The discourse surrounding popular culture and marketing rose to new heights this year. Audiences, fans, and critics alike have taken space to observe, analyse and discuss campaigns or PR rollouts, with many taking to social media platforms to debrief on what worked and what didn’t.
Mediaweek takes a look back at some of the best and worst pop culture marketing moments of 2024.
Best
Charli xcx – Brat
British singer-songwriter Charli xcx has been on the music scene for well over a decade and boasts a string of hit songs to her name. But this year, she captured attention and imagination with Brat, her sixth studio album.
Brat was a full embrace of the messy, hyper-pop, indie sleaze, 2000s look, and brilliantly mismatched with vulnerable and brutally honest prose about generational trauma and contemplating motherhood. Her edgy image was coupled with the intentional album art cover of a lime green square brat. imposed on it. She worked with New York-based creative tech company, Special Offer Inc., to get the album art and packaging right.
Charli told Vogue Singapore: “I wanted to go with an offensive, off-trend shade of green to trigger the idea of something being wrong. I’d like for us to question our expectations of pop culture—why are some things considered good and acceptable, and some things deemed bad? I’m interested in the narratives behind that and I want to provoke people. I’m not doing things to be nice.”
The aesthetic and club-heavy sound gave her an edge in the pop space. It proved to be a breath of fresh for audiences who have been saturated with the highly styled images of contemporaries in the pop space, such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Sabrina Carpenter.
Charli XCX at her livestreamed listening party for the BRAT remix album
Wicked – Global press tour
The global press tour of the highly anticipated screen adaptation of the broadway musical Wicked has captured the attention of old fans and new fans. The films lead stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have been at the forefront of red carpets premiere, press junkets and interviews with the supporting stars also on hand at the events.
There have been several moments from Grande and Erivo’s interviews that have gone viral and taken a life of its own amid the promotion. Among the include Em Rusciano’s emotional podcast interview in Sydney and the “holding space” interview with Out reporter Tracy E. Gilchrist.
@emrusciano This Thursday from 6am on @emsolationpodcast you’ll get to hear and see my FULL chat with @arianagrande and @cynthiaerivo about @wickedmovie and many other things because we did go off on several many side quests. Here’s a small sample of the glorious things to come. They were so generous with their time and energy, I will say that it truly felt like they “saw” me the second I sat down. I mean they REALLY saw me and seemed to enjoy and understand exactly who I was and am. Thanks again to @universalpicsau for the opportunity to sit before the wonderful witches of Oz. #cynthiaerivo #arianagrande #wickedmovie #elphaba #neurodivergent ♬ original sound – Em Rusciano
In addition to entertaining and insightful interviews on the tour, Grande, Erivo and their respective style teams have served audiences with impressive fashion, makeup and nail art choices that wowed fans.
The success of this press tour can boiled down to many factors and influences, but Grande and Erivo’s authenticity and consistency in showing up for the promotion and for each other have evidently driven interest for the film.
This has translated to a global box office profit of US$524,971,000, according to Digital Spy on December 15, and multiple nominations for the film, as well as Grande and Erivo ahead of award show season.
Taylor Swift – The Eras tour
The Eras Tour finally came to a conclusion on with Taylor Swift performing her final show at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver on December 8, wrapping up one year and eight months on the road.
The tour was been an incredibly successful endeavour for the pop star, selling a total of $2,077,618,725 in tickets, according to a recent story by the New York Times, not to mention the sales generated from official tour merchandise which included tour shirts, jumpers, tote bags and bracelets.
The Eras Tour wasn’t without its errors. Hyped up as Swift’s last tour after she unprecedentedly released three new albums and four re-records amid the pandemic, the singer’s fans clamoured to get tickets to the show and ticket-selling platform Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation could not keep up with the demand. With demand high, some were forced to seek tickets at shows outside of their home city, state and even country, while some did not end up going.
Outside of the bounds of the concert itself, the Eras Tour generated plenty of business in each city she visited with fans spending on flights, accomodation and hospitality services. The ABC cited NAB which reported that Swift’s seven concerts helped generate more than $300 million for the Australian economy.
Worst
Princess of Wales – Photoshop fail
Catherine, the Princess of Wales, took responsibility for the photo editing fail featuring herself and her three children, George, Charlotte, and Louis, which was released for Mother’s Day in the UK.
Allegations of doctoring were first made by Associated Press, which put out a Kill Notice for the image, with a spokesperson telling the Telegraph, “At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image.”
Amongst other issues in the image, the agency called out “an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte’s left hand.”
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Almost 24 hours after the image was published on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ official Instagram account, a statement was posted to the same account’s Stories from “C”: “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused.”
PR and communications specialist and president of ANZ and reputation counsel at Sefiani Communications, Robyn Sefiani, told Mediaweek at the time: “If indeed the photo has been manipulated to present a picture of health when the reality may not be entirely true, the public’s trust in future Royal communiques will have been significantly eroded.”
Upon the clarifying statement taking being released, Sefiani added: “As the English bard Shakespeare would have said: Much Ado About Nothing. But was it an overreaction by global photo agencies or are some institutions (The Royals) held to higher account?”
It Ends With Us – Misaligned marketing strategy
Based on the best selling novel by Colleen Hoover, the film adaption of It Ends With Us had many TikTok fans excited to see the story of Lily Bloom portrayed on screen by Blake Lively opposite co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
The romance novel follows Bloom’s romantic relationships and experiences with domestic violence, familial trauma and emotional abuse – heavy subject matter which Baldoni researched, examined and took on board as director.
Interviews of Baldoni on the film during the promotional circuit was measured, impactful, engaging and respect of the topic.
Meanwhile, Lively promoted the film by encouraging women to “grab your girlfriends and your florals” and watch the film.
When asked in an interview what she would say to real life victims who may see their experiences reflected, Lively responded: “I think that you’re so much—and not to minimise it—but you are so much more than just a survivor or just a victim.” She also said the film “is a story that covers domestic violence but it’s not about domestic violence,” responses which upset survivors of DV.
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Both the different approaches and takes on the film by Lively and Baldoni were observed by PR enthusiasts on social media.
Senior marketing strategist Sarah Milstein told Brand Vision Insights highlighted the importance of aligning marketing strategies with the content’s tone. She said: “When marketing a film dealing with sensitive topics, it’s crucial that the promotional materials reflect the content’s tone. Failing to do so not only risks alienating the core audience but also diminishes the impact of the story being told.”
Bumble – Billboard backlash campaign
Dating app Bumble launched a brand redesign in April aimed at renewing user interest on the platform. However the campaign was met with backlash online following the launch a billboard that read “You know full well a vow of celibacy is not the answer”. Critics slammed the message for suggesting celibacy isn’t a personal choice and the patriarchal ideas about sex.
In an apology posted on Instagram, Bumble acknowledged it missed the mark and had removed the ads from the global marketing campaign.”
Bumble will be making a donation to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, among other organisations, as a part of our ongoing efforts to support the work being done around the world to support women, marginalised communities and those impacted by abuse. We will also be offering these partners this billboard space to display an ad of their choice for the duration of our reserved billboard time.”
In an op-ed piece for Mediaweek earlier this year, Lauren Meisner, founder of Centennial World and host of Infinite Scroll, said the campaign was a “misguided stab at young women’s boundaries.”
She wrote: “I see this fumble as a fundamental misunderstanding of why Gen Z women are setting these boundaries in the first place.
“Despite the supposed era of ‘cancel culture,’ Gen Z have proven they are not ruthless and unforgiving. Bumble’s well-executed apology is a prime example of how brands can make amends with this generation and recover quickly from mistakes.”
