‘Chai pi lo frandz' to ‘Land kara do': What's in store for content creators and brands in cringe content

Sri Lankan viral singer and musical artist Sandaru Sathsara’s song ‘It’s my life’ has over 49 million views to date. Deepak Kalal’s YouTube page has 4.23 lakh subscribers. Vipin Sahu - popularly known as ‘The paragliding man’ - shot to fame with his video that garnered 17 million views. 

A man from Punjab with two wives earns his living through vlogging their lives. Similarly, married teenagers with a kid talk about their lives and earn good money through fan support.  

The common denominator among all these videos is their cringe-worthiness. These videos are just the tip of the iceberg. From stupid viral challenges to silly dance videos, the list is endless. 

Cringe content: One man's poison is another man's meat

Although, cringe content is hard to define. Cringe videos are those which are embarrassing and weird, but they keep us hooked. There are so many content creators who earn their living by creating such videos. Their videos garner massive reach and engagement due to their cringe-worthiness. 

Siddhant Mazumdar

Siddhant Mazumdar, Head of Mediabrands Content Studio of IPG, thinks that people love cringe content because each and every one of us loves schadenfreude. “We are tickled when we see someone else have a slightly hilarious misfortune. It's the same reason fail videos are still a thing. Sometimes it is an obvious silly mistake that led to their misfortune or perhaps a string of planned bad choices that makes you cringe at what you see.”

But again, marking a video cringe is subjective. A video that is cringe for someone might be cool for others. There are creators investing enough time in creating such content and calling their content cringe might irk them. 

If we go by the definition and the origin of the word ‘cringe’ online, its meaning is rooted in social submission. Cringe first originated in the old English word ‘cringan’ which means ‘to fall’, to yield in battle, to give way, to become bent, to curl up.’ It later became cringe sometime in the 16th century. Its meaning evolved to become the feelings of fear and embarrassment to ‘bending’ or ‘crouching’. The final meaning of the word cringe was cemented in the 19th century to ‘recoil in embarrassment, shame, or fear’.

Kalyan Kumar

Kalyan Kumar, Co-Founder, KlugKlug - the B2B tech SaaS platform for influencer marketing, shared that the funny thing with cringe content is that it can slide into acceptance and then into a trend like it's happening now. 

He commented, “For example, the song ‘Selfie Maine Leli Aaj' was so bad but she (the singer) became famous and then continued to make that sort of content which was cringe. There are tons of people who have started making such bad content which doesn't take that much effort. It sometimes falls under humour. So, it's a slippery slope or rather it's a spectrum of things. There is an old saying that one man's poison is another man's meat. At some point, you can decide that something that doesn't entertain but makes you recoil is what cringe content is.” 

Stating the general consensus on cringe content, Rachit Juneja, Co-Founder and CEO at Sheeko, said, “Cringe content is something which finds mass appeal among the non-metro audience but feels weird/repulsive to the metro due to the wacky elements it has.”

What has given rise to cringe content?

Rachit Juneja

According to Rachit Juneja, Co-Founder and CEO at Sheeko, “Because the Tier 2/3/4 audience is hungry for entertainment, all weird stuff is entertainment for them.” 

He said that while cringe content mostly flows via free-to-consume mediums such as YouTube, TikTok, etc, the algorithms on social media platforms are smart enough to keep such unwanted content out of our feed, unless someone we follow, starts including cringe elements in their content.

It’s not just that the demand for such content is massive from the audience’s side, but according to Juneja there are enough and more brands, who are willing to integrate with such content to promote their message. “There’s always a brand and audience for Rakhi Sawant content.”

He further said, “Eventually many creators from the cringe list will rise and make their content less cringe to appeal to Tier-1 audiences and attract more brand partnerships.”

Kumar told BuzzInContent.com that one of the reasons for the growth of cringe content could be that a lot of people making them have become famous. Stating it is almost like a trend and engineered at scale by a lot of content creators, he said, “Not because it's great content but because people found it so bad that it becomes funny. So, sometimes people share a lot of content which makes somebody famous and fame is the net desirable outcome. Sometimes, the audience finds such cringe content funny which gets you the fame, followers and probably as a result for some people or brands that help them find a way to monetise that content.” 

While it’s weird, IPG’s Mazumdar pointed out that cringe content isn't a new trend. It's always been here. “We have had cringy movies, cringy TV shows, reality shows, game shows, etc. Now we also have cringe OTT content, micro videos and whatnot. It's just going to keep evolving as our platforms,” he said.

How does brands’ association with cringe content creators impact their perception in the market?

Mazumdar emphasised that brands should be more cautious because the very nature of cringe content means a lot of the brand values that it would like to retain will go out of the window. Although, he added that only those brands known for a sense of humour and have an easily identifiable and justifiable reason to do so should invest in cringe content.

“For instance, if it is a piece of content for Band-Aid, which has many clips of people trying extreme things they shouldn't have, people would have no problem with it,” he said.

On similar lines, Kumar said that traditional brands that play on the aspect of brand love would definitely stay away from cringe content. “It will always be those new, spoofy and humorous brands that can do something with cringe content.”

Juneja thinks that even if a content creator makes cringe content, brands prefer partnering with those who have a strong influence on their audience. “A creator’s worth is purely based on their hold on their audience (multiplied by the purchasing power of the audience). Today, even Khesari Lal also features on a Kapil Sharma show. He has a cult audience in his sphere. For example, we can refer to the boom in YouTube desi comedy sketches. For their audience, they are heroes. And hence brands choose to partner with them.”