How Brand Twitter Manipulates You | A Response to Steak-Umm

Brand Twitter is home of depressed Moon Pies and "inclusive" M&Ms, but the Steak-Umm Twitter account is the worst of the worst. Let's talk about why.

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In The Land of Brand Twitter, where household products and fast-food companies are personified by underpaid marketing employees working for corporations desperately trying to hold onto some semblance of relevance in ever increasingly saturated markets, it’s hard to stand out.

But one brand - Steak-Umm - was able to stand out from the crowd by tweeting about something no other brand was brave enough to: Wokeness.

Their seemingly anti-capitalist, pro-social-justice tweets gained traction and made Steak-Umm the mascot of level-headed, rational thinking on the Internet.

That's a bad thing.

00:00 - Intro
01:33 - The Birth of Woke Steak
07:19 - The Tweet that Broke Me
08:45 - Obligatory "Capitalism is Bad" Section
14:08 - Outro and Patron Scroll

* Sources: *

* Art and Editing: *

* To Support Me: *

The question is no longer, “Do you want to buy Wheat Thins?” For example. The question is now, “Will you support Wheat Thins in the fight against Lyme disease?” (Bo Burnham's Inside)

[ThatDangDad]

I love love love "internet history lessons" like this because I think the internet age is probably (ironically) underdocumented so this was both entertaining and educational. Entercational, one might say.

[emilehendricks]

Me: *South African and has absolutely no clue what Steak-um is*
Zoe: *uploads video about Steak-um
Me: *oh god what have they done now?* clicks

[dalstein]

When Naomi Klein's book "No Logo" (about the evils of brand-building corporations) became a success, she got offers from people who wanted to sell products carrying the "No Logo" brand.

[illdie]

I feel like it's especially gross considering their product is a result of many layers of abuse. Even putting the animals aside, what right does a meat product have to tell us about "sickening injustice" when it relies on slaughterhouse workers who get literal PTSD from their jobs? They're selling suffering as wokeness.

[PercyNah]

What kind of pretzelled logic would we see if Steak-Umm was pressured into talking about how their workers are treated in processing centres and what they think about meat production's huge contribution to climate change?

[ctmdwhub]

“It’s not a commercial, it’s a ~real-mercial~!” - H. Bomberguy

[Mesterjakel]

The fucking irony of steak-umm talking about being against ''sickening injustice'' while being a part of the horrific animal agriculture industry...

[aaronc.]

This year during Pride I started a practice of looking up a company's campaign contributions everytime I saw them do something for Pride and man was that depressing. The number of companies who change their logo to a rainbow logo while giving money to people who are actively trying to take rights away from LGBT people is so high. It was basically all of them.

It's infuriating.

[scoccacola]

Thank you for displaying the frozen sheet of meat at 8:42. I used to eat these as a child amongst other terrible foods (reminds me of your junk food video). Steak-Ums, you may look pure and innocent on your Twitter, but we've all seen what's underneath that facade...a devious and weirdly-colored flap of mystery meat.

[eric]

Steak-Umm is totally into social justice, that's why they support a robust worker's union, pay employees a good wage with job security and benefits, ethically source their raw materials, and upgraded their facilities with sustainability in mind. Right?

[aztektheultimatewoman]

There is no phrase I fear more than “Steak-Umm Bless.”

EDIT: Actually no, wait, there is a phrase I fear more than Steak-umm bless. And that phrase is “beefy thread incoming.”

[NunSuperior]

Beef production is a major contributor to global warming. Such a woke brand.

Great editing on this one!

[PhosphorAlchemist]

Tangential to your point (which, well-said):
While you were trash-talking Steak-umm The Product, all I could think of was the video a few months ago of you happily chowing down on a Slim Jim. I find it hilarious that each of us has a fondness for the trash-food meat product we grew up with (Slim Jim for you, Steak-umm for me) and repulsed by the one we didn't.

To be clear, I don't think you're wrong -- it is absolutely the scraps pulverized and molded into thin uniform sheets -- I'm just amused at the juxtaposition.

[andreapiuma]

oh man this is a banger, it's the academic equivalent of the "silence brand" meme.
gonna bookmark it so I can link it when needed

[walterl]

I can't stop thinking about the fact that some underpaid, overworked person had to write these things on steak-umm's official twitter account... maybe start paying your workers a living wage and the world might get a little bit better... I mean, these statements are obviously completely insincere, we're talking about huge conglomerates whose only goal is to maximise profits and it gets really annoying, but the fact that there's an incentive for these companies to engage in performative wokeness is indicative of actual positive societal change...

[transhusko]

i literally work in a marketing company that offers to menage social media accounts and it's really scary stuff, you've nailed it

[TheLeftistCooks]

This is just typical. The trouble with Millennials is that they're so willing to be entertained and to learn that they flock to entertainment, and qualified educators, in order to be entertained and to learn. Like this.

Steak-umm Bleeess

[DiThi]

It seems the account is self aware with tweets like the recent one that says "we exist to sell frozen meat" but they're clearly not allowed to break the anti capitalist barrier, even if they tried and they weren't fired. It reminds me of the Fight Club scene where [spoiler alert] the protagonist wants Bob to be honored instead of dying anonymously, and screams "his name was Robert Paulson!"... the rest of the members repeat that as a chant, across all chapters, without addressing the actual issue of anonymous members giving their lives for the project. A cult blind to their leaders.

[noctizo]

Me not knowing what a 'Steak-umm' is: interesting.
Great video as always Zoe. <3