Global Italian luxury brand, Gucci, released an interestingly new ad campaign. #TFWGucci (“That Feel When Gucci”) is a "collaborative meme project" with commissioned artists and famously funny Instagram personalities. The meme-ads all feature the brand's new line of Le Marchédes Merveilles watches in funny situations that loyal Gucci customers can relate to.

Obviously, this is not the first time companies employ memes as a marketing tactic to attract social media savvy and young consumers, but it does appear fresh and unique when a high-end brand like Gucci markets with everyday social media humor. Consumers see the effort artists put into this ad as an art piece as well as trying to replicate typical Instragram meme posts.The art project showcases what makes Gucci different as a luxury and in this instance they prove to be a contemporary brand that keeps up with the change of times as well as innovators in fashion and marketing. However, there are definitely some elements that worked in attracting the public’s eyes to judge how dank their memes are but fell through as trying to achieve "relatable" content that made memes so great.

BEST: Recognizing Memes as a Form of Art

Sounds like you could make a couple of bucks (or maybe thousands) from a simple meme post. Gucci’s art project explores a new perspective of turning viral content into a new form of art. Art should evoke emotion and reaction with its audience and that’s exactly what memes do. Artist John Yuyi has worked on a series of art pieces expressing the deep relation between humans and the internet, especially social media. Yuyi combines this element with Gucci to showcase how the brand is deeply ingrained to their consumers as much as social media. The piece definitely does not follow the typical meme format but does connect with Instagram craze and obsession with image. Not only artists but even famous Instagram users get their share of money and credit for their funny content like @gothshakira who was able to use her Gucci money to pay off bills.

WORST: Memes Aren't Exactly Supposed to be High-Brow Art

The art of the meme started on online forums like 4chan and Reddit and soon spread to social media where everyone can create, share, and generate memes. What made memes so unique is that they’re a form of user generated content that anyone can create and form unity among users. It doesn’t seem fair for someone to get hired and paid for creating a caption--that anyone can create--just because they have a huge follower count. And sometimes we use memes to vent out our feelings and hope others will like and share the content as a form of validation to show you’re not alone in this experience. By that definition, one can argue that memes should be a form of art, however I don’t think they should be considered high brow art for profit and only consumed by the rich and elite. I mean, that’s one of the many reasons why we’re just on our phones all day scrolling through Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and other social media: because we got no money.

BEST: Using Memes to Connect with Millenniall/Younger Consumers

Companies using memes to market their products and services is definitely one of my pet peeves because you have marketers and advertisers just slapping on a popular meme on their ad in hopes that it will sell when in most cases I’ve seen, they don’t make sense at all (Denny’s Tumblr is enough evidence to make my point). Majority of the time they sound like parents and teachers trying to get “lit” and “on fleek” with the lingo. Gucci is no excuse to this, however they seem to execute the advertising tactic pretty well. While most companies just throw jokes, lingo, and pictures here and there I do appreciate that Gucci followed the format of a typical Instagram meme and consulted with expert Instagram meme posters. Of course, this ad campaign only sees millennials as nothing but consumers but it’s something to give the company credit for doing their research and recruiting famous Instagram accounts to verify that these Gucci memes are as quality as their clothes.

WORST: Most Millenials can’t afford Gucci

The art project reflects new humor of the digital age thus displaying their aimed demographic of Millennials, who grew up with technology and Prosumers of digital content like memes. However, it’s pretty known that Millennials are financially struggling and that we would rather save and spend on money on things like food, water, heat… you know, the essentials. Maybe even pay off our student loans if we’re feeling generous. The only Millennials they’re catering to are the affluent ones who probably see this rich memes on a daily basis.One the reasons why memes are highly attractive to Millennials and play a big role with the generate is that they’re free to produce and consume. Additionally, an important characteristic of memes is that they should be relatable, meaning they should reach a large audience and create a sense of unity. The thing is, we’re so broke that we can only dream of relating to these luxurious memes.

BEST: Some Really Funny Meme Content

Despite being too poor to buy Gucci goods, I still found some humor in these well thought memes. Sebastian Tribbie Matheson formulated a clever starter pack for exclusively for Gucci lovers. It’s a memorable meme that not only promotes the brand but also satirizes what seems to be the typical Gucci consumer. Rozalina Burkova's art piece that exaggerates the love for the new Gucci watch, which is absurdly funny. And decorhardcore’s passion of oddly shaped furniture doesn’t make sense as a meme without the caption. From there the art pieces turns into relatable content as well as passing as an ironic with due to its absurd image

WORST: Some Poorly Executed Meme Content

Some are great art pieces to put in museums and art galleries but not very suitable as meme content. The captions don’t add up with the image which makes it pretty obvious that the brand is trying real hard trying to grasp the art of the meme and desperate to reach Millennials.

Gucci did take a chance with this artist collaboration that definitely did have a unique spin on this marketing tactic to attract a younger demographic. The art project does raise some questions, such as how is Gucci’s image reflected through these advertisements? Do they come off as cheap and tacky by using low-brow internet content that doesn’t require much skills to create? Or do they come off as a modern luxury brand that adapts to new culture in the digital age and aim to expand their brand to younger consumers? And is using memes a useful marketing tactic to connect with today’s consumers or do they come off as try-hards who are really reaching to get with the times? Just as how they present their clothing as one of a kind, Gucci also puts a spin on memes to depict the brand's uniqueness and the Gucci experience. Let’s hope the fashion brand will evaluate their marketing tactic before they end up incorporating dank memes into their clothes.