Memes aren’t just little jokes to laugh at on your way to work or while scrolling in bed; they’re serious marketing tools that can propel a company’s growth through humor and social commentary. According to Pulse Advertising, a tech-enabled social intelligence company, the global meme industry grew from $2.3 billion in 2020 to $6.1 billion by 2025.
Tongue-in-cheek marketing campaigns can help businesses get 60% more organic engagement. Companies like Duolingo also use this strategy with their green owl mascot to get people to download their app and keep up with their lessons. Even customers seem more likely to buy from brands that post casual memes, which shows the power these simple jokes and photos can hold.
Memes aren’t a modern invention; they date back to 3 B.C., when archaeologists uncovered a mosaic from the ancient city of Antioch that showed a three-frame bathing scene. The first section shows a servant preparing a bath; the second frame shows a young man running away from the bath and being chased by an older servant who can't catch him; and the last section shows a seemingly happy skeleton of the young man sitting casually with a jug of wine. This seems to be one of the first memes in existence that teach people to live their lives happily.
According to Independent Lens, these funny pictures and drawings represent people's feelings, thoughts, and ideas. They don’t need words to convey complex concepts, since an image or moving picture can say it all.
The term "meme" was introduced in 1976 by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, who described it as a cultural unit of information. He derived the word from the Greek words “mimeme” and “gene,” and said these concepts spread through imitation just like biological genes.
These hilarious pieces of information tend to act almost like a virus, getting replicated and transmitted from one person to another; from there, they can also evolve and mutate at random. Richard Dawkins’s initial explanation helped coin the term "meme," and over time we have seen many incredible ones, like the dancing baby in 1996.
Before you know it, you might end up scrolling through a ton of memes, and it’s so easy because they’re simple for our brains to process. Since they usually don’t have much text and include many icons or photos, we can quickly grasp the concept and share it with friends and loved ones.
According to Sentius, which provides wisdom, insight, and knowledge about things, this effortless comprehension feels good, and since we can use memes to connect with other people, it can feel like we’re all in on a joke together. This sense of belonging is what prompts people to share more funny photos and keep the cycle going.
When a meme is born, people worldwide learn about it, and everyone wants to join the conversation. This online community begins the moment someone clicks ‘share’ and continues until the trend changes. Some classic gems like the famous Rick Roll never seem to fade into oblivion.
Although you might enjoy memes on your own, most of the time people share these funny photos with their loved ones. This keeps the conversation going and also sometimes acts as a form of bonding. That’s why brands and companies try to capitalize on this idea to build better online engagement.
Memes are more than a simple conversation starter or something to chuckle at; they can also offer escapism. As most of us seem to be bogged down by a 9-5, or in some cases, even more demanding schedules, seeing funny GIFs or wacky photos can help take our mind off things.
These posts also tend to make light of serious topics, which can help people lighten their load, at least for a short time. Since laughter has long been seen as the best medicine, humor can act as a magical dose that can even change the way a person’s day is going.
