Why Are Brands Like This?

_{Day 75/100}

Hey—Tim here.

It’s been a minute since I did a proper brand story.
But this week, we’re going full archive dive.

Let’s talk about when brands tweet like they’ve either found God or lost a lawsuit.

No founders. No faces. Just logos with login credentials.

1. RadioShack’s Degenerate Rebrand

The most unhinged pivot since Blockbuster NFTs

Here’s the gist:

• A century-old electronics retailer

• Tweets like a 14-year-old who just discovered crypto, Adderall, and Andrew Tate

• Goes full send on unfiltered chaos

Actual tweets included:

Was it strategic? No.
Was it coherent? Definitely not.
Was it viral? Oh yeah.

For two glorious weeks, RadioShack trended.
And then… silence. No follow-through. Just a messy digital hangover.

This is what happens when your “brand strategy” is just a Figma file with the word “vibes.”

2. SunnyD’s Depression Tweet

The most “please delete this” moment in orange drink history

2019. Outta nowhere. SunnyD tweets:

That was it. No context. No joke. No juice.

People panicked. Was the social media manager okay?
Nope. Turns out it was a marketing stunt.

They tried to hijack mental health discourse for engagement.
Twitter ripped them to shreds.

Listen, I’m all for a weird brand voice.
But if your punchline is pretending to be suicidal for retweets?
Yeah. That’s not edgy. That’s just… cheap.

You can be funny. You can be bold.
But don’t fake pain for performance.

3. MoonPie: The Chaos Whisperer

Weird. Offbeat. Weird again. But somehow… right.

MoonPie has no business being this good at Twitter.

Their tweets read like:

• A lonely cowboy with a sugar addiction

• A sleep-deprived poet with admin access

• A meme lord who understands restraint (barely)

And here’s the difference:

It’s not just weird. It’s well-written.
It’s voice, not noise. Character, not chaos.
The tweets are strange - but never try-hard.

MoonPie is my favourite.
Everyone one talks about Wendy’s.
But MoonPie is the internet I grew up with.

It’s Tumblr weird.
It’s sending nudging your friend on MSN back in 2006
It’s removing the ladder from the swimming pool in The Sims.

MoonPie gets it.
They’re not impersonating a person.
They’ve built a character.

So what’s the lesson?

Brands want “personality.”
But forget that personality needs consistency.

If you want to be funny, be funny on purpose.
If you want to be human, act like someone you’d actually talk to.
And if you’re going to go weird? Go all in. Just don’t lose the plot.

I like doing these dives into brands that did weird marketing things. Let me know if you want more of these kind of stories.

See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim "How did I make being on Twitter my job…?" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. Got a brand I should be following on X?
One that’s weird, unhinged, or accidentally genius? Send it my way.

Also—I’m on X.
It’s a play-by-play breakdown of me slowly losing my mind:
@TI_Hanson
Follow if you like:

• Behind-the-scenes marketing stuff

• Penfriend sneak peaks as we build and test them in house

• And the occasional breakdown via meme

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