What is a meme? It is difficult to explain. The earliest example in advertising is that of an Amul girl with topical, at times satirical and punny, lines on current affairs. The focus is on a twist to a recent event.

Perhaps, the copywriters of Amul had an understanding of how the world would consume information in future — in small, easily palatable bites. Memes do exactly this. They add a twist to the story.

Memes have become a sine qua non of today’s digital discourse. The word has its genesis in The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976). In this book memes represented ideas, behaviours and styles that go viral. These memes are counterparts of a gene that gets transmitted from person to person. Virtual memes mimic this.

Reddit as a website made gaming and anime popular among teenagers. Memes came into picture since then. They are the smallest units of internet culture. Memes are politically incorrect. Best memes enter the mainstream social media sites after being in the chat rooms.

Memes are exploited by political parties, social media influencers, marketers and government agencies. Memes enagage users, as they are funny, clever or irreverent. They have the capacity to build a brand.

Memes encourage active participation from anyone and everyone on the Internet. They are shared, liked and commented on. This adds to their virality. They are malleable too.

Meme requires creative thinking, social thinking and brand thinking at the same time. Digital agencies may not have such talents. Advertising agencies do not understand digital. Meme marketing is thus sporadic. Memes are pithy — one or two lines of text. Such creation requires wit, humour and knowledge of what is making news. It has to be made instantly as soon as the event happens. Later the story is too old to be effective.

Lot of misinformation is likely to be converted into memes. Memes need scrutiny and are to be consumed with a pinch of salt.