Purpose Young consumers increasingly encounter branded memes within participatory digital environments that prioritize authenticity yet remain saturated with commercial messaging. This study aims to examine how brands make persuasion culturally acceptable in meme marketing by focusing on the production practices of Chief Meme Officers (CMeOs), who translate organizational objectives into meme-based communication. Design/methodology/approach Ten in-depth interviews with CMeOs were conducted using a qualitative, interpretive approach. Thematic analysis was used to examine how practitioners anticipate audience expectations, respond to visibility pressures and enact persuasion in social media contexts. Findings Findings show that CMeOs construct authenticity through the calibration of aesthetic, relational and persuasive elements, balancing cultural fluency with commercial intent so branded messaging remains compatible with participatory standards. Interviewees describe engagement as occurring when content exposure is converted into socially validated participation and emphasize that this process is fragile and contingent on normative alignment. Persuasion knowledge is regarded as an antecedent constraint on message design. Findings also highlight an ethical tension between concealment and transparency of commercial intent, reflecting differing approaches to managing persuasive visibility. Originality/value This study shifts meme marketing research from audience effects to production logics by advancing the concept of strategic authenticity as a coordinated set of practices devised to optimize brand objectives within youth-oriented digital environments.
Christopher Vardeman (Mon,) studied this question.