Reality and comedy culture: a gateway into Gen Z audiences for brands

Insights into China, France and India in collaboration with AnalogFolk London

For global brands targeting Gen Z, the boundary between real life and social media no longer exists. Yet, many marketers are still relying on a tired playbook of hyper-curated, aspirational advertising that talks at this demographic rather than participating in their world.

Authenticity has been a buzzword for the past decade. Yet some brands are still struggling to find their foot into culture and how they can be relevant to younger, diverse and demanding audiences. 

The way youth consume content and process their lives is often anchored into two dominant cultural lifelines: unscripted reality and coping comedy. For Gen Z, these aren't just entertainment genres. They are vital social filters and pressure valves. In high-stress environments, humour grants youth the permission to be vulnerable without the social cost. And reality formats turn their messy, everyday chaos into relatable connection.

The real value add for brands is to be able to shift from polished interruptions to cultural fluency. By leaning into these raw subcultures, brands can stop being seen as out-of-touch advertisers and start becoming relatable participants. This involves taking some risk and getting a better understanding of how these are embodied in various different settings. Here are a few insights into how this is playing out across China, France and India.

China: Anti-perfection, social death and absurdist escapism 

In China, a common misconception is that youth culture revolves entirely around highly curated aesthetics and flawless KOL lifestyles. The reality on the ground reveals a massive cultural pivot toward anti-perfection and burnout expression.

In a society known for its intense "996" work culture (working 9 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week), Gen Z is using raw reality formats and chaotic comedy as a collective release valve.

Platforms like RED (Xiaohongshu) and Douyin are seeing a surge in content where young people express fatigue and actively resist productivity narratives, often linked to the "lying flat" (躺平) attitude. Reality content here is less about traditional reality TV and more about "Real Life Sharing," where youth document unfiltered, everyday exhaustion and low-effort living. Brands that successfully integrate into this space are those that validate this exhaustion rather than adding aspirational pressure. For example, the apparel brand Bananain tapped directly into this sentiment by hosting a Closed for Business pop-up, turning the act of "not working" into a highly resonant, shared cultural event.

When it comes to humour, Chinese Gen Z leans heavily into "social death" (社死), a widely used term for highly embarrassing, awkward real-life moments that are exaggerated for comedic effect. This allows youth to process social anxieties and the fear of embarrassment through shared laughter. Alongside this is a massive appetite for absurdist or nonsense humour, characterised by illogical edits and chaotic storytelling that completely rejects traditional narrative logic.

KFC produced its own short drama series, The Reborn Foodie Empress. By combining the popular reborn fiction genre with a protagonist who embodies abstract and chaotic rebellion against traditional expectations, KFC perfectly mirrored the audience's fatigue with perfection culture.

France: The cardinal sin of “Trying too Hard”, the power of “Le Malaise” (awkwardness) and unfiltered authenticity

In France, the ultimate cardinal sin for a brand (or a person) is appearing to try too hard. French youth actively sneer at vanity and polished self-display. Instead, they gravitate toward unvarnished authenticity and second degré (layered irony). They even weaponise awkwardness, which they call le malaise, to take control of social discomfort.

This shift is championed by creators like Léna Situations, who blends luxury fashion with feel-good activism and unfiltered reality, and Squeezie, who brings diverse, everyday people and celebrities together for unscripted community gaming formats on YouTube. In comedy, figures like Paul Mirabel are leading the charge with vulnerable masculinity stand-up, using a self-deprecating and emotionally honest voice to connect with youth.

Blending this with reality culture, NYX Cosmetics tapped into this brilliantly with their True ID Card campaign featuring Bilal Hassani. By letting people take photobooth pictures showing their true selves before taking a secondary, stripped-down photo to comply with official norms, NYX successfully reframed makeup as a tool for authentic identity rather than vanity. Conversely, a local French beauty salon chain recently became a cautionary tale when they sued comedic TikToker Laurène Lévy for parodying her awkward salon experience. By deploying legal action and deepfakes rather than playing along with her storytime comedy, the brand triggered massive Gen Z backlash.

India: Where main character energy meets relatable chaos

In India, Gen Z lives in a hyper-documented reality where every everyday moment has performance pressure. They embrace Main Character lifestyle formats, turning mundane tasks like getting ready for a flight into cinematic experiences. However, this generation rejects the effort of traditional perfection. The most viral content relies on relatable micro-comedy: fast-paced memes and sketches that escalate everyday micro-crises, like outfit stress or last-minute plan changes, into exaggerated spirals of panic. Pranks, unexpected twists and awkward oops moments are all a recipe to success and engagement.

Creators like Prajakta Koli dominate situational comedy by mirroring real Indian social and family dynamics in highly engaging, short-burst sketches.

Brands winning in India embrace this fast-paced, unpretentious culture. Delivery giant Swiggy Instamart leant heavily into local cultural chaos by turning an outdoor billboard into a giant, functioning kite for the Makar Sankranti festival. Meanwhile, Zomato frequently goes viral by dropping the corporate veil, engaging in self-aware, deadpan X banter about their own employees taking leave to go on lunch dates, perfectly mirroring the low-effort, highly relatable workplace comedy Gen Z craves.

So, how can agencies and brands leverage these cultural nuances?

Across markets, Gen Z actively rejects try-hard brand aesthetics. Successful brands are those that:

1. Ditch the polish for messy reality

Brands must lean into behind-the-scenes, unfiltered moments. In India, positioning a product as the "calm within the spiral" of everyday chaos works better than portraying an impossibly perfect life. In France, partnering with chaotic, funny micro-creators brings more brand relevance than executing highly scripted campaigns with mega-influencers.

2. Leverage coping humour

Humor is Gen Z's ultimate coping mechanism. Brands that underplay their messaging, letting the audience complete the joke rather than delivering heavy punchlines, will win. Instead of positioning a brand as a preachy saviour, joining in on self-deprecation is the way to go.

3. Localise social content

This may sound obvious but some of the nuances and reasons to do so, aren’t always. While some everyday-life themes such as dating or partying may seem universal, their implications aren’t. In France, partying has been increasingly associated with negative connotations such as loss of control and cosy evenings hold the greatest preference. Conversely, while dating formats are growing in India, they are still awkward and often kept hidden from families.

By aligning with local reality and comedy cultures, brands seeking to engage and gain the trust of Gen Z can shift from being mere advertisers to culturally-fluent participants.

The following insights were gathered in collaboration with AnalogFolk London. AnalogFolk is a global next generation creative group that is purpose-built to help brands thrive in the post-digital age. They are strategic partners to brands such as L'Oreal, Nike, HSBC, Costa Coffee, Meta, Perk and Diageo and have been awarded both Campaign Magazine's Global Innovation Agency of the Year and a Contagious Magazine Pioneer. They combine creativity, strategy and technology to help brands grow in a fragmented, fast-moving world. At the heart of their approach is a belief that brands must not only be seen, but felt, shared and experienced in ways that are culturally relevant, personally meaningful and consistently delivered.