In the digital age, one of the most fun things is to find among the sea of news, information and content, Random posts on a new, trending, or pop culture topic that can instantly make you laugh out loud: That’s it a memeand every time a clever Internet user generates one, it circulates very quickly becoming incredibly viral, an enormous power that it has to be transmitted between people and that motivates us to investigate its history.
what is a meme
In the online world the meme is attributed to the action of describing an idea, concept, situation, expression or thought and translating it into some virtual formbe it comic, video, audio, text, image, gif or any multimedia.
The main characteristic of a meme is elicit similar effects in internet audiences, commonly laughter, emotional and even surprise at the speed with which from a fresh topic to five minutes it already has so many memes. These are replicated in the network from person to person until reaching a wide diffusion.
The way that can spread is by hyperlinks, forums, websites and most of all by . Its viral effect is an example in advertising, since many advertising strategies or guerrilla are based on the transmission of memes to promote their .
Memetics Theory: The Origin of the Internet Meme Story
The history of the meme dates back to 1976, when Richard Dawkins, one of the most recognized evolutionary figures, first used the concept in his book The Selfish Gene.
In his work, Dawkins supports a theory of cultural diffusion in which an analogy is evident between the way in which memes or behaviors are transmitted from one person to another and the way in which genes are transmitted between generations. In this way the story places the meme as the central element of the memetic hypothesis of cultural transmissionthis being the theoretical unit of cultural information that is imitated, replicated and transmitted, as well as the gene in the hereditary unit.
On the other hand, the history of the meme name is derived from Dawkins’s neologism looking for a phonetic similarity with gene (gene in English) and that resembled memory and mimesis.
But today the internet meme differs from its original meaning, and has had modifications throughout its historyEven Dawkins himself described the digital meme as a ‘kidnapping of the original idea’, and already the concept has mutated and evolved on its own with all the input it receives.
Uses of memes in general and in marketing strategies
Being an emotional expressive resource of daily experiences, many people on the internet make use of them, to express opinions on particular issues, just laugh or even as a way to raise protests, initiatives and social movements. Others only reply by instant messaging in family or work groups but, after all, they contribute to its dissemination.
Success kid, Disaster girl, Unimpressed Chloe, Julio Iglesias “And you know it”, or John Travolta in Pulp Fiction are some of the greatest hits of memes in the . Who has not used them? Here some examples:
You remember unimpressed Chloe? This is her now. 2019’s been one long year
— Joseph D. (@josedivz)
When the one who went back to her ex more than 12 times wants to give you love advice
– Says my mom (@DicemimamaaOFC)
Me: I’m going to cancel the print
The printer:
– Very Empanao (@MuyEmpanao)
In turn, due to its rapid and massive way of spreading many companies use the resource of memes to boost sales of products and servicesin addition to being convenient for short campaigns due to their temporary nature.
The strategy as such uses create an intelligent and current image or video associated with the product to be promoted. We see examples daily on networks with movies or , and in general many brands that want to create positive feelings with their audiences join the trending topic for its meme.
Here are some examples:
We had to send the bulldozer home.
— Desatranques Jaén® (@DesatranqueJaen)
— Luke! The Box of Happiness has arrived, but I ate the sweets
— Noooooooo!
— (@pccomponentes)
— Burger King (@burgerking_es)
Fallas 4 veces el captcha.
Tú: Me habré convertido en un robot 😟 pic.twitter.com/C7GYNyULaA— MediaMarkt España (@MediaMarkt_es) May 7, 2021
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