SHREK IS LOVE. SHREK IS LIFE.

🦀 glow downs + spurs final boss + merlin the duck + welcome back fried apple pie + digital detox phone + HOCHI vs PEPPO + new IG app icons + 500M monthly threads users cant be wrong + peptides 🦀

🦀 Anonymous Crab 🦀, RYAN J DILAZIO, benton williams 🐛, and 3 others

Jun 18, 2026

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Welcome to Silence, Brand!, a tri-weekly potluck of internet absurdity at the intersection of brand marketing and internet culture written by a collective of award winning digital marketing professionals. If you like what we do, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Ahoy, and welcome back to the internet's favorite fever dream, where we trawl the depths of the social seas so you don't have to get your feet wet…

This week, Shrek and Donkey came roaring back. The Shrek 5 trailer dropped and revealed our favorite ogre is heading to jail with his now-adult kids, and the collective “SHREK YEAH!!!” is still echoing across the timeline.

Meanwhile, Jackass 5 is giving away a life-size Wee Man popcorn bucket because cinema snacks have officially peaked, and Sonic celebrated his 35th anniversary with a life-sized figure that allegedly contains his DNA (marketing stunt or Jurassic Park sequel? unclear)

Instagram quietly dropped six new app icons (but only for Instagram Plus users) because nothing says “premium” like a fresh shade of purple on your home screen. No, we won’t be giving them $3.99 a month.

Elsewhere, influencer culture remains both undefeated and deeply unwell: a 13-year-old was arrested for swiping $50k from her parents to shower streamers with donations, while a duck named Merlin went fully viral simply for wearing a Mexico World Cup jersey (proof that the right outfit can launch anyone into stardom).

On the aesthetic front, jelly girl summer has arrived with all its translucent, maximalist glory, and Isaac Mizrahi was named Target’s first-ever Creative Director at Large, keeping the designer-to-big-box pipeline alive and well.

And finally, just when you thought your landlord was the worst, one actually hired zombies to protest a proposed rent freeze.

So batten down the hatches, because this is another week where the only thing on the horizon is the unexpected. 🦀

🦀📈 TODAY’S POLL

📲🦀 Viral Topics

One of Denver’s most bizarre pieces of public art is gone. Kind of (Denverite)
For more than two years, an unofficial artwork made of 27 Taco Bell Diablo sauce packets clung to a wall along Denver’s Cherry Creek Trail, earning cult status among locals. Created by appliance repairman and self-described absurdist artist Tom Dorsa, the piece recently met an ironic fate when city crews painted over it. The packets remain entombed beneath beige paint, transforming the quirky installation into an even stranger monument to impermanence.

Sleazepop: Did your favourite genre just get named? (Dazed Digital)
2hollis has emerged as a figurehead of a new maximalist electronic wave (alongside artists like Underscores and Ninajirachi) while the music world struggles to pin a name on the sound, cycling through tags such as electroclash, electronic pop, rage and the newly coined “sleazepop.”

Coined by anonymous fan SPD on Instagram and Reddit to capture a slightly scuzzy, rap- and rock-inflected LA strand of electronic music, sleazepop is already contested as contrived or too broad, and the piece suggests it may end up following hyperpop’s arc from genre label to loose descriptor.

Thanks To The Rising Cost Of Living, “The Gen Z Glow Down” Is Here (Bustle)
Older Gen Z are undergoing a “Gen Z Glow Down”. With stagnant job prospects, many are trimming costly beauty rituals and favoring cheaper, reusable, or high‑use investments. Profiles of Sophie, Mikaela, and Alyssa show the trend in action—ditching frequent blondes and waxes, choosing at‑home devices and drugstore dupes, and splurging more selectively.

‘Spurs final boss’ speaks out after viral confrontation with Knicks fans (Express News)
A viral confrontation between Spurs and Knicks fans after the 2026 NBA Finals has turned one San Antonio supporter into an unlikely internet celebrity. Wallace West (dubbed the “Spurs final boss” online) found himself at the center of a chaotic clash at New York’s Penn Station after the Knicks clinched the title. In a social media response, West said he escaped with only minor injuries and doubled down on his loyalty to the Spurs, embracing his newfound status as a cult sports figure.

🦀 He’s now been invited to fight at Adin Ross’ event and reveals the one foe he’s afraid of...his mom.

Tom Holland Confirms Marriage to Zendaya by Saying Family Members ‘Were All There’ at the Wedding: ‘That’s All You’ll Get on That’ (Variety)
Tom Holland seemed to confirm he and Zendaya are married by saying their family members “were all there” on the wedding day, echoing January remarks from Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach that the wedding “already happened.”

13-year-old arrested for stealing $50k from her parents to donate to streamers (Dexerto)
Influencer fever reportedly led a 13‑year‑old known as Yao to take a key from her mother’s handbag on several occasions between April and June and withdraw HK$380,000 (about $48,500 USD), which she donated to influencers on Xiaohongshu. Her parents discovered the missing money on June 12, reported the theft, and she was arrested.

The report also cites other high‑profile cases, including a November 2024 incident where a Chinese man allegedly sent $550,000 to a streamer after stealing about $316,000 from his job, and a UK dispute over nearly $200 million in alleged Bitcoin theft.