These Brands Hijacked the Kim Kardashian #BreakTheInternet Trend Without Looking Like an Ass

If you read this site, you probably know how I feel about “real-time marketing”—the practice of brands trying to hijack cultural moments. The tl;dr: It fails most of the time, and when it does succeed, the illusion of success is a bit misleading.

But I always want to test and question my opinions on things, and so today, I spent a lot of time on Twitter sorting through the #BreakTheInternet hashtag to examine how brands were jumping on the mega-trend. (I also didn’t really feel like doing real work.) As I expected, there were a lot of terrible brand tweets.

But there were also a few pretty good ones, so out of fairness, I’m here to give them props.

Sorry @kimkardashian, Mr. Wu's is cuter. #breaktheinternet pic.twitter.com/OXiEUpSgG9

— San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (@sandiegozoo) November 13, 2014

The artistic direction by the San Diego Zoo here is tremendous. Mr. Wu’s coy, over-the-shoulder glance certainly gives Mrs. Kardashian West a run for her money, and the bamboo champagne bottles are a clever touch. Bravo, San Diego Zoo.

Hate to break it to you, @KimKardashian. #BreakTheInternet (cc: @papermagazine) pic.twitter.com/WOWFy5p6FB

— Nissan (@Nissan) November 12, 2014

Simple. Clever. Though I’m not particularly pleased to live in a world where a car gets retweeted roughly 2,000 more times than a panda.

Meet the guys who really want to #breaktheinternet → pic.twitter.com/UBtKPCwAr4

— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) November 13, 2014

Who says the Democratic Party is out of touch? I would have preferred Joe Biden popping a glass of (non-alcoholic) champagne onto his postier, but I’m sure The Onion will deliver before the day’s through.

Here at the Met, we have artworks that can #BreakTheInternet too! On view in gallery 150: http://t.co/ucjZ8mimuD pic.twitter.com/xevfttmHg8

— The Metropolitan Museum of Art (@metmuseum) November 13, 2014

Now, I feel genuinely guilty that I haven’t been to a museum in a year despite living in New York.

Hey @KimKardashian & @PaperMagazine, Stan knows how to use his best asset too. #biggerballs #breaktheinternet pic.twitter.com/Nm0RHu8E2r

— TBS Network (@TBSNetwork) November 13, 2014

I would have expected this to fall flat, but judging by the 5,000-plus retweets and mostly-positive replies, it didn’t. I guess I just don’t know what’s #veryfunny.

If you see any other good ones, tweet me @joelazauskas and I’ll add them to the post.

Additions

From Dillon Baker, Editorial Intern at Contently:

Does this break, or fix the internet?
RT @_Teggs: BREAK THE INTERNET. #TooManyCooks pic.twitter.com/Evz2TIwfoK

— adult swim (@adultswim) November 13, 2014

If you’re like me, you’ve yet to get that “Too Many Cooks” chorus out of your head—or its absurdist imagery out of your nightmares. The 11-minute parody of cheesy TV opening credits was Adult Swim’s own recent trending hit, and they didn’t pass on the opportunity to keep their name in the headlines. Though this ingenious twist on the original Kardashian image was done by separate Twitter user @_Teggs, Adult Swim was quick to add their own clever tongue-in-cheek query.

Breaking the internet before it was cool to #BreakTheInternet pic.twitter.com/1rLir82EVD

— adult swim (@adultswim) November 13, 2014

A few hours later, Adult Swim brought out their own famous ass: Assy McGee, one their many shortlived early shows that parodied that hard-boiled cop drama genre that has still, somehow, yet to be played out. I honestly can decide what pair of buns is more impressive.