The Tenderism: When a Brand Becomes Bigger Than Its Structure
The internet loves a moment. (Obviously. It's the internet.)
One video. One personality. One phrase. Suddenly, everyone's echoing the same word as if they just learned how to speak. Lately, that word has been "Tenderism." A barbecue enthusiast testing meat tenderness in viral videos sparked a cultural moment (because, honestly, we all needed something to focus on between endless scrolling). The clips went viral everywhere. Millions watched ribs fall apart and repeated the phrase Tenderism over and over. It’s a funny word. A catchy signal. A brand slowly taking shape, whether anyone planned it or not.
The restaurant behind the videos exploded in popularity. Customers showed up in crowds. Influencers visited (shocking). Online debates began… because of course they did. That place is Destination Smokehouse, a barbecue spot in Murrieta, California. A lot of its fame came from videos featuring Walter Johnson, known online as Mr. Tendernism, who became the recognizable face of the phrase.
In these clips, he would test the meat's tenderness and deliver his verdict with the now-famous word. As the videos circulated on social media, many viewers thought he owned the restaurant, since he had become the face people associated with the brand. But in reality, the business was structured differently. This disconnect between the personality creating the cultural signal and the entity owning the commercial structure is precisely the kind of misalignment modern branding often reveals.
Then something interesting happened. And by interesting, I mean predictably messy. People realized the man who made Tenderism famous didn't actually own the brand behind it. Cue the collective gasp. And suddenly the internet started asking a deeper question: Who actually owns a brand? (Spoiler: it's rarely the person you hope.)
Culture Creates Brands Faster Than Ever
One of the central ideas in Branding in the Age of AI is that AI and social media accelerate brand formation. Meaning spreads faster than structure, much like gossip spreads faster than facts.
In the past, a brand would take years to develop. Blood, sweat, tears, and probably some questionable focus groups. Today? A single viral moment generates brand recognition overnight. Sleep on it, and you miss your own company's moment.
Tenderism is a perfect example. No strategic brand workshop created it. No marketing agency invented the phrase (though I'm sure several are claiming credit now). No positioning document defined the concept. The culture did. Millions of people repeated the word until it became a brand signal. Almost like branding... works better when you don't try so hard.
This illustrates one of the most important laws of modern branding: A brand isn't created when a company decides it exists. It forms when culture begins repeating a meaning.
Companies love to forget this part.
