The nature of the Internet is, for most of the time, forcing women worldwide to discover something new about their culture. Women easily absorb what they learn in the Internet and project it on daily lives. They consume almost every contents that shape the culture, the good and the toxic ones. It is still a debate whether it is ethical to slip into the mind of female consumers through their own culture.
Nevertheless, Internet introduces us to a phrase that seems to have mostly female audiences on chokehold lately: Girl Dinner. It was first popularized by a content creator on Tiktok, Olivia Maher, back in May 2023, in a video featuring her evening meal, which comprised a combination of bread, cheese, grapes, and cornichons. She likened it to a meal that a medieval peasant might have enjoyed. The 15-second TikTok video has over 1.5 million views. Another user made a sound remix from the phrase, and it also went viral and has been used in over 407.1k TikTok videos.
Why is it so catch?
As far as the TikTok community agrees, Girl Dinner is a trend that makes sense a bunch of nonsense food and cravings as a dinner. Besides the remix jingle that delivers the term, it is fascinating to see what food women’ normally’ eat for dinner on the Internet. Although there may be no exact explanation of how it went viral, women’s solidarity organically supports the trend. It created conversations between women that validates all kinds of meal they eat, regardless of what society expects of them. Girl Dinner created a bond between women, showing them they are not alone. Every tier of women from any age and stage of life can relate to this trend, starting from working women who have no time to make dinner, teenagers with odd food cravings, and women who have complicated relationships with food. It proved that the key to viral content these days is the mix of humor and its relatability.
The creativity between different user collaborations created a domino effect all over the Internet with many variations. Some share recipes, some use the Girl Dinner sound to express their type in celebrities, some display vulnerable emotion using the term, or even created a new version of the phrase… “boy dinner”.
Commercializing “Girl Dinner”
The trend was used by more than just the user individuals; brand felt the need to also jump into the trend. Brands are shamelessly on the trend, making their version of “Girl Dinner”. Popeyes, for example, debuted their “Girl Dinner” menu back in July 2023. The menu offers the chain’s usual sides: Mashed Potatoes with Cajun Gravy, Homestyle Mac & Cheese, Red Beans & Rice, Coleslaw, Cajun Fries and A la Carte Biscuits. Ironically, these menus are sold separately, not as a combo, just as same as the usual sides menu. Popeyes seems to hold itself in investing in a new product and adding cost to their production. It is unclear what was the reason behind this decision. One thing for sure is that they only utilized the “Girl Dinner” trend as a marketing strategy — a gimmick.
At first, the “Girl Dinner” Popeyes menu was surprisingly well received and has been met with plenty of laughter on social media. It also added news value to Popeye. If consumers type in “girl dinner menu”, most of the top article shows Popeye as its result. They were the first brave enough to apply the term into a commercial realm, making money out of niche internet trends. A tweet by Pop Crave about the “Girl Dinner” meal has over 13.4M views and 114k likes. Most replies are people getting hyped over the unique menu.
It may not come as a surprise when the other side of the audience has different negative views toward the meal. Some people began questioning the safety of the promotion. Some were disappointed that they included no chicken in the meal package. They felt offended, asking if Popeyes thinks women do not need protein. One user said that this might be an attempted murder or a prison meal. Others even agree that the meal is a form of misogyny.
What started as a silly niche internet joke became a marketing strategy and eventually sparked negative comments. Popeye’s ‘unintentionally’ threaten their position in consumer’s minds. When consumers express negative feelings towards brands on social media, this affects other consumers by causing negative brand perceptions and lowering purchase intentions (Bhandari & Rodgers, 2018). Therefore, it went more than just a bad rep.
Commercializing diet culture and body image happens more often than you think.
Companies always find a way to make you feel left out, encouraging you to buy more of their products. A way to be the ideal woman is advertised as the solution to a problem in life. This indeed is only sometimes a positive thing. Yet, some persuasion is more damaging than others. The beauty standard may come from something other than the brands themselves, but brands must be smart enough to take advantage of the situation. They milk the culture that we subconsciously have and turn it into a marketing strategy. The pattern is typical to companies. We see many damaging diet trends being used as a marketing gimmick. Yes, Popeyes are not the first one to have done this.
Take a look at Chuu, a Korean fashion brand that went viral in 2018 with their “-5 kg jeans”. Toxic diet culture in South Korea itself is not an unfamiliar topic. Therefore, when Chuu introduced their jeans, which supposedly made women look 5kg skinnier, it did not cause significant controversies. Even people outside South Korea are willing to go to Seoul to try and buy Chuu -5kg jeans. It created the Internet talk about whether the jeans really make them skinnier or not. The -5kg jeans became their trademark and most-selling product line until now. It is a sustainable marketing strategy that survived five-plus years of age. Chuu’s strategy worked out so well compared to Popeyes, even though they both profited from diet culture and body image.
Uniquely, there is a brand that profits out of both health and toxic body image: Skims. Skims is an American shapewear and clothing brand co-founded by Kim Kardashian. They claimed to focus on body positivity and inclusivity. It reflects on the vast body range of sizing, the use of inclusive models, and the brand vision. However, if we look at how the brand communicates, it is undeniably using body image as a tool. In one of their Instagram posts, they show how Skims bodysuit can transform their boobs look, creating the ‘dream boobs’ that are ‘beautiful but never bulky’. A TikTok influencer reviewed Skim and claimed that it made her body skinnier than before. It created many comments of women who are influenced to buy the product, motivated by its claims of making people thinner.
Skims is intelligent enough to talk in positive and toxic body image language. The New York Times (NYT) on 19 July reported that it is now worth USD 4 billion and even accounts for around 75 percent of Kim Kardashian’s overall net worth.
The Girl Dinner trend is just one example of how the Internet projects their body image problem. Popeyes could be having a stroke of bad luck, failing to utilize the trend in a marketing strategy. As far as the world goes, controversial diet culture should not be used in the food industry because there is yet a triumphant story of its implication. One could argue that it is ‘too obvious’ and, therefore, more prone to negative responses.
Toxic or Healthy marketing?
Ironically, using women’s insecurity as a marketing strategy works just as well as pushing a body-positive campaign. Gen Z always says that diversity and inclusion are essential topics for brands to address; they call out brands to regularly shine on body positivity movements. Yet, we can not deny that they (and other generations) are still unconsciously eating up brands on the other side of the road: brands with toxic diet culture marketing. Women are still bound by the misogynistic system with unrealistic beauty standards that will not soon go away. From a business standpoint, whether it is a toxic or healthy diet culture, both could lead the brand to successful marketing.
From an ethical standpoint, and as a woman, I felt ashamed to admit that it worked well for us. But it does not mean that I like being manipulated. Women still need to remember to be aware when a brand uses body image towards us, which rages us. However, we are not hopeless and are becoming more critical of the brands we consume. Like a guessing game, a brand cannot always predict the outcome of toxic body image marketing. Women can always change their minds and break free from the spell.
