Want to see what shaped the influencer landscape last month? Dive into the May edition of the Influencer Chronicles!
Last month was packed with amazing creator work, from Gymshark tapping into Y2K nostalgia with Bratz, to Adidas launching a star-studded World Cup campaign, and the iconic Dua Lipa dropping a custom Google Maps collaboration AND getting married.
We are diving into the growing consumer backlash against AI-generated content and the unexpected legal showdown between Patagonia and Pattie Gonia.
Enjoy the read, and see you all next month!
On the radar
GYMSHARK UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT
Y2K aesthetics and culture are all over the girlies’ feeds right now. While you might have grown up looking to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton for fashion inspiration, some of us (the kiddos) were doing that in a whole different way: through Bratz.
With the Y2K revival, these iconic fashion dolls are making a massive comeback. Gymshark understood the assignment and partnered with Bratz for their newest campaign, dropping the ultimate “it-girl” set of the summer so you can look hot hot while working out. It is literally every Bratz girl’s dream.
CHALAMET’S WORLD CUP Dream Team
Timothée Chalamet completely understood the assignment, starring in Adidas’ retro World Cup short, Backyard Legends. This drop is giving nostalgic vibes, ditching modern stadium vibes for raw, 90s street-football. By stacking an elite crew, Jude Bellingham, Lamine Yamal, and Trinity Rodman alongside Bad Bunny and Messi, they built the ultimate dream team that instantly resonates across generations. It strips away corporate perfection, proving that today’s biggest cultural icons don’t need shiny stages to build community, just a concrete pitch and an unfiltered love for the game.
THE ULTIMATE CULTURAL CONCIERGE
Dua Lipa, the internet’s favorite “cool girl,” partnered with Google Maps to share her curated go-to spots across 47 global cities through her lifestyle platform, Service95. This campaign works flawlessly as it feeds into our complex, parasocial reality with the singer songwriter shifting her image from an untouchable pop star to an accessible “cultural concierge” for her fans. By framing elite global travel as a shared, ready-to-explore list, the collaboration effortlessly commercializes her “it-girl” lifestyle while making her feel deeply relatable to an audience that relies on digital icons for identity and aesthetic inspiration.
Topics of the month
INCREASE IN THE AI BACKLASH
While audiences haven’t stopped using AI, they are actively revolting against the wave of low-effort “AI slop” cluttering their feeds. Gen Z excitement for generative AI dropped 14% this past year, while anxiety and anger continue to climb. This backlash is deeply tied to both the uncanny, low-quality nature of the content slop and an acute awareness of its massive environmental footprint. In an algorithm overrun by synthetic noise, audiences are explicitly rewarding real creators who showcase flawed human emotion and unedited transparency, proving that undeniable human realness has become a brand’s highest-converting currency.
YOUTUBE’S TOP ONE PERCENT
The creator landscape just entered its gated-community era. YouTube is quietly shaking up influencer marketing by testing an exclusive “Top Fans” distribution tool. Instead of asking for a credit card, this feature locks specific videos behind an algorithmic paywall that only grants entry to a creator’s top 1% most engaged, active viewers. For creators, this completely flips the script on loyalty, rewarding pure obsession over wallet size. For brands, the implications are massive: one-off vanity metrics are officially out, and hyper-exclusive community drops are in.
DIFFERENT PLATFORMS REQUIRE DIFFERENT CREATORS
Cross-posting the exact same creator content across every social app is dead. It’s like sending an un-tailored pitch to ten different brand demographics. Gen Z audiences have strictly compartmentalized how they use the internet: from search engine, to mood board and product research. Users look to specific creators on specific apps depending on whether they want quick entertainment or deep-dive reviews, meaning that it’s more important than ever to use the right influencers on the right platform to achieve maximum impact.
True to his username, Ernie is a proud Gen Xer bridging a massive generational divide, pulling in millions of views from nostalgic older crowds and deeply curious Gen Zers eager to learn about the “olden days.”
His formula completely defies the fast-paced TikTok algorithm: zero budget, high-voltage nostalgia, and long-form storytelling that acts as an antidote to modern short-form brain rot, routinely breaking the internet with massive, multi-minute viral hits.
Why should you follow them?
Because Ernie doesn’t give a damn about ring lights, aesthetic curation, or flashy influencer transitions. He delivers comforting deep dives into old-school snacks and obscure arcade games. Whether you actually remember the era or have absolutely no clue what he’s talking about, watching him feels like talking to a fun honest older family member who refuses to let the hyper-polished modern internet sanitize their childhood.
This page completely bypasses the traditional creator format as it isn’t ran by a mainstream celebrity or a public figure trying to build a personal brand. Instead, it operates entirely as highly addictive parody channel dedicated to dropping Eminem into completely absurd, everyday scenarios.
Why should you follow them? Because this account cuts through the noise with raw, laugh-out-loud absurdity. If you want a relentless stream of unfiltered, brilliant, and deeply unserious Eminem meme culture, this is the exact TikTok account you need to follow.
Spill the tea
1. Unexpected Crossover
We never thought we’d see James Charles and Gypsy Rose Blanchard in the same internet drama, but here we are. James Charles faced intense backlash after posting, and subsequently deleting, a TikTok mocking a laid-off Spirit Airlines worker who DMed him a GoFundMe link. The drama went so viral that multiple people flooded her with donations, including Gypsy Rose Blanchard, famous for plotting her mother’s 2015 murder following years of severe medical abuse. You truly couldn’t make this stuff up. loyalty.
2. Patagonia vs. Pattie Gonia
Public outrage after multi-billion dollar apparel giant Patagonia filed a federal trademark lawsuit against environmental drag queen Pattie Gonia. The queen herself called the lawsuit a “betrayal” and a corporate attempt to “erase an activist” over a name she has used since 2018. While Patagonia argues that it is legally required to police its brand universally to protect its logo, fans are calling the move incredibly hypocritical for a brand built on eco-justice.
3. Training Season Is Over
Move over Kendall and Jacob, because Dua Lipa just broke half a billion hearts by marrying Callum Turner in an intimate London courthouse ceremony. The newlyweds are already planning a three-day event in Italy next week, with insiders dubbing the Sicily takeover the official “wedding of the year”. Obviously, this news caused absolute devastation across the globe, but her being legally off the market isn’t going to stop the rest of us from delusionally manifesting a future with her anyway.
What have we learned?
Winning the Group Chat via Utility, Not Ads
Brands cannot buy their way into private group chats; they must earn entry by being genuinely useful. Target a group member archetype like the “Type A” planner who organizes every group activity. By providing cool, functional resources like Dua Lipa’s curated travel lists, you give these members the tools that they’ll actually use. So when the group asks, “How did you find this place?” the answer isn’t an ad, it’s “Dua Lipa.” This natural integration and peer-to-peer validation is one of the top ways to penetrate groups.
Monetizing Pure Obsession
Monetizing internet culture has shifted from broad distribution to exclusive inner circles. YouTube is testing a “Top Fans” tool that locks videos behind an algorithmic paywall, granting entry only to a creator’s top 1% most engaged viewers. This flips the script on loyalty by rewarding obsession over wallet size, making vanity metrics obsolete. Mass blasting the general public is losing power, and the future lies in dropping content tailored for and to find dedicated insiders.
Nostalgia and Subculture
High engagement comes from hyper-specific subcultures and collective memory, like Gymshark’s Y2K Bratz partnership or the celebrity heavy 90s retro Adidas campaign. This same yearning for a pre-digital era drives millions to Ernie (@wickedgenxer) for long-form stories about throwback arcade games and old-school snacks. Brands should look beyond current trends to tap into generational artifacts that evoke comforting nostalgia.
