Why Gen Z Thinks Your Brand Is Cringe (and What to Do About It)

There’s a word Gen Z uses a lot when it comes to brands... Cringe.

And it’s not just about bad ads or awkward TikToks. It’s a reaction to something feeling off. Like a brand is trying too hard, slightly out of touch, or just doesn’t quite get it.

The tricky part is most brands don’t realise they’re doing it.

Because internally, it often looks like effort. Like you’re leaning into trends, adapting your tone, trying to stay relevant. But externally, that same effort can land as forced or inauthentic.

And Gen Z notices that immediately.

In fact, only 8% of Gen Z feel brands truly understand them (Popular Brands). That’s not a minor gap. That’s a signal that most brand behaviour simply isn’t landing the way it’s intended.

Where it starts to go wrong

A lot of what Gen Z calls cringe isn’t about one specific mistake. It’s usually a combination of small things that add up to something that just doesn’t feel right.

You see it when brands try to adopt Gen Z language without really understanding where it comes from. Slang gets dropped into captions, trends get copied, formats get reused. But without cultural context, it feels obvious. Like imitation rather than participation.

You see it in overly polished content too. The kind that’s perfectly lit, tightly edited, and completely controlled. It used to signal quality. Now it often creates distance. Gen Z tends to gravitate towards things that feel closer to real life, even if that means a bit of mess, a bit of imperfection.

Then there’s the idea of aspiration. For a long time, branding leaned heavily on status. Big logos, exclusivity, that sense of “this makes you better”. But that’s shifted. In some cases, those signals now feel outdated or even a bit try-hard (VegOut).

And when everything starts to look the same, that’s where people switch off completely. Repeated formats, similar tones, interchangeable campaigns. It becomes easy to scroll past because nothing feels distinct.

At the same time, ignoring what’s actually happening in the world doesn’t go unnoticed either. Gen Z expects brands to acknowledge things like mental health and sustainability. Not in a performative way, but in a way that feels grounded and real. When brands either ignore those conversations or approach them superficially, it creates a disconnect (eMarketer).

What Gen Z is actually responding to

If you flip all of that around, a clearer picture starts to form.

Gen Z isn’t looking for perfection. They’re looking for relevance.

More than half say they want brands to prioritise mental health (ICSC), which says a lot about what matters to them day to day. Not in a big campaign sense, but in tone, messaging and how a brand fits into their life.

There’s also a strong expectation that brands will actually act on the things they talk about. Around 47% expect real commitment to environmental and social issues (eMarketer). It’s less about saying the right thing and more about being consistent over time.

At the same time, experience matters just as much as messaging. Fast checkout, quick delivery, frictionless journeys. Nearly half of Gen Z rank these as top priorities when it comes to shopping (ICSC). If something feels slow or complicated, it doesn’t matter how good the campaign is.

They also want to feel involved. Personalisation, recommendations, co-creation. There’s an expectation that brands adapt to them, not the other way around (CMSWire).

And maybe most importantly, they respond to brands that feel self-aware. There’s a reason humour, irony and slightly chaotic content perform so well. It feels human. It doesn’t take itself too seriously. And that’s often more engaging than traditional aspirational messaging (Peter Fisk).

Why this shift matters

Gen Z isn’t just another audience segment you can bolt onto an existing strategy.

They’re influencing how platforms evolve, how trends move and how content is created in the first place.

They’re also becoming a larger part of the workforce and contributing more to overall retail spend (Numerator), which means their expectations are only going to matter more over time.

So this isn’t about tweaking tone or jumping on a few trends. It’s about rethinking how your brand shows up altogether.

The shift brands need to make

Where most brands get stuck is treating Gen Z like a style to copy rather than a mindset to understand.

It’s easy to focus on how things look. Harder to understand why they work.

The brands that are getting it right tend to start from behaviour. How people actually use platforms, how they interact with content, what they respond to in real life.

From there, everything else follows.

They work with creators properly, not just as distribution channels but as collaborators who understand their audience better than anyone else.

They let content feel a bit more human. Not everything needs to be perfectly on-brand if it means losing what makes it relatable.

And they focus less on one-off moments and more on consistency. Showing up regularly in a way that feels true, rather than trying to spike attention with isolated campaigns.

What this looks like in practice

You can see this really clearly in spaces like running culture right now.

The content that performs isn’t polished motivation or brand-heavy messaging. It’s the in-between moments. Recovery runs, early mornings, small wins, honest conversations about how people are actually feeling.

It’s content that feels lived in.

And the brands that work best in that space aren’t trying to control it. They’re partnering with creators who are already part of it and letting them shape how the story is told.

The takeaway

Cringe isn’t about getting a trend wrong, it’s about getting the intention wrong.

Gen Z doesn’t expect brands to be perfect. They expect them to be aware. To understand context. To show up in a way that feels connected to real life rather than constructed for attention.

The brands that get there aren’t the ones trying hardest to fit in, they’re the ones building something people actually want to be part of.