Charli XCX’s Brat campaign should turn you all green with envy

Seed’s Ed Lloyd has not only picked out his campaign of the year but has dissected how Charli XCX’s new album Brat resonated so widely.

You may not have heard of Brat, but you’ve almost certainly witnessed its cultural impact, whether you know it or not: be it new Democrat candidate Kamala Harris being branded ‘Brat,’ the recent viral ‘Apple dance’ or even the many neon green-clad crews at Glastonbury.

Released on June 7, the album, already the highest-rated record of 2024 on Metacritic, has inspired countless memes and fan accounts, exploded XCX from the niche to the mainstream, and has the entire clouty creative milieu claiming that this year it’s a “brat summer.”

But why, and importantly how, has an album that came out barely a month ago already reached this level of fame and meme-ification? Brat’s ongoing rollout has been a masterclass in campaign worldbuilding that we would all do well to learn from. Let’s dive in.

Breadcrumbing and edging

Brat’s rollout was something of a curriculum in cadence and teasing. When it comes to campaigns, having a “tease phase” is something of a given these days for many marketers, but with Brat, Charli shows us the true meaning of tease beyond your typical (read: boring) Instagram announcement post.

Brat’s “tease phase” began 10 months ahead of the album launching when XCX created a private burner account, @360_brat, on Instagram. There, she interacted with her superfans, Charli’s ‘Angels,’ through Story Q&As, discussing her music, POV and the upcoming album. The account, only letting fans in at distinct times, felt like being in the green room (ba-dum-tss). It offered an exclusive peek behind the scenes where posts largely just communicated the vibe of Brat in an approach comparable to Mary Kate and Ashley’s brand on Insta, The Row.

In February, the edging continued as XCX’s Boiler Room, PARTYGIRL, was announced. Charli texted her private fan WhatsApp group chat, “LET’S RAVE—BOILER ROOM 2/22. We’re going to play some stuff from the album. I think I’m also giving away tickets later this week.”

At the show, Charli teased several songs from the album and brought Julia Fox and Addison Rae to perform. In the days that followed, the album title and cover art finally dropped, stirring conversation around its lo-fi aesthetic. This led to a slew of memes riffing on it, as fans, already incredibly hyped for its release, adorned anything with a similar shade of green with the word “Brat.”

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