Yahoo News What is ‘cloutbombing’? Here’s how to spot it
What do the December 2022 cover of New York Magazine, Air Mail magazine’s first “Down Town” special edition and a Heaven by Marc Jacobs fashion campaign have in common? They’re all examples of “cloutbombing,” a term coined by New York-based artist and writer Brad Troemel.
In an Instagram Story from March, Troemel posted images from all three sources and wrote, “I’m gonna call whatever this is that keeps happening ‘cloutbombing.'”
What is cloutbombing?
“Clout” has had many definitions over the course of history, but in the internet age, as defined by Dazed magazine editor Günseli Yalcinkaya in the publication’s Logged On podcast, it’s tied to the idea of virality. While there can be some authenticity to people’s clout — mostly through achieving their fame organically — cloutbombing, or blatantly doing something to try to go viral, is considered disingenuous.
According to Troemel, who expanded upon the idea after it caught attention, cloutbombing is when there is “a photo where a bunch of microcelebrities all pose together.”
“The implicit message behind cloutbombing was that we’re so back,” Troemel wrote. “The scene is back, the boys are back in town, the band is back together. We’re maskless, we’re closer than 6 feet apart, and we’re ALL going out to dinner together tonight!”
Troemel argued in his “cloutbombing report” that he suspects brands thought cloutbombs were supposed to help make the public feel like everything was “back to normal” after the last few years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Something still felt a little off,” Troemel wrote about the cloutbombs. “Things definitely didn’t go back to normal.”
It’s not necessarily a new tactic for brands, although some people on X, formerly known as Twitter, question what the line is between cloutbombing and marketing. Celebrities have always been featured on magazine covers and in advertisements, so what makes these situations different?
How is cloutbombing different from typical advertising?
Troemel explained in his report that instead of trying to sell products or magazine copies by using familiar and famous faces, cloutbombing is specifically about going viral.
“The clout bomb is content made with the algorithm in mind,” he wrote. “It is brute force memeing.”
In terms of the New York Magazine and Air Mail covers, Troemel reiterated that the use of “microcelebrities” — in this case, New York City socialites or internet presences — is intentional so that brands can convince viewers they’re “part of the scene.”
On the New York Magazine cover, for example, there are mainstream public figures, including actor Paul Rudd and Sen. Chuck Schumer. But there are also memes — “corn kid”, internet celebrities like Claire Saffitz of Bon Appétit fame and Dimes Square scene figures — actress Annie Hamilton is photographed seemingly falling in front of Christine Baranski. In contrast to, say, the July 2003 Vanity Fair cover, which one X user joked was an example of cloutbombing, these people don’t really have anything in common.
“The concept of depicting a ‘scene’ is nebulous here, as many people featured in cloutbombs have no direct creative relationship with each other and work toward no common end,” Troemel argued. “These stagings readily announce their artifice: this scene isn’t real, it’s a campy digital recreation.”
New York Magazine shared behind-the-scenes details of the shoot, which included the fact that each person was photographed individually rather than all at once.
Cloutbombing memes
Social media users were quick to pick up the newly coined phrase and turn it into a meme — “The Last Supper” was the first example of cloutbombing, Disney Channel crossover episodes were cloutbombing, the twist at the end of The Shining was cloutbombing.
In a rather meta twist, some of Troemel’s readers, who thought he was reaching with his argument, accused him of cloutbombing by making multiple posts about cloutbombing.
“What is clout bombing but an informative post to demean clout bombing only to create….clout,” one commenter wrote.
In The Know by Yahoo is now available on Apple News — follow us here!
The post What is ‘cloutbombing’? Here’s how to spot it appeared first on In The Know.
More from In The Know:
Creators, including Swifties, weigh in on Taylor Swift and Ice Spice 'Karma' collaboration
