Why Duolingo's TikTok Era Is Probably Over (And Odd Muse Might Just Bounce Back)
Welcome to Algorithm Victim.
Greetings, fellow victims 👋
I’m Laura: Social Media Manager of 10-ish years, semi-functioning micro-influencer (17.8k on TikTok, 7.8k on Instagram), and long-time survivor of platform updates no one asked for (remember Threads?).
I started working when dedicated Social Media Agencies didn’t exist yet. Since first setting up a Facebook profile in 2009, I’ve worked across agencies, government, glossy mags (Elle, Marie Claire), freelance, and now Big Tech™ as a marketer and social media manager.
Social used to reflect culture. Now it shapes it.
This newsletter is where I unpack that shift — with a particular focus on how brands and creators drive (or derail) culture through content.
Who is this for?
Anyone working in social, lurking on social, or frantically Googling “examples of brands doing social well” for a deck.
Marketers. Creators. And people just fascinated by the weird, chaotic ways brands try to act like one of us online.
Let’s get into it 👇
Who Gets Cancelled & Who Gets a Second Chance?
Why Duolingo's TikTok Era Is Probably Over (And Odd Muse Might Just Bounce Back)
Here's my theory: a brand survives cancellation based on one thing—how personally betrayed its audience feels.
Let me prove it with two recent cancellations: Duolingo and Odd Muse.
ICYMI: the Duolingo fiasco
One month ago, Duolingo posted their CEO's internal email about replacing contractors with AI to become "AI first."
Disclaimer: no social media manager would have suggested this strategy. Full respect is due to Zaria Parvez, the brilliant global social media manager who built an industry-shifting strategy and watched it burn overnight. All criticism below is directed towards the action of the CEO.
The fallout was immediate: thousands of comments declaring app deletions, viral TikToks with millions of views.
Duolingo responded by deleting ALL of their TikToks and posting:
Something between a bad deep-fake and full blown meltdown
A staged "hostage" interview with their CEO attempting to explain (and basically doubling down)
Users weren't buying it.
Meanwhile at Odd Muse…
Odd Muse, the viral fashion brand that hit £22.5M revenue in 2024 (after launching just four years earlier) got called out by @plzdontbuythat for greenwashing—claiming "slow fashion" while using polyester.
Founder Aimee Smale responded with tears and accusations of bullying. Users called it deflective and promised to shop elsewhere.
The Verdict: Check the Comments
The easiest way to gauge a brand’s current cultural sentiment? Check their social media comments.
Duolingo has resumed posting like normal, but a quick glance at the comments shows ongoing disappointment from users. I just counted dozens of comments on one post declaring “I’m deleting the app”, and “did AI write this?”.
Odd Muse, on the other hand, has seen an overwhelmingly positive response to their latest collection launch (also roughly 1 month after the cancellation) —restock and colour requests flood the comments. Some creators still criticize them, but their core fanbase has stayed loyal.
Sentiment ≠ profit, but… it matters.
Social is the fastest way to take a brand’s cultural temperature.
Target saw sales drop 3% last quarter — right after a boycott movement sparked on social in response to their ending DEI initiatves.
I checked Target’s TikTok comments today - and they’re still skewing negative.
I’ll be closely watching Duolingo’s earnings drop in July to see whether audience sentiment is reflected in any significant user drop.
It all boils down to the “Personal Betrayal Factor”
Odd Muse's greenwashing feels like business as usual for fashion lovers. Millennial and Gen Z women are already buying 60+ unsustainable items yearly. H&M has faced multiple greenwashing lawsuits and their profits grow YoY. Another dishonest brand is disappointing but not personal.
Duolingo hits different. Their AI announcement touched every Millennial and Gen Z's deepest fear: being replaced. It's in every parent catch-up, every pub conversation, every graduate's job search nightmare. We're all asking "am I next?"
A beloved brand saying they'd replace you too? That cuts deeper than a brand claiming polyester is sustainable.
Duolingo will survive, but their audience won’t forgive them
Duolingo the app will survive. New language learners who missed the drama will download it.
But they'll never recapture that lightning in a bottle that made them one of the most culturally relevant apps in the world. And without that fandom to usher in Gen Alpha, their cultural relevance dies with Gen Z.
Unless the CEO reverses course (spoiler: he won't), forgiveness isn't coming.
If there’s one lesson to take from all of this…
CEOs: Your social team exists for a reason. The truth of business under capitalism is ruthless—your audience doesn't need to see it all.
Before posting that internal email, run it by someone who isn't on your payroll. Or radical idea: ask the social team you hired to do exactly this.
That's literally why you pay them.
Save this for your Monday meeting, or last minute deck building s***storm.
✅ They nailed it: US company Bilt, a points reward program for renters, launches TikTok content series under a separate account: roomiesroomiesroomies
The best social campaign I've seen in months. Why? Episode one never mentions the brand.
While TikTok becomes TV (see: The Group Chat's success), Bilt created content that actually feels native (not cringe) by decentering themselves from the narrative.
Traditional marketers will panic about brand awareness. But the social team gets it: becoming genuinely cool IS the currency.
The soellegirls account. Their videos are racking up millions of views and the girlies (me) are eating their content up. How long until a brand snatches them up for a collab? I give it two months until Marc Jacobs comes knocking.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s TikTok - as an Aussie, I love seeing US politicians work hard to engage the next generation of voters and speak to them in their language (and I wish ours would take note). Some would call this petty - but for the young voters Newsom is trying to reach, it speaks to their values in the simplest terms.
Up Bank (and their new Groups feature)
Sometimes I like to imagine what I’d do if I could run a brand’s account for a day. As a loyal (read: fanatical) UpBank user, they often come to mind.
The launch of their latest feature, Groups - a function that let’s you had your friends (including non-Up users!!) to a group chat that tallies up all of your spending and splits the final bill equally - had me spitballing the following ways to build brand relevance on social:
Spill the $$$ tea - a carousel of DM’s from Up users describing the most egregious wrongs from their friends after a group trip (“She ordered five rounds of espresso martinis and said ‘we’ll just split the bill!’”).
A reel/tiktok of the emotional costs of splitting the bill - “I’ll transfer you later” fade-outs, avoiding eye contact, walking home because you can’t afford an uber
Visual Grid, bingo card style: “who you need to add to the Up Group chat” - squares include the guy who leaves early but leaves a $20 bill on the table after having a main and a cocktail and the ‘separate bill’ friend who still ate everyone’s entree.
“How we imagine XYZ celeb splits the bill” - feature celebs of the moment (Timothée Chalamet, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX) and theorise the unhinged ways they’d split the bill after dinner. My theory: Timmy secretly pays for the whole table when he says he’s “going to the bathroom” :’)
Make swag about how money affects friendships - think tshirts saying “we survived the group holiday but our friendship didn’t”, or “always rounds down when transferring $” and hand them out at busy train stations, capturing it on video. Bonus points if they don’t reveal it’s Up Bank until the video gets posted.
That’s all folks!
If you liked this newsletter, I’d love it if you let me know, or even shared it with a friend. If you hated it, let me know too! Hatred fuels me :)