Coined ‘brat summer’ by Gen Z and social media, Summer 2024 has been overtaken by Charli XCX and her slime green album, ‘brat’. The British pop star, known for her dance-pop tracks and alternative style, Charli XCX has been making headlines this summer for her influence on popular culture and the widespread adoption of a ‘brat summer’.

Charli describes being a brat as being messy and making mistakes. As well as being honest, authentic and partying through it all. Since the album's release on June 7th, the past 2 months has seen the ‘brat’ conversation gain momentum across social media, culminating in the creation of the phrase, “brat summer”.

‘Brat summer’ is no accident. An effective marketing campaign featured a TikTok live with updates to a ‘brat wall’, giving key clues to new tracks, remixes, and an extended album. A brat generator allowed audiences to “bratify” pictures and usernames. A dance to the song ‘Apple’ went viral, and was used by Daisy Edgar Jones and Glenn Powell to promote their new movie, Twisters.

But ‘brat’ went to new heights when Charli posted on X, “Kamala IS brat" after it was announced that Joe Biden was dropping out of the Presidential election in America. The post amassed more than 53.9 million views and since then, ‘brat’ has been embraced by Kamala HQ. Kamala’s team have established @kamalahq profiles on X, Instagram, and Tik Tok, with the header picture on X being the words ‘kamala hq’ in the design of ‘brat’.

The impact of ‘brat’ is undeniable. Be it running for president or running a successful influencer campaign, Charli XCX’s ‘brat’ is a masterclass in how to successfully drive cultural conversation. With this in mind we asked industry leaders how Charli XCX's brat summer proves the power of authentic social media.

Charli XCX’s “Brat Summer” has sparked a cultural wildfire, thanks in large part to the unfiltered piggybacking of fan-led influencer culture. Even before the album dropped, fans and creators were flocking to the Brat Wall in New York’s Greenpoint, which quickly became the backdrop for countless influencer posts, flooding our feeds with over 21 million unique videos on TikTok alone. More recently, Charli’s almost unreleased track ‘Apple’ also went viral after creator-turned-Brat-extraordinaire, Kelley Heyer, choreographed a dance, drawing in top-tier influencers and celebrities into the “Brat” fold. It’s easy to see how the magic of Brat Summer lies in its embrace of creator-driven chaos.

Every facet of Brat Summer has evolved into a pandemic of cultural force, with influencers of all sizes painting their feeds with Brat green and tapping into Charli's call for a wild, rebellious spirit. But the piece de resistance has to be Charli’s shout-out to Kamala Harris with her insatiably iconic tweet, “Kamala IS brat.” What started as a playful political nod swiftly transformed into a full-blown meme-ified cultural phenomenon. This unexpected crossover between pop icon and politician highlights how socially fluent fan communities can propel just about anyone into the glorious fluorescent rays of the cultural spotlight.

Ultimately, “Brat Summer” exemplifies how influencer-driven campaigns can evolve into full-fledged movements. Fan-led creators have not just been passive observers but active participants in the Brat ethos. This demonstrates the power of leveraging influencer impact to shape cultural narratives. When creators lead with authenticity and passion, they don’t just follow trends; they create them.

Everyone thinks that the success of Brat is the sole product of Charli XCX and the marketing of her album – but she didn’t invent the ‘brat’ archetype. If you think about recent trends, like Goblincore, Rat Girl Summer, and #bedrotting, they all share a common thematic thread: an anti-traditional, DGAF, aggressively femme-coded girl-ness. This latent cultural energy was already bubbling under the surface – but this energy was diffused, simply waiting for a figurehead or mouthpiece to channel it.

Charli XCX – by taking on the role of leader of the cult of alt girls – has united these diffused trends under the singular banner of Brat. This made space for those who don’t belong to mainstream girl-ness that favour traditionality (think: #cleangirls and Nara Smith). But beyond making space for wayward ‘girls’ on the internet, Charli’s Brat is satisfying a growing cultural yearning for guidance and leadership within this subcultural space.

Where previous anti-trad trends like Goblincore and Rat Girl Summer were vague in their conception and definition, Brat offers a clear, definable, and embodied ethos – as well as an authority (Charli) deciding what is and isn’t a fit. 

However, as the trend becomes more commercialised, it starts to feel less like a fandom or cult and more like a marketing tactic – putting it at risk of the same decline as its predecessors. At the end of the day, a grassroots cult means transcendence; a commodified cult just means business.

Charli XCX’s “brat summer” is a masterclass in authenticity, blending cultural resonance with genuine connection. By hitting the nail on the head with the cultural zeitgeist, brat became more than just an album, it was an attitude. Being a brat toes the line of bravado and vulnerability, it heralds not curating moments for online perception, but embracing imperfections. A brat can be raucous, or it could be a vulnerable moment with your girls, it could even be Kyle MacLachlan lip synching to ‘girl, so confusing.’ Ultimately, it eschews perfection for something more relatable. It is brash and imperfect, the antidote to curated perfection masquerading as authenticity. By heralding life’s messy, unfiltered moments, Charli struck a chord with a generation longing for genuine connections amidst widespread loneliness.

Brands attempting to mirror this often misunderstand its essence. Authenticity cannot be commodified; it's embodied. Charli’s success teaches that true cultural engagement comes from a deep understanding and respect for the culture itself. Its prolific use online shows the perils of misunderstanding authenticity; using it without embodying it. It gives 'How Do You Do, Fellow Kids,' or trying to virtue-signal cultural-capital without having the chops to back it. Brands should facilitate community rather than manufacture it.

It’s still a brat girl summer. It’s still wine-stained tank tops, dancing till 3am (after a mini cry in the bathroom, obvs), and maybe even a sneaky drunk ciggie. But brands can’t really be ‘brat.’ I can’t, in good faith, support brands relating brat to B2B marketing as I listen to track 12 'B2b.' However, brands can facilitate spaces for authenticity, or at least reflect the subcultures and audiences they seek to entice.

Enter the Bratosphere: A 101 on how genuinity, community and culture collide.

Charli XCX is no stranger to virality but the rollout of her already critically acclaimed BRAT album is a whole new ball game; sending the Brat campaign into a whole new dimension.

Wtf is a brat summer?!

A stark contrast to the girly Barbie-core mania and  #CleanGirl #QuietLuxury aesthetic, the beloved Brat movement is adorned in pixelated graphics, obnoxiously divine slime green colour palette; whilst sporting an unkempt chic attire. A timely purposely imperfect movement that celebrates our own inevitable flaws with an unfiltered ego; embracing every fuck up we may have made along the way; which is exactly what we need in this turbulent climate more than ever before.

But more interestingly, how have we all [plus Kamala] got roped into this phenomena?

Social media isn't just another media channel. It's a community. It's where we live, find refuge and each other and Charli & team know this truth. When celebrities, artists and creators bare their authentic truth - ones that may not be perfectly polished - we see ourselves and rally behind it. But the real power of this campaign is not just in the exhibition of this truth, but in the participation with the people. With social takeovers, meme generators, tik tok dances and endorsement from THE presidential candidate (no not him, the other one), this wasn't just Charli’s story, she allowed us all to claim that truth as our own - making us all, Brats forever.

The ‘brat’ movement has taken over our playlists, FYP, and now our election campaigns. It’s the perfect case study in handing over keys to the community, rather than a brand controlling the narrative. It uses a community-first framework of shared values (being that 365 party girl), repetitive distinctive assets (low-fi, Arial font, lime green), and co-creation (everyone from Julia Fox and Kamala Harris, to your bestie) that makes it seamless for people to participate. It encourages self-expression using shared visual codes that carry very specific meaning to those in the know but are easy enough to adapt and edit, allowing people to define ‘brat’ on their own terms while still being a part of the broader movement.

It’s a masterclass in building with your community, not just for them to create authentic and engaged fandom. The strategy acknowledges that broadcasting a big top-down message doesn’t cut it, and the role of the brand is to feed the community. Throughout the campaign, Charli XCX and her team have dropped enough branded experiences to keep the hype alive, then stepped back and watched the community flywheel produce content in all corners of the internet. With a flood of bratty content since the beginning of June, the media is arguing that ‘brat’ is now mainstream but it will ultimately be up to the community to decide when the movement is over. But for now, Charli is teasing more 'brat' next week so it looks like 'brat summer' is here to stay.

Brat’s release encapsulates key rules of social media and a key rule of marketing. The key rule of social media is that this space is not about giving people a message: you gotta give people something to play with. That’s what TikTok is all about: an open-source, wide range of toys for everybody — a music library, filters, challenges, trends. The rule of marketing is that you want your brand to have such emotional pull that people will appropriate it when they want to tell flattering stories about themselves. That’s the magic of brand artifacts like the swoosh, but also the magic of ‘brat’. Now, is it authentic? As authentic as marketing can ever be. But at the end of the day, I believe social media doesn’t ask for authenticity but for sincerity, and that’s something creatives and marketers can certainly learn from.