It’s a tactic so popular and a “cool job” so sought after by the youth that, in a social media ouroboros, the very idea of a meme maker offered one brand an avenue for internet clout. Slim Jim photoshopped its namesake beef stick into the black robes of death: “You have been visited by the Slim Reaper, ignore to relive 2020.” Hims, a male-focused self-care startup, is advertising its anti-hair-loss products through the power of Austin Powers stills on Instagram. Popeye’s, Chick-fil-A, and Boston Market kicked off a shade-laden Twitter war over chicken sandwiches in 2019. So many major companies are attempting to create virality through shitposting - a catch-all term that refers to the unpolished, chaotic sense of humor that dominates the average teenager’s social feeds. But it is indisputable that brands are valuing memes as a crucial part of their marketing portfolio. “Chief executive memer” is not yet a formalized role in the marketing industry few people are hired to make Galaxy Brains and nothing else. It’s unclear how many Americans share McCann’s job. “It’s like, ‘What are we doing today? Oh, we’re making memes about chicken wings like we’ve done for the last two years.’” You don’t have to be on top of everything,” he says. “I was ready for a better salary and less stress. b9nWXI2ahD- Pluckers Wing Bar September 12, 2018 McCann is happier, better compensated, and feels more appreciated than he ever felt working in the media. In practice, that means McCann links to a video of a frustrated LeBron James after the fifth game of the NBA Finals, and captions it: “When your man doesn’t get your wings.” He posts a clip of a jaunty goat walking on its hind legs over a squelching dubstep loop: “Me going to get my wings.” He blocks the notorious YouTube charlatan Jake Paul and tweets out the screenshot, drawing nearly 375,000 “likes” and an additional 100,000 retweets. The job description is simple: make a bunch of chicken wing memes, and blast them out to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. In 2018, he secured a position as Pluckers’ social media strategist. Years later, as an adult burnt out by the austerity measures carving through the press, McCann sensed an opportunity to return to his roots. McCann was adept at generating his own bite-sized internet jokes, so he feasted on those gift cards throughout his studies. The restaurant had a promotion called the “Tweet of the Day,” which rewarded the pithiest comment in its with a $10 gift card. In college, McCann frequently patronized the Austin-based wings-and-beer joint Pluckers Wing Bar. Thankfully, there was absolution to be found - in the form of chicken wings. That didn’t leave him many places to turn. McCann knew he was a capable writer, but the career opportunities in the press were increasingly sparse. At 25 years old, he had already worked in three different offices - first interning at the Dallas Morning News, before being laid off from Complex, and eventually quitting an increasingly strenuous and poorly compensated job at the Chive - and was growing fatigued by the systemic depreciation of the blogging life. Mac McCann had taken a beating in traditional media.
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