Pak 'N Save is surfing the unreal, wacky and barely decipherable online tsunami that is Gen Z TikTok humour.
Since July, Stickman and the yellow supermarket have been sliding onto people’s For You pages, but it’s only just come to our attention how beautifully insane their content is. As well as the ‘standard’ weird TikTok sounds and internet-famous animals, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles have all featured in Pak 'N Save-centred memes.
No one knows what bowl cut-era-Biebs dribbling a basketball and presenting a bouquet of flowers has to do with rejecting an invitation to the supermarket, but that’s beside the point. It’s content that exists now and it’s just weird to see an establishment of Kiwi culture fully embracing it.
It's strange, but not overly surprising. Pak 'N Save’s deadpan Stickman and his ‘low budget’ ads have made the supermarket somewhat of an NZ comedy symbol, seeing as they have been playing at primetime on Kiwi televisions for decades now.
TikTok is the new 6 PM TV slot, so now instead of his iconic voice telling us about "meat week", we have Stickman in thirst traps and as Harry Styles’s ex-girlfriend.
They’ve said shopping at one of their competitors is an “ick”, framed it as a betrayal by using a famous Kris Jenner meme and had an absolutely bewildered cat express disbelief that going to another supermarket is even an option.
Slowly but surely, companies are ditching the idea of a normal social media presence. Instead, like the TikToks of New Zealand's universities, they make sure their name and brand are a part of the bubbling cauldron of chaos that is modern online humour.
It's a dangerous game businesses play and only the people control the final verdict. So, do you guys reckon Stickman entering his unhinged era is cool or cringe?
