Brands exploit Italian brainrot

If you are following real-time marketing activations, you may have already seen how many brands exploit Italian Brainrot to gain attention in a world ruled by fast-moving trends. If you’re wondering what Italian Brainrot is and you don’t know exactly what I am talking about, it means that you are perfectly sane

However, videos like this one below are buzzing all over TikTok and Instagram:

 source: Ryanair official Instagram page

As you probably expected, content like this went viral. This ugly character roaming on a plane while telling random words about not needing space legs in Italian with an AI voice scored

• 2.5 million views
• 125k likes
• 622 comments

I had to understand what was going on and why, especially after I saw other similar content:

source: Samsung Belgium TikTok

What is Italian brainrot

Italian Brainrot is basically an AI-generated collection of absurd characters with impossible names like Tralalero Tralala (a shark in sneakers), Bombardiro Crocodilo (a crocodile bomber plane), or Špijuniro Golubiro (a spy pigeon, obviously). They come with chaotic visuals and a robotic text-to-speech Italian voice that shouts nonsense rhymes at full volume. The result is a surreal mix of confusion and hilarity — a kind of brain-melting humor that feels like it shouldn’t work, and yet it does. These videos started flooding TikTok in early 2025, and now they’re impossible to avoid.

A collage featuring some of the most famous brainrot characters

To give you a sense of scale:

• Individual videos featuring Italian Brainrot characters, such as the Tralalero Tralala shark, have garnered significant attention. For instance, a video by TikTok user @amoamimandy.1a showcasing this character amassed over 7 million views and 600,000 likes within a month.
• Brand engagement with the trend has yielded impressive results:
  • Ryanair‘s TikTok video titled “TRALALERO TRALALA 🗣️” achieved substantial engagement (150k views and 10k likes), reflecting the trend’s popularity.

• Fan-made compilations, such as “Top 10 Italian Brainrot Animals” on YouTube, have collectively accumulated millions of views, further amplifying the trend’s reach.
• Search interest for specific characters like Tralalero Tralala, Bombardiro Crocodilo, and Špijuniro Golubiro has surged, with TikTok search queries for these terms spiking significantly during the trend’s peak in late March 2025.
• Brands that capitalized on the trend during its height, particularly between late March and early April, consistently achieved high engagement metrics on their videos, often reaching six-figure like counts without paid promotions.

As this trend spreads across TikTok, many brands exploit Italian Brainrot to grab quick visibility and ride the viral wave. While it may seem like a simple joke, these brands are tapping into Gen Z’s love for chaos, absurdity, and speed, creating content that requires minimal effort but offers instant engagement.

Why does Gen Z look at brainrot content?

Gen Z uses TikTok and Instagram mostly for quick entertainment — according to GWI, 76% of Gen Z is on TikTok just to watch funny videos. Brainrot fits perfectly into this: loud, fast, and with an audio that sticks in your head like bad elevator music. The absurd AI voice, the ridiculous pacing, and the nonsense require 0 effort by the user. They are designed for fast consumption, zero thinking required. Scroll, laugh, forget, repeat.

The sound hooks you within the first two seconds, the visuals are so chaotic that you can’t look away, and before you even process what you’ve watched, the next one is already loading. This aligns with Gen Z’s preference for short-form, easily digestible content. For example, a study by Lifewire indicates that 57% of Gen Z prefer short videos for product research, valuing quick, engaging content that provides information efficiently. Italian Brainrot content exemplifies this trend: pure dopamine on demand

Moreover, Gen Z isn’t just passively consuming content — they’re deeply involved in creating it. According to YouTube’s Culture & Trends Report, 65% of Gen Z agree that they actively create and upload content themselves, not just watch it. This includes a significant share engaging specifically with meme culture, remixing and amplifying trends in real time. This level of participation turns passive scrolling into an engine of viral momentum, where creation and consumption fuel each other in an endless feedback loop, causing trends to snowball at remarkable speed.

Why brands exploit Italian brainrot

Brands exploit Italian Brainrot because it offers them a shortcut to attention in the fast-moving world of TikTok and Instagram. Brands were already doing this: jumping on fast, temporary TikTok trends to try and ride the viral wave. For years now, smart brands have treated TikTok (and to a certain extent also Instagram) not as a platform for polished advertising, but as a playground for spontaneous, meme-based content designed to capture Gen Z’s attention — if only for a few seconds.

Brands try to get easy awareness and to stay top of mind by integrating this content tactically into their communication. In this case, the characters are already viral, the format is simple to replicate, and the absurd humor feels native to TikTok and Instagram culture. It requires minimal production effort and taps directly into Gen Z’s love for chaotic, fast, and low-effort entertainment.

More importantly, this practice allows brands to keep pace with Gen Z’s constantly shifting interests. If Gen X was all about stable passions — football, cars, music — and brands could stay relevant by partnering with celebrities or sponsoring major events, Gen Z is wired differently. Their “passion” isn’t a fixed category; it’s the meme of the moment. It’s not about rooting for a team or following a star — it’s about being part of an ongoing, chaotic conversation. Thus, many brands try to keep up with the latest meme.

source: Samsung Belgium TikTok

Memes are a spark, not a strategy

Brainrot, like most meme trends, is a spark, not a strategy. They work for brand communication not because they’re funny or absurd, but because they are rituals of participation. When brands tap into Brainrot, they’re not just hijacking a trend — they’re stepping into a social dance, and they are communicating they are part of the “insider joke”, that they are “in”.

But here’s the catch: participating in the ritual gets you noticed, but it’s not what makes you remembered. Brands win when they understand that virality is only the first step.

The meme is just a format. The winning brands don’t stop at replicating the format; they inject their distinctive tone of voice, visual identity, or even product truth into it. For example, Ryanair succeeds not because they post random Brainrot videos, but because they frame them around their notorious snarky persona and low-cost experience. The meme feels Ryanair-ish.

Your rule: Trend + Brand Distinctiveness = Memorable Impact.

Do you know your brand enough?

Before playing with trends, you should ensure you know your brand enough, ask yourself (or your team):

1. What are our brand’s core values — and do we express them consistently across all touchpoints?
Example: Patagonia, Environmental activism, sustainability, anti-consumerism.

2. What is our positioning — and does this trend reinforce it, challenge it, or confuse it?
Example: Apple, Premium, design-led, innovative.

3. What emotional benefit do we give to our audience, and does this content deliver it?
Example: Nike, Motivation and empowerment.

4. How do people currently perceive our brand?
Example: Ryanair, Cheap, cheeky, no-frills.

5. Can we naturally insert our product or message into this trend without it feeling forced?
Example: Ryanair applies it directly to their travel experience, turning the chaos of budget flights into part of the joke

Conclusion

The trend gives you attention. Only your brand makes it mean something.

About the author:

Francesco De Nittis is manager at Human Centric Group. He is an expert market researcher and branding consultant. With a track record of working with leading brands like Carlsberg, Remarkable, and Tecnam Aircraft, he helps companies unlock data-driven insights for strategic growth.