“I’m on my second water of the day and it is 11:55, so I am cruisin’ with the water goals today!” Tonya Spanglo cheerily announces in her TikTok video. She bounds over to her “water bar,” a collection of sundry Skinny Mix syrups on a Lazy Susan. Cotton candy flavor? Nope. Dragon fruit acai? Nah, not today. She settles on coconut, mixed with a packet of pineapple flavoring, because, as she trumpets, “Mama’s trying to have a pina colada!” She breaks out her peach-colored, 40 oz. Simple Modern cup, twirls around her straw, and takes a sip before breaking out into Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).” 

Welcome to WaterTok, where the ice is loud, the vibes relentlessly positive, and the beverages zero-calorie. The hashtag, which has about 94.1 million views, features a panoply of upbeat, mostly white women in athleisure with charming Southern accents, showing off their recipes for flavored water in their giant metal Stanley cups. There is peach-ring flavored water. There is Dole Whip-flavored water. There is even banana-split-flavored water, and, perhaps most infamously, birthday cake. 

With her messy bun, Oklahoman twang, and relentlessly upbeat manner, Spanglo, who goes by @takingmylifebackat42 on TikTok, is the undisputed champion of the genre, posting her first concoction — a coconut-and-pineapple-flavored beverage mixed with Sonic’s ocean water packet, which she dubs “mermaid water” — in June 2022. “I have been dubbed the queen of WaterTok,” she tells Rolling Stone, as her four-year-old granddaughter plays in the background (later, she will request a sip of water, though Spanglo will inform me that it is plain). Through posting her water recipes on TikTok, she’s garnered more than 700,000 followers, as well as an affiliate partnership with Skinny Mixes, from which she says she gains a 10 percent sales commission with her videos. (A rep for Skinny Mixes confirmed to Rolling Stone that following Spanglo’s mermaid water video, Mermaid sold out a record seven times.) 

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Like many other food trends on TikTok, #WaterTok could be seen as relatively innocuous, if not a little silly; many commenters have pointed out that flavored water is essentially juice, or that using artificial sweetener-laden Skinny syrup is not exactly healthy. Others have noted that WaterTok skews heavily white, female, and Southern (a critique that Spanglo, who is all three, dismisses: “Maybe I need to do more research, [but] I do not know where that came from,” she says). 

Meagan Anderson, an over-40 lifestyle influencer from Texas who has made her own #WaterTok videos involving collagen, acknowledges that even she was wary when she first saw the trend: “Water seems so simple. And flavored packets have been around forever. It’s basically the same thing as Kool-Aid to someone my age,” she tells Rolling Stone. “It was funny — the younger generation was basically making Kool-Aid come back again, kinda like skinny jeans or parachute pants.” 

Yet watching content creators on TikTok playing alchemist with various flavored packets and syrups is admittedly hypnotizing, even if it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why. Some experts, however, have genuine concerns about the trend, pointing out that because many of the videos are targeted toward weight loss, the videos could be harmful to those struggling with disordered eating habits. 

WaterTok “has the element of danger because it is a classic eating disorderbehavior that happens,” says Jillian Lampert, chief strategy officer for the Emily Program and Veritas Collaborative, which offers comprehensive eating-disorder treatment programs in nine states. “In their fear and anxiety about eating and weight, they try to minimize the calories that come in.” Lampert refers to the practice of filling up on fluids as a means of ignoring hunger cues as “long-term, old-school eating disorder behavior.”

To be fair, not every WaterTok video is hashtagged #weightloss, and the trend is not overtly coded as a weight-loss method. Yet its origins are indeed rooted in weight loss, at least according to Spanglo, who is not the original progenitor of the trend but has certainly done more than anyone else to popularize it. Spanglo tells Rolling Stone she began drinking flavored water as a way to meet her water goals after having gastric sleeve surgery three years ago, with her doctor recommending she drink at least 64 ounces per day to aid in her recovery. She says drinking plain water made her literally ill: “It would make me so full I would puke. You feel like something is erupting in your esophagus,” she says. She had already been using Skinny syrups to flavor her coffee, so she decided to try using them to flavor her water; following her surgery, she has lost more than 220 pounds, she says. 

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Spanglo says she started posting her water recipes on TikTok last year, with her mermaid water and her “unicorn” water — a mix of a pink Starbursts packet and Skinny syrup’s blue raspberry frosting flavor — racking up millions of views. Along with her general weight-loss content, she now posts water recipes almost every day, most of which get hundreds of thousands of views; after featuring her new clear cup (“so people can see all the colors”) in a recent video, the cup sold out on Amazon within two hours of the video going live. 

Though Spanglo says her followers range widely in terms of demographics, she estimates that about 60 percent are gastric bypass patients like her who are trying to meet their water goals. “We have built this weight-loss community and we are all getting healthier and happier together,” she says. 

Lampert, however, has concerns about WaterTok, particularly since much of the content is marketed with the hashtag #weightloss. Though, she says, it will likely prove harmless for the majority of those who encounter it, for people who are vulnerable to developing disordered eating habits, “it can very easily be a way for people to feel like they are ingesting food and adequate nourishment when they are not,” she admits. 

In addition to the fact that many people with eating disorders drink excessive amounts of water to drown out hunger cues, there are also significant healthissues associated with overconsumption of water, says Wendy Oliver-Pyatt, the CEO and chief medical officer of Within Health, a remote treatment program for people with eating disorders. She cites hyponatremia, a condition that causes low levels of sodium in the body and can potentially lead to cardiac effects, as one potential complication. 

“Anything that is egging us on to drink water to lose weight has the potential to take us out of being balanced and thoughtful in our pursuit of health, to doing things that become dangerous,” she says. Though there is a clear distinction between trying to stay well-hydrated (the standard rule of thumb for adults is about 64 fluid ounces, or eight cups, per day) and overconsumption of water to the point of risking one’s health, Oliver-Pyatt cautions that using water as a weight-loss tool makes it easier for people to lose sight of that distinction. “If you’re drinking water to lose weight, Houston, we have a problem,” she says. 

That concern is exacerbated by the nature of TikTok’s algorithm, which recommends content to users that they are more likely to engage with, regardless of whether they’re actively searching for it. Due to its algorithm and its relatively young user base, TikTok has come under scrutiny from eating disorder specialists, who have argued that the platform prioritizes potentially harmful content in the form of weight-loss ads and potentially triggering “What I Eat In a Day”-type videos. 

In response to this criticism, TikTok issued a policy limiting weight-loss product ads for those under 18, and it has also added a disclaimer to weight-loss searches on the app. When asked for comment, a spokesperson for TikTok noted #WaterTok does not appear to be violative of any of its policies, stating, “content that promotes, normalizes, or glorifies disordered eating is prohibited on TikTok and we remove content that violates those guidelines.”

Nonetheless, despite these safeguards, Lampert says the prospect of falling down a weight-loss-content rabbit hole on an app like TikTok can be dangerous for those struggling with disordered eating.

“From a client perspective, we hear so much [about TikTok], regularly, with clients under 40,” she says. “The story used to be, ‘I heard about this diet from a friend and then before I knew it I was out of control.’ Now, all of the stories start with, ‘I was online and I saw this thing and I got sucked into it, and even when I tried to change my content I couldn’t, and my whole feed was around diet and weight loss.’ That’s really striking to me as a clinician.”

When asked about whether her WaterTok videos promote disordered eating, Spanglo says she never advocates for flavored water as a meal replacement (though she does make videos promoting protein shakes for this purpose), and that she notes in most of her videos and Lives that she is not a trained dietitian or nutritionist. “I’m not telling you what’ll work for you. I’m saying what worked for me,” she says. Anderson says that she is “12,000 percent against” using flavored water as a “cheat or hack”: “I am anti-diet and anti-skipping calories. I am pro giving your body things it needs,” she says. “This does not add to your nutritional needs. It’s just elevating your water.”

Yet with WaterTok booming and receiving media coverage around the world — Spanglo says that within the past 48 hours alone, she received requests from Katie Couric, the Drew Barrymore show, and the New York Post to talk about her videos — it’s easy to see how that message could potentially get lost in a sea of general diet and weight-loss content promoted as wellness. 

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“It will help some people because they’ll drink more water,” says Lampert. “But some people will think that drinking birthday-cake-flavored water is the same as eating birthday cake. And it’s not.” 

Let's just say people were more than eager to share their thoughts. Since being published yesterday, the Instagram post has received nearly 4,000 comments!

Although the answers are pretty divided, it seems that most people chose their slice based on their icing preference.

"A, always. Give me that frosting and everyone else’s too," one person wrote.

Another commenter chimed in with "D… balance of icing and cake. Not overpowered by icing and moist cos it’s in the middle."

And then there was one person who would just have a friend eat their extra icing. Well, that's certainly one way to do it.

"D still has too much icing. I need an A friend who will be willing to eat most of my icing," they wrote.

There were also a few buttercream aficionados who formed their answer around the type of frosting on the cake.

"Depends on the frosting because there is only one that beats the rest and that is buttercream. If it’s buttercream then A, if it’s not throw the cake away," one person wrote. Harsh!

Unilever has developed a new program that sits at the “intersection between marketing, technology and sustainability” where it rewards people for viewing ads promoting sustainable behavior.

“We use short videos to tell sustainable stories about our brands, and then we reward consumers for engaging with it,” Conny Braams, Unilever’s chief digital and commercial officer, told The Drum.

“And what we’ve seen from the pilots that we’ve been doing is that it, first of all, builds brand power, which is really important. But also, it really changes behavior.”

Unilever said it’s in an early pilot phase, testing across a few brands including Hellmann’s, Magnum and Comfort.

The ads appear on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and run no different to how any ad is placed on social media platforms.

After watching the videos, viewers are then rewarded and can convert their reward into a coupon or a contribution to a worthy cause, linked to the brand’s purpose. For example, after watching a Hellmann’s ad the viewer could donate to a food waste project.

The brand confirmed this is separate from the work it has done with Good Loop, an ad tech company that similarly allows people to donate to charity if they watch the entirety of an advert.

Unilever said it’s seen significant increases in brand power scores in two metrics (meaning and difference) and how positively consumers are perceiving these brands as purpose driven. It also said it's seen one of the highest action intent lifts after people watch these ads with more people feeling inspired to make meals out of leftovers, wash in shorter, colder cycles, re-use plastic and fix and repurpose clothes. It’s now encouraged other brands to join the pilot.

It comes as part of a renewed focus on the approach it’s taking to sustainability comms. In addition to this pilot, Unilever is also upping its influencer marketing spend on sustainability campaigns following research into their efficacy in engaging people in meaningful behavior change.

Last month, it published a report which found that 78% believed influencers to have the biggest impact of all media – greater than TV, news and even government campaigns.

More than that, three in four people are more likely to take up behaviors that are good for the environment after watching social media content, while eight in 10 (83%) think TikTok and Instagram are good places to get advice about how to live sustainably.

Braams said that in response, its influencer marketing spend is “accelerating quite rapidly”, particularly for brands in its beauty and beauty, well-being and nutrition categories.

“What we really wanted to do is elevate the role of influencer marketing within the marketing mix, within sustainable marketing and make sure that these influencers have the right education that we give them enough ammunition to be really driving the sustainable changes and the sustainable behavior change in the largest scale,” she added.

Dove and Hellmann’s – two of Unilever’s largest brands – recently worked with influencers to address the two most impactful behaviors on an individual’s carbon footprint: using less plastic, and wasting less food. As a result, 76% were encouraged to act after watching Dove plastics reuse content and 82% after seeing Hellmann’s content on food waste reduction.

Greenwashing

Unilever has a strong incentive for its focus on marketing its products as doing good for the planet. Despite some outspoken opponents of the strategy, Braams said 60% of the company’s turnover comes from brands that consumers recognize as driving a positive contribution to society.

“On communication, what we’ve seen is that purpose really works,” she said. “Of course, it starts with value. We need to have a good value proposition, a superior product, whether it is a core product, or an innovation, against the right price for the right people. And then you can add on your values. And these values need to be very central to the category benefits. And you need to continue driving it for at least three years for people to say: ‘Yes, this is a brand I know to be doing something good for society’.

“And then these brands are way more resilient to economic fluctuations and competitive actions because people buy convinced about the purpose that they drive.”

But this focus on conveying a purposeful, sustainable, message has meant Unilever has found itself the focus of ‘greenwashing’ claims. It’s had a Climate Transition Agenda in place for nearly 15 years, reviewing its operations and partners in the value chain to ensure they are more environmentally friendly.

Nonetheless, last year it was subject to accusations of greenwashing by the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) related to a campaign for its detergent brand Persil. A spot highlighted Persil’s sustainability credentials and claimed the product was “kinder to our planet”.

ASA banned the ad on the basis that the environmental claim was misleading and could not be substantiated.

“On greenwashing, for us, what is so important, is partnerships. We always want to have objective partners to sign off on the activities that we do,” said Braams on how it’s navigating the increased attention, and regulation, on the green claims brands can make in marketing.

Agroup of girls giggle as they try on a pair of pink glasses, plush pig hats and bunny ears. At another counter of the studio, one carefully straightens her hair. Together, they cram into a photo booth, pose, and then marvel at the photo strips the machine drops below. They tape one onto a wall filled with images of other young patrons.

It's a familiar scene playing out at several hundred small photo studios that have recently opened in Seoul. The spaces — with no staff visibly present — typically house three to six booths and are open 24 hours a day.

Since the pandemic, the studios have become one of the trendiest destinations among South Korean Gen Z. On the main thoroughfare of Hongdae, the city's busiest district, they're found on every block — sometimes, only a few feet apart.

20-year-old university student Choi Hui-je told CNN he visits a studio every time he goes out with friends, which is around five to seven times a month. Once, he recalled in a phone interview, he went five times in one week.

"It's a necessary stop. We go for food, karaoke, café, and then the photo studio," Choi said.

19-year-old Jenny Dall'alba, a student in the southern city of Busan, estimates she's gone more than 70 times over the past few years.

"This is not a fad but a must-go-to every time," she said.

Many around the world may have their own memories of hopping into similar booths. In the early 2000s, they surged in popularity thanks to the development of digital technology and coveted sticker versions.

But two decades later, in the age of social media and post-pandemic, they've taken on a whole new life in South Korea.

With over 245 locations in the Seoul Metropolitan area and 200 more around the country, Life4Cuts has a major share of the market: the brand estimates 2 million people visit their studios every month.

On Instagram there are more than 1.1 million posts with the hashtag Life4Cuts (in Korean) — with everyone from K-pop stars to influencers posting the outcome of their shoots.

Some are seen copying poses from viral TikTok videos or mimicking anime characters' famous moves. Choi himself likes to channel the expressive memes of pink beaver character Zanmang Loopy from the 2003 South Korean animation Pororo the Little Penguin.

Dall'alba, who keeps all her photos together in a pouch, says she enjoys getting creative by choosing different props and frames. She adds that her friends like to pose with K-pop group members that are baked into each frame and go multiple times to make sure to get a photo with every star.

There are also Instagram accounts dedicated to teaching visitors poses to try the next time in a studio.

Booths nowadays have better lighting and features like timelapses which have contributed to their popularity.

Business owners see the studios as a safe investment opportunity.

Kim Joo-hyun opened his Busan-based Life4Cuts studio in 2020, when his restaurant began struggling during the pandemic. With no government permit required to operate, he was able to set up a shop in less than a month, with a relatively moderate investment of 180 million won ($134,000).

"There is a widespread notion that you won't lose money opening them," Kim said over the phone, adding that it doesn't take much physical work and he's seen a profit margin of 50%. And while Kim is concerned with growing competition, he is also actively searching for another location to open a studio.

Kim was initially skeptical of whether the studios would be a passing fad, but as people started bringing their family, older relatives, and even dogs into the booth he's since changed his mind.

"(Customers) can buy small but guaranteed happiness," he said, for little money at about 4,000 won or $3 a pop. "The day-to-day life may be difficult but they can enter and exit with a smile on their face."

The tangible aspect of the photos may be what's particularly appealing to Gen Z. But Choi says there's something deeper — the pandemic reminded him and others of how precious life is.

Search is really important.  It’s so much faster than browsing.  In fact, it’s so much better that over 80% of Amazon’s sales are driven by customers going to the search bar, entering some keywords and buying one of the top five products of the thousands that the search query returns.  

Keyword Search Sucks

As great as it is, keyword search sucks.  We just don’t know it yet.  We don’t know it yet in the same way we didn’t realize that stopping at a gas station to buy a paper map sucked compared to using GPS navigation.  Or having to wait in the rain at a designated meeting spot after a concert sucked compared to just texting your friends to ask where they are.

Objectively, it’s an odd process.  Customers must first think of words they believe a computer will understand.  The customer is then rewarded with an overwhelming amount of somewhat relevant products.  When the customer searches again, the search engine forgets they’ve ever talked with this customer before and returns a pile of new, unrelated products.  It’s like walking into a grocery store and yelling, “Peanut Butter,” and an army of clerks bring you all the cereal, dog treats and sandwich spread that contain the words “Peanut” and/or “Butter.”  You then yell, “Organic,” and get a bunch of bananas, flour, and healthy snacks.  

This is not how we’ve evolved to think or communicate, but we accept it because the alternative - browsing through thousands of products - is much worse.

Then the World Changed

Search is about to get a lot better.  Generative search, natural language processing and AI will replace keyword matching and the results are incredible.  Unfortunately, that’s terrible news for everyone who has built a successful business based on keyword search.

To understand the difference, consider the following product search in this new world:

Me: 

“please recommend a peanut butter that is healthy and comes in a large container because I make a lot of sandwiches”

ChatGPT: 

“When choosing a peanut butter, look for one that is made with only a few ingredients, such as peanuts and salt, and avoid those with added sugars or oils. Here are some recommendations for healthy peanut butter options that come in large containers:

Crazy Richard's 100% Peanuts All-Natural Peanut Butter: This peanut butter is made with only one ingredient: roasted peanuts. It's also gluten-free, vegan, and non-GMO, and comes in a 48-ounce jar.

Kirkland Signature Organic Creamy Peanut Butter: This peanut butter is made with only organic roasted peanuts and salt. It comes in a 28-ounce jar and is certified USDA organic.

Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter: This peanut butter is made with only two ingredients: peanuts and salt. It's also non-GMO and gluten-free and comes in a 26.5-ounce jar.

Remember that peanut butter is high in calories and fat, so be mindful of your portion sizes to maintain a healthy diet.”

Great, now I’d like to know what I should spend on these:

“How much do those items cost on Amazon?”

ChatGPT:

“The prices of these items on Amazon may vary depending on the time of purchase and location, but here are the current prices (as of my knowledge cutoff date of September 2021) for each peanut butter option:

Crazy Richard's 100% Peanuts All-Natural Peanut Butter (48 oz): $13.97

Kirkland Signature Organic Creamy Peanut Butter (28 oz): $9.86

Smucker's Natural Peanut Butter (26.5 oz): $5.64

Jif Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (40 oz): $9.99

Skippy Natural Creamy Peanut Butter (40 oz): $7.67

Trader Joe's Creamy Salted Peanut Butter (16 oz): $7.95

Keep in mind that prices may vary, and there may be other retailers that offer these products at different prices.”

I’m easily influenced by famous people, so naturally: 

“Are there any endorsed by celebrities?”

ChatGPT:

“There may be peanut butter brands that are endorsed by celebrities, but it's important to remember that celebrity endorsements do not necessarily mean that a product is healthier or of better quality. It's always a good idea to focus on the ingredients and nutritional value of a product rather than relying solely on celebrity endorsements.

That being said, here are a few peanut butter brands that have been endorsed by celebrities:

Justin's Nut Butter: Justin's is a natural nut butter company that has been endorsed by several celebrities, including Jennifer Aniston and Oprah Winfrey. Their products are made with high-quality ingredients and come in a variety of flavors.

PBfit: PBfit is a brand of powdered peanut butter that has been endorsed by actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens. Their powdered peanut butter is made with only roasted peanuts, salt, and sugar, and has 87% less fat than traditional peanut butter.

NuttZo: NuttZo is a nut butter brand that has been endorsed by Olympic athlete Lindsey Vonn. Their products are made with a blend of organic nuts and seeds and come in several different varieties.

Again, it's important to do your own research and read ingredient labels to make an informed decision about the peanut butter you choose to purchase.”

So, there you have it.  In addition to being endorsed by Vanessa Hudgens, PBFit was an early client at my last company so it’s the obvious winner.  If you conduct the same search, you will get different results.  The system is constantly learning and improving in ways no human can truly understand.

It makes the old keyword way seem so…old.

Who Will Mourn the Keyword?

There is no world in which keyword search wins.  It’s like bringing keywords to a natural language processing fight.  AI wins, Customers win, big time.  Shoppers will not mourn keywords.

Those who will mourn keywords are the owners of the products that have spent millions or billions of dollars on advertising, content, strategy, and execution to have the coveted top placement on the keywords that drive their business.  The ad platforms that generate billions of dollars selling keyword targeted ads will also mourn.  How will advertisers target consumers?  Other than just trusting AI, how do advertisers make decisions about how and where to invest?  How will brands know what content to develop? Companies that built entire businesses on keyword matching processes will mourn them.

AI in the Driver's Seat Means Different Products Win

As generative search based on natural language processing rolls out $500B+ of US retail sales will be completely reshuffled.  Ad tools and tactics will shift seemingly overnight.

Some products will just accidentally win.  They were always more relevant, but no one knew.  With AI in the driver seat, these products will steal share from others that had carefully, and expensively, mastered the now useless keywords.  Brands will be forced to learn to understand how the retailers’ different flavors of generative search work.  They will need to know a lot more about their customers.  Keyword stuffing into titles or bullets will not work anymore.  Brands will have to be strategic and highly engaged in actively managing the data that trains the AI models.  

Saying Goodbye is Hard

Having been there for the birth of the keyword and now standing here so close to the end, I’d like to say a few words:

Keyword, you were a good friend.  You led us out of the darkness of browse.  You exposed all the knowledge of the world so I could settle minor disputes with my friends in real time.  You changed our lives in unimaginable ways.  Born just thirty years ago in 1993 on Aliweb, you were so young.  But change is life’s only constant, and I need more, better ways to find the right peanut butter for me.  So, it’s time to say goodbye.