Can You Speak Slanguage?

Some believe that the internet has damaged language beyond repair.

To quote, The Atlantic:

“Social Media Broke Slang. Now We All Speak Phone.”

Others are less damning, with The New York Times saying:

“Today’s Teenagers Have Invented a Language That Captures the World Perfectly.”

Either way, ‘slanguage’ is evolving fast and brands need to keep up so that they use - or avoid - the new meaning of various terms.

Let’s dig into three increasingly popular global phrases and why they matter…

‘Body Tea’

This is an alternative word for ‘gossip’ (e.g. ‘spilling the tea’), but you may not know that it also extends to the term ‘body tea’. As per, The Atlantic:

“At some point in the past year, however, people started saying body tea, a noun phrase meaning “physical hotness”’.

‘Based’

You may have guessed that it is short-hand for variations of ‘based on’, but did you know that it, ‘… can have a more malevolent connotation in certain alt-right circles, where being based alludes to allegiance to a contrarian viewpoint’?

‘Flexers’

Zooming in on one individual country, shows the importance of understanding local nuances.

In Vietnam, using the term ‘flexing’ as slang for bragging is on the rise, as the economy booms and many young people earn good qualifications and big bucks’, according to South China Morning Post.

‘But not everyone is part of the success story, with inequality rising and plenty of people struggling to keep up, let alone soar’, so use of the term should be well considered.

Why does this matter for marketers?

The internet - especially social media - has flattened culture to the point where language no longer sits in subcultures for very long.

As a result, brands need to monitor when language takes on a new meaning and whether this is fleeting or a permanent shift.

Slang can be used in a literal way, ironically and/or with tongue firmly in cheek, depending on the brand.

Just don’t be cringe.