‘We’re at peak brand saturation’: Why the comments section is becoming a cultural hub

With our feeds filled less than ever with updates from friends and more than ever with what Zuckerberg called “entertainment and learning about the world and discovering what’s going on,” plenty of commentators have been wondering if there’s a vibe shift afoot on social. Concerns of such a shift are developed enough that media giant WPP Media’s recent Advertising 2030 asked top marketers how likely they considered a near-future in which “most people use social media platforms privately while the public social space is dominated by promotional content.” Those who viewed that future as unlikely (52%) only narrowly outweighed those who saw it as likely.

Today, a report out of social shop OK Cool sheds light on this emerging paradigm, which sees social media users shifting their focus to private channels and the “new town hall” of the comments section. Based on a survey of 2,700 global social media users, the research titled Let Them Eat Lore finds 77% of users saving the “unfiltered” sides of themselves for private chats, close friends groups and ‘Finstas,’ while 33% say online culture “is happening exclusively in the group chat.”

So with posting in decline and private channels on the rise, where are people now showing up on public channels? In the comments section, the research finds. 91% say they spend time in the comments section of social platforms, with a third saying they spend time commenting themselves. 65% said comments sections are funnier than the creators themselves.

What’s the answer for brands – dive feet-first into a comments-section-first social strategy? Maybe not, warns Annie House, head of strategy at report author OK Cool. Speaking to The Drum, House says that the cost of a misstep is high – direct comments section engagement should only be undertaken by skilled professionals. “The bar is incredibly high because people have taken it upon themselves to be so entertaining… That threshold of funny and interesting is now the barrier to entry. If you can’t keep up with how brilliant the average person is, sitting in their lounge and dual-screening, then you have a lot to do.”

As social media enters its commentary era, in other words, brands have to get better at listening as well as talking. “Commentary is now a form of currency,” says House. “Actually, it’s the main point of interest. We want to have commentary on the culture that we’re consuming, not just consume the culture prescribed to us. That shifts what brands need to do, which is not just quippy one-liners or sick jokes, but actually having a perspective, having something they stand up for, values, a genuine tone of voice that means they have something to contribute to the culture that they’re trying to be a part of.”

Easier said than done, perhaps. In a constantly shifting culture, maintaining this kind of power isn’t straightforward. “It comes down to being, as much as you can, anti-best-practice,” says House. “Best practice creates monoliths, regurgitations, reversioning, essentially. But if we all did that, all of the internet would look the same… The best thing to do is exactly the wrong thing on paper. That’s where the magic lies.

The report itself is reminiscent of a 2025 comment section: aphoristic, eclectic and, aesthetically, as related to neon Y2K neon futurism as it is to Brat-style hyperpop.

Jolyon Varley, co-founder of OK Cool, insists it’s not a trends report. “Let’s be honest, most trends reports are fucking boring,” he tells The Drum. “They’ll put you to sleep. Who cares? Nobody cares. I wouldn’t read them for fun and I wouldn’t read them if you paid me.”

Instead, Varley says, the report is intended as a statement of intent for an industry that needs to do better at participating in digital culture. “We’ve gotten to the peak of brand saturation… We’re going to see more of this happening in the culture: brands having to take a step back and ask, ‘What’s actually moving the culture forward?’, rather than just trying to create opportunities to sell people shit. We’ve reached the absolute apex of people trying to sell people shit. What’s going to resonate with consumers is seeing that brands, and the people that represent brands, are genuinely invested in moving the culture forward in whatever way that they can.”