Bryce Pyrah, University of Iowa – Slang Doesn’t Always Slap With Consumers

On this Student Spotlight during Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa Week: Should companies use slang on social media? Probably not.

Bryce Pyrah, PhD student in marketing, explains why.

Bryce Pyrah is a PhD student in marketing at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa. His research focuses primarily on topics related to marketing for a better world. He will begin as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota starting in the Fall of 2025.

Slang Doesn’t Always Slap With Consumers

It’s not unusual for brands to try to connect with potential customers by using contemporary slang in their marketing. Using words like fire or rizz, ghost or lit, they hope they can appeal to new consumers, especially the ever-elusive youth market.

But our research has found that doesn’t vibe with consumers.

We studied consumer reactions to brands’ use of slang on social media. We found that nearly 20% of brand posts in our dataset contained slang, while more than 80% of people encounter slang use by brands on social media.

While brands may use slang with the intention of connecting more with their consumer base, we find that it can often backfire. In many cases, we find that consumers react negatively to brands using slang.

This is because slang is created by people for people; it serves important social functions between individuals in groups. Brands, however, are commercial entities that are trying to make financial gains. When they use this innate social language, it comes across as inauthentic.

But we also find that there are some cases in which brands can get away with using slang because it better fits their personalities. For instance, we focus on what we call exciting brand personalities, which are brands such as Monster Energy or Red Bull. At baseline, people already have expectations that these brands are a bit more rebellious, edgy, or playful. So, it isn’t as inauthentic for these types of brands to use slang.

For example, Peloton has cultivated a brand personality that nobody thinks twice when the company posts   “i’m back. now v sweaty. playlists all slapped. 11/10 recommend,”

We also find that influencers can get away with using slang in their posts. Since influencers are people and consumers themselves, it’s generally seen as OK if they use slang, rather than the official brands themselves.