The Culture Contract Series Part Nine - TikTok, Culture, And The Power Of Play.
Playful Fluency on TikTok Builds Trust; Scripted Campaigns Collapse into Irrelevance.
TikTok Rewrites the Rules of Culture
With 170 million U.S. users (Statista, 2022) and reach across every demographic, TikTok is not a channel — it is a cultural operating system. Seventy-one percent of TikTok shoppers say they purchased a product after seeing it on the app (Adobe, 2024). That figure makes clear: commerce now follows culture.
The platform punishes over-production and rewards fluency. A single improvisation filmed in seconds can outperform a multimillion-dollar campaign. On TikTok, cultural participation is no longer optional; it is the condition of legitimacy.
From Performance to Play
Advertising once meant staged perfection, a brand performing at its audience. TikTok is built on play: improvisation, participation, and interaction. Play means showing up without polish, using humor as common ground, and embracing imperfection as proof of transparency.
This is not cosmetic style. It is a structural shift. Brands that fail to play appear lifeless. Brands that improvise with purpose show they belong.
Duolingo: Humor Anchored in Purpose
Duolingo has become the case study in cultural fluency. Its owl mascot leans into absurd humor , riffing on trending sounds, parodying gossip, joking about app reminders. At first glance it looks chaotic. In reality it is mission-anchored: the humor translates Duolingo’s belief that learning should feel playful, not punitive.
The result is cultural authority. Duolingo has turned a language app into a cultural icon, where brand trust flows not from polish but from participation.
Scrub Daddy and Nutter Butter: Commodity to Icon
TikTok proves even everyday products can achieve disproportionate impact.
Scrub Daddy anthropomorphized its sponge, playing into meme culture and dramatizing utility with humor. What was once a commodity now performs like a pop brand.
Nutter Butter embraced absurdity , costumed cookies, parodied trends, and exaggerated nostalgia. Instead of clinging to past positioning, it reframed itself as culturally alive.
Both cases demonstrate the multiplier effect of play: ordinary categories can gain extraordinary cultural share.
Play as Proof
For audiences, play is not trivial. It is proof of intent.
Humor signals humility.
Responsiveness signals attentiveness.
Imperfection signals transparency.
Together, these cues translate into trust. On TikTok, play is the mechanism through which audiences decide if a brand is authentic.
Global Codes, Local Expressions
TikTok’s culture is global, but its expressions are local. The underlying codes, humor, responsiveness, imperfection, are universal. How they are performed must respect context.
In the U.S., absurdist humor thrives. Duolingo, Scrub Daddy, and Nutter Butter win because irreverence matches the audience mood.
In the GCC, play takes a different form. Careem uses TikTok skits parodying the frustrations of juggling deliveries, transport, and payments, a way to humanize its super-app ecosystem while anchoring itself in daily life. Noon plays with shopping culture, dramatizing last-minute deals or comedic unboxings, ensuring affordability feels lively rather than heavy. Both show that humor is filtered through cultural calendars, family life, and social norms.
The bridge is clear: TikTok’s codes are universal, but brands succeed only when they adapt those codes to local meaning.
Governance of Play
Play cannot be left unmanaged. Without boundaries it risks offense or irrelevance. Leadership must design systems that make cultural play possible and safe.
In-house “war rooms.” Global brands like PepsiCo and Unilever have built dedicated real-time content hubs to track TikTok trends daily, empower quick responses, and prevent off-brand experiments.
Guardrails. Teams need clear red lines: which cultural jokes to join, which to avoid, and how humor maps back to purpose.
Measurement. Engagement rate, cultural resonance, and sentiment now matter more than media impressions. Loyalty is measured in belonging, not just clicks.
Without governance, play drifts into gimmickry. With it, play becomes an extension of mission.
Consequences of Neglect
The risks of ignoring TikTok’s codes are steep:
Silence breeds invisibility. A brand absent from TikTok disappears from cultural circulation.
Polish breeds ridicule. Over-produced ads appear lifeless beside native content.
Missteps breed distrust. Playing without cultural fluency backfires, turning humor into backlash.
In the TikTok era, neglect is not neutral. It is cultural exile.
From Play to Belonging
Play is not peripheral. It is how culture now decides who belongs. TikTok has rewritten the terms of brand credibility: scripted performance collapses, purpose-driven play builds trust.
The test is not whether a brand can afford airtime. The test is whether it can improvise with authenticity, humor, and purpose inside the same culture its customers live in.
Bottom Line: Play Proves Belonging
On TikTok, humor and responsiveness are proof of authenticity. Brands that improvise with purpose build trust; scripted campaigns vanish.
