MiriTheSiren: A case study on messing up your bag

Why did Chic-fil-A shut down their own UGC?

TL;DR 

A fun-sized summary of this article

MiriTheSiren bagged Chic-fil-a millions of UGC views - that is until they shut her down

Chic-fil-a wants to be seen as authentic - but isn’t willing to risk actually being so

UGC is a major way that Gen Z connects to brands and product

Brands that want to create authentic identities in the social space will have to loosen their grip over the conversation there

Who’s MiriTheSiren

In short, she’s someone who made Chick-fil-A a lot of money through UGC; three million likes later, they shut her down. 

MiriTheSiren, a content creator and  Chic-fil-a employee gained a cult following on TikTok with her non-sponsored, unbiased reviews of new menu items; people were super into it. That is, up until she posted a video informing her audience that, to keep her job, she’d need to stop doing review content. 

Following a tense conversation on employee social media policy (and, more relevantly here, its violation), Mirri stopped posting Chick-fil-A reviews to her personal TikTok account. 

The ironic thing is that brands spend millions on marketing and social strategy to build communities, followings, and engagement on TikTok; Mirri did it with a six-piece nugget and an iPhone. But 116k followers weren’t enough for Chic-fil-A corporate to reconsider. 

The dangers of corporate fear

Now, why would Chick-fil-A stop its biggest influencer from promoting it? Especially when the corporate brand is famous for its red couch commercials, of which the entire point is literally spotlighting employees who bend the rules in service of doing well in unconventional ways. In comparison, how did Miri’s content stray from “brand-safe” territory?

Whatever the official justification, their approach sparks a conversation on artificial authenticity in the brand identity space. That relatable sincerity that Gen Z craves can’t be cooked up in a corporate lab; falsely curated authenticity will always fail the social test, an environment much more difficult to manipulate than an on-air promo slot. Fakers only survive in sterile, corporatized habitats too carefully crafted to risk honesty. 

Brands that take this route fail to capitalize on authentic opportunities to connect with their audience because they're too afraid of doing so on the consumer's terms. Prioritizing roll ads over unsponsored UGC is a misunderstanding of today’s audiences and what they desire from brands in the social space. In other words, it’s a fantastic way to mess up the bag. 

What your brand can learn from this 

Your product influencers and UGC creators are collaborators; think of it as a team effort to give visibility to your brand. Gen Z wants to be engaged as peers and partners. Creating that relationship necessitates surrendering the conversation to the social sphere; but brands that want to present authentically will have to risk actually being authentic.