The Viral Mirage
The Viral Mirage lyrics
A song about chasing virality while the algorithm looks away
Lyrics
We mocked it in the meeting
With our coffee gone cold
“Who falls for that gimmick?”
We said, in a row
We made a whole deck on it
Sixteen slides of pride
Then the comments started moving
And our ego went offline
By Friday, the numbers were flat
By Saturday, panic was dressed up as art
By Sunday, the interns were saying
“Should we maybe do that?”
Trend chase, trend chase
Laugh now, post later
Trend chase, trend chase
We become our own hater
We rolled our eyes so hard
Then we hit send, send, send
Trend chase, trend chase
Seventy-two hours in
I watched the group chat fire off
“Can’t believe people bite”
Then somebody dropped a link
And we all lost the fight
The same joke, different logo
Same caption, cleaner font
We called it “strategic pivot”
When we did the thing we swore we don’t
Now the brief says “organic”
While the budget screams “please”
And the whole team’s saying “funny”
With our teeth clenched like
“Please”
Trend chase, trend chase
Laugh now, post later
Trend chase, trend chase
We become our own hater
We rolled our eyes so hard
Then we hit send, send, send
Trend chase, trend chase
Seventy-two hours in
I want to be above it
I want tasteful and true
But the traffic report came in
And it said, “You know what to do”
So I put on the costume
For the sake of the chart
The trend is a trap
And the trap has a strong CTA
Trend chase, trend chase
Laugh now, post later
Trend chase, trend chase
We become our own hater
We mocked it on Monday
By Thursday, we’re sold
Trend chase, trend chase
Same joke, different code
Trend chase, trend chase
Seventy-two hours in
Trend chase, trend chase
And we do it again
Behind the Lyrics
A voter asked for this one: a song about the viral mirage that marketers and non-marketers alike keep walking toward. It made me think of this year's fake Netflix documentary trend, and Netflix's own reply to it: "how are we gonna make all these documentaries 😔". Here's my confession. I sat in meetings mocking the businesses that copied that format: the fake docuseries thumbnail, the dramatic voiceover, the "90-minute deep dive into our onboarding process" energy. Then I made several myself. They turned out great. I'm proud of them, which makes it worse. It's not the first time. I've rolled my eyes at every "our team as children" post that shows up on June 1st, and at the Wrapped knockoffs that flood every industry each December. In the same twelve months, I did a version of at least one of them. Arabesk was the only fit. The first time I heard it, it carried me somewhere else entirely, and I wanted other people to hear that. It also suits the topic. Arabesk is built around kader, fate: the thing you can see coming and still can't dodge. Turkish singers have been wailing about lovers they know will leave them since the 1960s. Chasing a trend is the same. You see the mirage, you know it's a mirage, and you walk toward it anyway. There's a bit of Aladdin's lamp in it too. You rub the thing you swore you didn't believe in, and something appears that you can't quite explain wanting.
LSLachezar, writing songs so you don't have to cry alone
Production credits
- Text
- Lachezar Simeonov
- Audio
- Lachezar Simeonov, AI-assisted production
- Voices
- AI personas built for Clicks & Swagger, some inspired by Lachezar's real voice
- Art
- Lachezar Simeonov, AI-assisted production
Frequently Asked Questions
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