A Cringe World: Exploring the experience of cringe and what it means for brands

We all know how cringe feels, but what does cringe really mean? What in our online worlds can make us cringe today or is judged cringeworthy? If we can understand why we cringe now, we can gauge its implications and find out why it’s important for brands to know about cringe too...

We will also ask where and who do we see cringing. This is interesting as it includes an intergenerational element (e.g. Gen Z cringing at Boomer beliefs, Boomers cringing at ‘self-love’ elements of younger social media culture).

From finding out where we cringe, we can also identify why we should care, and what impact an understanding of cringe can have on how brands relate to their audiences.