We're Not Better, We're Just Different: How Brand‐Customer Disparagement Humor Helps to Build Brand Communities

Brand disparagement humor, defined as a brand's use of humor to belittle a target, has emerged as a largely successful yet risky social media strategy. While prior research highlights its effectiveness under specific conditions, such as alignment with brand personality or onlooker motivations, little is known about its potential to strengthen brand communities. Drawing on Benign Violation Theory and Social Identity Theory, we contend that brand disparagement humor fosters attachment by disparaging perceived outgroups when onlookers strongly identify with the brand community. Across one field study and four online experiments, we demonstrate a clear crossover effect: aggressive brand disparagement reduces emotional attachment among non‐identifiers, but increases attachment among highly identified community members by amplifying perceptions of group distinctiveness. This study contributes to the literature on brand disparagement humor by challenging the prevailing view that it is merely a high‐risk strategy, instead revealing its potential as a mechanism for building consumer‐brand relationships through social identity processes.