Why Is The New Oasis Campaign (seriously) Problematic?

You’ve been sitting on your couch for a good ten minutes when a strange, strange video appears. We see an anthropomorphic banana and its apple companion. Bananita is pregnant by her lover Orangino. Later, after giving birth, her husband Appleon discovers that the child she is carrying is not his… “To be continued…”.

Congratulations, you have just discovered the magnificent world of “brainrot” and this is only the beginning. This trend has gained a lot of momentum in recent weeks, dedicated accounts have millions of views, and brands are rushing headlong.

New trend

For several weeks, “fruit drama” has been everywhere on Instagram and TikTok. There is, for example, this reality TV show, taking up the concept of Temptation Island and where strawberries and bananas as a couple must resist tempters. The owner account Onlymoviesfr already has 2.2 million subscribers and 20,2 millions de likes sur TikTok. However, he published his first video on March 18.

Thanks to generative artificial intelligence, thousands of videos like this are produced every day. Spectators get involved, comment to find out the release date of the next episode and come up with theories about the next twists and turns. Some accounts even go so far as to make the experience interactive by sharing voting forms. A new brainrot phenomenon which is growing as much as it raises questions. Who are behind these accounts and what benefits do they get from them?

For what?

Holders of specialized accounts, whose identity is not known, first receive remuneration via the distribution platform. On TikTok, sharing a video longer than a minute entitles you to remuneration. This amount may vary depending on the number of views, remuneration but also the geographical area. On the other hand, it seems that the creators of this content are not only relying on these resources to make their videos profitable. Some accounts offer training to learn how to create your own videos. The Orchadoflies account offers examples of prompts to enter Veo 3.1 fast to obtain the expected result. In a tutorial video, the user invites viewers to comment on “fruit” to obtain the famous prompt in a private message.

His biography mentions a promo code to get free credits on a image generation tool called Flashloop. The creator undoubtedly receives some form of commission on the sale and generates a new source of income thanks to this affiliation. We have contacted the account, but have not received a response yet. An investigation by Le Monde, published last June, already detailed the financial mechanics behind the broader trend of brainrot or “brain rot”.

Masculinist speeches

In addition to the financial considerations surrounding these “drama fruits”, it is above all the narrative mechanics which raise questions. The videos are mainly based on degrading schemes for women. She is presented as venal, untrustworthy or angry. The husbands are victims, exemplary spouses who witness the destruction of the family unit. Other videos also rely on grossophobic narratives.

These speeches finally come together “incels” or involuntary celibate movementsvery present on social networks. According to a report from the High Council for Equality, hostile sexism and anti-feminist beliefs are increasing in France. 39% of men today believe that feminism threatens the place of men in society.

Masculinist discourses have found particular resonance on social networks, particularly among young people. The e-childhood association explains: “These spaces are governed by theattention economy : algorithms favor the most polarizing, emotional or provocative content. Masculinist speeches fit perfectly into this logic of virality”. The organization emphasizes that this exhibition comes at a key age, marked by identity fragilities.

At a time when the use of social networks among young people is worrying, when companies like Meta and Google are condemned for having voluntarily developed algorithms which generate addictive behaviors, the trend of “fruit drama” is a reflection of a change in our digital uses and a reminder of the difficulty in regulating these practices. And all this, without worrying about the ecological impact of generating these videos…

Oasis invites itself into fruit salad

Faced with this cultural tsunami, brands were quick to react, Oasis first. The brand, known for strong communication stunts, has signed an official partnership with episode 12 of L’Île de la Skibidi Tentafruit. The prize is an Apple-Pear flavor collector’s can featuring the characters Pommita and Poirita, available via a competition on the brand’s TikTok. The move is clever, but by associating itself this time with content whose narrative mechanisms are documented as sexist and consumed massively by minors, according to an energy-intensive process accused of stealing the work of artists, Oasis would perhaps have done better to abstain.