Prince Harry’s ‘Todger’ and the power of co-opting audio
Steph Panecasio, editorial lead at Snack Drawer, writes that brands should forgo tenuous links and stretches when it comes to getting on a social media bandwagon.
The sound of Prince Harry describing his ‘todger’ has been inescapable on TikTok and elsewhere on the internet since its launch in mid January.
Taken from the audiobook recording of his memoir, Spare, the deadpan story of Harry’s frostbitten phallus spurred a wave of reactive content and, unsurprisingly, didn’t take long to hit viral levels of saturation.
For brands, viral audio like this is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the temptation to ride the wave is strong. On the other hand, the limitations of commercial use render it forbidden fruit… Unless you can find an implicit, referential way into the joke.
At Snack Drawer, our capacity to identify audio trends early often puts us in this position, and as a result we’ve developed a knack for deciding when, how and – crucially – if the juice of a sound is worth the squeeze.
