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Salmon Theory

🍣 ​One of the most underrated sources of human truth​

Published about 1 month ago • 1 min read

Hey friend – Rob here.

Memes are more than time wasting.

They're research and development.

You know why?

Tension.

Tension is interesting because it's hard.

It's hard on our egos, who want it easy.

It's hard because it signals trouble.

It's hard because it's not linear.

And yet, tension creates vibration.

And vibration gets us hooked.

And that’s what every successful meme has.

Tension.

Followed by punchline.

Plato was onto something similar:

"Serious things cannot be understood without laughable things."

And even a serious category has a funny take on it.

This doesn’t mean ‘make the work funny’.

It just means ‘look at the problem in funny ways’.

So next time you work on a brief, consider the meme.

Look up subreddits of your category.

Meme accounts adjacent to your product.

Gags others have shared on Twitter/X.

Funny TikToks about your brand.

And then consider, among the truly funny stuff:

  1. What is the tension here? (setup)
  2. What is the release it offers? (punchline)

After all, sometimes the best unlocks start with this question.

"You know what’s funny about this problem?"

So don’t obsess with formalising your thinking just yet.

Find the funny first.

Keep swimming,

Rob

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Rob Estreitinho

Strategist, writer, maker

Whenever you're ready, here's 2 ways i can help you:

  1. ​Join the Salmon Crew. Access our private WhatsApp group, where you'll find a safe space to help you stop overthinking strategy. You'll get memes, questions, quotes and links, help from other smart folks, you can be a guest on future panels, and get to shape the future of Salmon Theory. Join smart minds from Leo Burnett, Genius Steals, System1, Flight Studio, VML, Miami Ad School, and more.
  2. ​Hire Salmon Labs. We help savvy brands swim upstream. From brand, comms and content strategy, to training on creativity and how to use AI, we like to do things in a fast and bespoke way. No fixed methodologies, moments of grand reveal or complicated language. Just pure shared problem solving.
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Salmon Theory

By Rob Estreitinho

Helping savvy strategists swim upstream.

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