“Northumberland Zoo hits different,” a white-haired employee of the establishment says in a resigned tone over TikTok. He then proceeds to make a “Gen Z hand heart” — created using your middle and index fingers — with his fellow white-haired colleague. The video garnered nearly 8 million views and over 1 million likes on the app and is part of a trend where Gen Z employees write the script for their company’s social marketing videos.
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In these videos, the script is full of internet expressions like “it’s giving,” “very demure,” “brat summer,” etc., and the people reciting the script are noticeably older. It implies Gen Z idiocy and Gen X / Boomer gullibility.
It’s the latest iteration of businesses using their Gen Z employees — and their internet savvy — for attention and engagement online. Previously, “Gen Z interns” edited their employer’s videos in quirky, unprofessional ways. There was also a period of “guess who is Gen Z” TikToks made in the workplace. The latest spin on the trend relies on “Gen Z vocabulary” or online slang, which, more often than not, is misidentified African American Vernacular English.
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Milking invented generational difference is tired, and a TikTok trend explicitly created for marketing is never much fun. They fill our feeds with even more advertisements masquerading as culture.
However, some videos in the current wave of the Gen Z intern trend maintain a bit of charm due to the types of businesses it attracts. In one, a woman walks around Fyfield Manor, an 880-year-old bed and breakfast, saying things like, “See the garden? It’s giving relaxation.” The video received over 11.4 million views and 2.2 million likes. In another, actors decked out in Regency-era dress greet “besties” and show viewers around the Jane Austen Centre to the tune of over 125,000 views and 22,000 likes.
When these videos lack the dichotomy between historical England and internet slang, they tend to fall flat — with the exception of zoos. Zoos have some of the most pleasing and innately viral social media presences on the internet.
