Labubu Takeover
May 7th — 20th
Hey readers! Here’s our hot take: Keep pushing back. Sometimes it can feel like right-wing ideology is seeping into everything, especially social media. Our feeds keep insisting it’s uncool to be “the one friend that’s too woke,” and some pretty weird discourse about birth control keeps surfacing. It feels good to see folks push back and refuse to let us go backwards.
🎵 Top Sounds 🎵
Our curated picks of the top sounds on TikTok
I Have Thoughts 😕
Use this sound to share an opinion or worry.My Favorite Time Of Day 🙃
A good sound to show your audience your favorite time of day, or when that time gets ruined.Voice Note 🤪
As a habitual voice note sender, this TikTok sound called me out. This is a sound for those of us who love to yap on a voice note (and the people who receive the voice notes)She Stole My Life 😤
Use for old enemies and people you don’t want to talk about.Where Are The Thinkers? 🤔
FKA Twigs asked where the thinkers are. Not going to lie, it does feel like we’re experiencing a dearth of thought right now.
🔉Sound Highlight 🔉
Mood: 😎
brat never really ends. Pair a picture of yourself now with a childhood/early photograph of where you’re from.
🌟Trend Highlight 🌟
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Creators are sharing the trends they refuse to fall for.
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Use this CapCut template and accompanying sound to show what it’s like interacting with a particular person or group.
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Have your audience guess where you grew up based on the foods you ate.
💫 Post Highlight 💫
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It’s important to remember that trends aren’t just the sounds and formats reiterated on your FYP but also trending topics. In this case, the Holiday Pirates page hopped on a trending bit of nostalgia on Reddit and Twitter— what kids imagined the Channel Tunnel looked like.
👀 Platform News 👀
Platform updates, new features, and what’s new on social
YouTube wants to help brands collab with creators, announcing new tools to do just that.
TikTok has added new accessibility and AI features.
Instagram released new content tips for those wanting to switch up their content and explore new niches.
☕ The Zeitgeist ☕
Hot topics and discourse from across the internet
Labubus are everywhere right now, and it’s not just a viral trend online. I’ve seen them in plastic protector cases on the street this past week.
The Nottoway Plantation house burned; it was the largest remaining plantation house and an active resort. Yes, that’s right, a resort. Reader, I’d love to add a pithy line here, but the active enjoyment of guests at this site of immense harm is hard to express. Perhaps that’s my so many are glad it is gone.
Trump insists white South Africans are fleeing, I mean that’s obviously false, isn’t it? The white minority in South Africa continues to own over 75% of the land, and a disproportionate amount of the wealth in the country. Huh, I wonder what system might've perpetuated such inequality... Oh wait.
🥡 The Takeaway 🥡
What marketers are taking away from trends
Trends are often meta. That’s pretty clear right now when several trends serve as commentary on other trends (just like the “propaganda I’m not falling for” trend I featured earlier). It seems to be the natural result of an online ecosystem that operates on repetition and relies on popularity as a gauge of potential interest.
If you’ve ever been drawn into a niche drama or watched a controversial video from a community you’ve never interacted with before, you’ve seen how attention from one corner of an app can push content onto more screens. What’s popular only gets more popular because apps believe there’s a good chance you won’t scroll away or close the app. Even someone who doesn’t write a trends newsletter is more keenly aware of what’s trending, whether through in-app tools or sheer ubiquity.
The constant emphasis on trends can also result in fatigue for audiences. By critiquing trends or getting meta you get to acknowledge our collective brain rot while boosting your own content because yes, you guessed it, you’ve engaged in the trend. I expect we’ll see more of this type of content going forward.