The TikTok-ification of brands shows why the Gen Z consumer really is different
Carat Melbourne’s head of strategy, Bethanie Blanchard, looks at the meaning of brand identity to a generation that delights in its deconstruction.
TikToker Emily Zugay has become the comic embodiment of an old internet joke that adds the phrase “graphic design is my passion” alongside the least aesthetic thing you’ve ever seen.
Deadpanning that she “graduated college with a degree in design”, Zugay has taken it upon herself to critique and rework some of the world’s most iconic brand logos which, she says, “we can all agree are ugly”. This includes Starbucks, taking issue with the legendary mermaid; H&R Block, which she turns into a circle; and Apple, which she critiques as having “no symmetry” and “not even any words indicating which brand this is, you just have to guess.”
