cry for the 2024 presidential election? We’ll tell you. 

You might think Charli’s album is the trend of the moment, but this isn’t the first time brats have been caught in a media frenzy. 

During the height of the 80’s heartthrob, New York Magazine ’s article The Brat Pack caught wild attention, nearly derailing the careers of stars like Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Cruise. In 1985, their risky business made them outsiders and the public didn’t forget.  

These days, things are a little different - thanks to a generation of nearly 70 million social media users. 

Coming of age in such a turbulent political climate, Gen Z has adapted to stay agile in decades of nonstop unprecedented times. Social media gives us the audience, space, and sovereignty for our words to be heard. We have the platform to drive trends and change the narrative. Charli gave us a soundtrack, and we built a movement. 

We Talk talk   

When Joe Biden exited the presidential race, there was a need to unify the fragmented Democratic party, mobilize their assets, and spur into political action. What they really need is a femininomenon.

Enter Madam Vice President Kamala Harris: Gen Z’s Brat Mother

In an unprecedented move, Joe Biden exited the presidential race on July 21 - just 106 days before the election. Naturally, this caused a little chaos - until a woman in slime green stepped in. In just a few hours, Charli XCX offered her seal of approval, giving the newest candidate the attention she needed.

“Kamala IS brat.” 

56,000 retweets, 333,000 likes, and 54 million views. And that’s just one tweet. 

What followed was a TikTok media circus driven by a generation fluent in social capital. Thanks to tweets and DMs, the general public has direct access to celebrities, Olympians, and politicians - and Gen Z knows how to use this to their advantage.

While we all share the same social networks, our upbringing in this digital age has granted us cultural insights that older generations lack, giving us unfettered access to a collective international network to help drive our narrative home. Basically, we make viral TikToks, while other generations watch them (thanks for the engagement, guys). 

The instant gratification era gets a lot of flack, but that’s because people overlook the true power social media gives us. We’re not (just) posting TikToks to document aesthetic lifestyle content, we’re using the tools at our disposal to remove embargoed means of communication, employing strategic humor and viral trends as catalysts for change. 

And this isn’t anything new - we’ve seen this type of internet mobilization grow steadily over the past decade. The first use of #BlackLivesMatter was in a comment section, #MeToo was tweeted 500,000 times in 24 hours, and the 2017 #WomensMarch was organized on Facebook.

Kamala HQ is following in the steps of these legendary predecessors, branding subsidiary campaign pages on X and TikTok designed to resonate with her Gen Z following. This is a strategic move that’s nothing short of genius - those marketers didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree. They have their finger on the pulse (and the apps), and are using this trend to put their chosen candidate in the best position for success.

She’s gone viral for a few memorable moments and Gen Z is taking the reins, using memes to their advantage. As noted by Glamour, “People—and the collective internet culture—have become obsessed with Harris as a meme.

Kamala said “We did it, Joe.” 

Gen-Z said “We’ll take it from here.”

This impact isn’t about her innate popularity, it’s about a generation using what they know to alter her public perception. Gen Z’s Brat Mother, Presumptive Democratic Nominee… tomato, tomato. Social media is an incredibly powerful tool, and this is just one example demonstrating how it can be harnessed to start conversations, shape narratives, and spur change.

If you still don’t understand, that’s okay - you are probably not the target demo. Here are some supplemental viewing materials to broaden your brat summer education. 

Written by Cecily Milligan , Digital and Content Manager, and Gabby Collins , Operations and Creative Intern