Rage Bait – 2025 Word of the Year & What It Means to Marketers

Andréa Jones [00:00:00]:
I was on BBC Radio and CBC Radio this week, all because Oxford University Press released a new Word of the year, Rage Bait. Actually two words. And because I recorded a podcast episode on it last year and was featured last year on the BBC for the very same topic. When the Oxford Press released that Word of the Year this year, it got picked up again. So yes, if you're listening to this in real time, you'll notice this episode is two days later than I usually release an episode because your girl was busy. And also, I'm a very human person and I know that I have this public Persona, but y', all, after doing those two interviews, by the way, the BBC one was at a normal time for me because they ended up doing it later at night for them over in the UK. But the CBC one, I was up at four in the morning and I had 14 radio interviews back to back. It was syndicated across Canada and I was tired and literally crashed out yesterday.

Andréa Jones [00:01:04]:
Did not do anything. And so this is kind of a little late, but I don't think you'll mind because I think this episode is still going to be very important to you, even here now and today because the term Rage bait has increased dramatically in search over the past year, which is how it became the word of the year. So without further ado, after a word from our sponsor, I am going to give you the episode that came out last year on Rage Bait so that you can have the information again this year. You're welcome. Riverside is the all in one podcast recording and editing tool that I use for this right here show. I use it to edit not only the audio and the video, it is like Chef's Kiss magical, making the entire process so, so easy. Plus, I love their Magic AI clips. Their little AI robot in the background pulls out the most impactful moments of the episodes without me having to comb through and do it myself.

Andréa Jones [00:02:01]:
Resizes them for social media. So those vertical videos you see on TikTok and Reels, those all come from Magic AI inside of Riverside. It's literally one click. It spits out 10 clips. I pick the best one and away I go. Saves me so much time. If you want to get on the Riverside train, check it out today, the links in the show notes and make sure to use my code code DREA D R E A at checkout to get 15% off your membership. Rage Baiting.

Andréa Jones [00:02:27]:
This is one of the most viral and toxic tactics happening right now on the Internet. And I want to talk about and explore why people use this tactic, how it's deployed and why you should avoid it by all means necessary. I will also be talking about other viral tactics like satire, clickbaiting, shit posting, and more in the 322nd episode of the Mindful Marketing Podcast. This is my third time recording this episode. I'm just having a moment, y', all, but I wanted to thank you for all of the support from last week's podcast episode where I announced that I retired my services and I'm a full time content creator now. It's hairy, scary, but I'm here and I'm happy and I'm loving it. And then of course, I sit down to do this episode and I recorded it not once, not twice, but thrice. Thrice I've recorded this episode.

Andréa Jones [00:03:26]:
Yeah, I don't know why I'm sharing that other than, you know, I think it's the realness of what we do. Sometimes this stuff looks easy and it's not. It's hard. And a lot of the reasons why I had to record this are, first I had some incorrect information, then I sat down to record it, and just halfway through, my brain stuttered and I couldn't think of anything else. So I've got an outline that I'm following for this episode. If you're watching the video, you'll see me looking at my notes. That's why, to help me stay on track. Also wanted to share the realness of it all because that's.

Andréa Jones [00:04:00]:
That's what's behind mindful marketing. It's not showing up perfectly, but just showing up. All right, so rage baiting. This question came in from threads. I've been having a lot of fun on threads right now, and someone asked me about rage baiting, like how it works and why it works so well, and I was like, oh, this is a podcast episode. So here we are. Rage baiting is content that's specifically designed to make you angry or frustrated in order to drive engagement. Comments, likes, shares, all of it.

Andréa Jones [00:04:35]:
It's a deliberate manipulation of emotions. And it works because rage is one of the most powerful emotions humans can have. Research shows people are more likely to share content that makes them angry. And algorithms obviously reward this. Mr. Al, the algorithm has no clue. If you're commenting, liking, stitching, sharing a video or whatever because you're angry. It just sees all the likes and comments coming in and he goes, oh, great, let's show this to more people.

Andréa Jones [00:05:08]:
And so people create this content specifically because they want to incite rage. They don't care. There's probably some sort sort of mental Health issue behind it.

Andréa Jones [00:05:21]:
They probably are seeking any sort of attention. And so this sort of attention gets them what they want. And also there is a monetary reason behind it. Creators on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Threads, now even YouTube, they are paid based on how many times their content is viewed. And the more people leave comments and share it, the more it's viewed. So because of all of this, we're. We're battling against rage baiting. And a lot of this content is staged, okay? Staged or fake news or misleading headlines.

Andréa Jones [00:05:57]:
And a lot of this comes from TikTok. And I talk about TikTok a lot on this podcast because TikTok kind of shifted the way that social media works. So before four years ago, when TikTok rose in popularity in 2020, during the global pandemic and economic shutdown, we all turned to our phones and we discovered TikTok. At that moment, a lot of us did. And a lot of the apps now are echoing what we see on TikTok. Prior to that, we followed people, and then we saw their content. Okay, maybe we saw content if our followers engaged with them. So we're connected with somebody and then they get, you know, A and B were connected, and then person B comments on person sees account.

Andréa Jones [00:06:44]:
Even if I don't know person C, I may still see their content because person B commented on it and I'm connected with B, not C. Okay? That's how social media worked before TikTok. Now with the TikTok effect, you're seeing content rise in popularity that you would have never saw before. Because of discoverability, a lot of our favorite platforms are leaning into discoverable content, which is both good and bad. So on the good side, as a business owner, we want people to be able to discover our content. It doesn't matter if we have 10 followers, 100 followers, 100,000 followers, as long as it's great content. The algorithm usually favors that and it'll get seen. On the flip side, the algorithm has no idea if it's rage bait or not, and also pushes out all of that content as well.

Andréa Jones [00:07:33]:
Okay, so the virality component of TikTok is echoed across multiple platforms. Now, it's not just TikTok. We've got Instagram reels, we've got Facebook, we've got threads. I challenge you to scroll through your favorite social media app and make a mental note of the people of the. Of the content you're seeing in your feed. Is it from people you follow or is it from people you don't like? Take a Look at the balance of that, and you'll be surprised to see that they've sort of boiled the frog on us, and we're now seeing equal, if not more, content from people we don't follow in our social feeds. And this is all because of the TikTok effects. Now, I want to talk a little bit about rage baiting and how it fits into.

Andréa Jones [00:08:16]:
A family of irritating content strategies, from satirical content all the way up to rage baiting. I got to talk about the differences between these, because at the end of the day, they're there to get attention. And to be honest with you, we are all on the Internet to get attention. I don't care what anyone says, as much as they crap on influencers and say, oh, they're just out here for likes. Hello. That's what we're all trying to do here with our businesses, right? We're. We want people to pay attention to the things we have to say. Okay? So it's not about the fact that they're doing it for attention.

Andréa Jones [00:08:51]:
It's the way that they're going about it, playing on our emotions in human psychology. So satirical content. Satirical content, to me, is the most innocent in this family. It uses humor and irony to make a point or to critique something so it can provoke a strong emotion. But generally, it's done to encourage thoughtful engagement, not just outrage. And generally, you're in on the joke. Like, if you understand it, it's satire. And I'm talking.

Andréa Jones [00:09:21]:
Everyone's in on the joke. It's not like the comment section is filled with people who are angry. The comment section is filled with people like, oh, I see what you did there. There's a Facebook page that I follow that does this, and I. I tried to look it up before recording this podcast. I couldn't find it. But it basically flips patriarchal norms. So it'll say things like.

Andréa Jones [00:09:42]:
Like the creators of the page will say things like, you know, that man should be careful of what he's wearing because maybe he was asking to be punched in the face. You know, something like that. Where you go, oh, right. Like, what you wear has nothing to do with other people's actions. Right. And so it's things like that that can really kind of flip your thinking. And it's intentionally satirical. Okay, I'm okay with satire.

Andréa Jones [00:10:11]:
Satire, to me, is fine in small doses. But the creators of satirical pages have to be very mindful about how they show up with the satire, because it can lean into rage baiting if you're not careful. If you're not making sure that you're pointing out the joke and that everyone is in on the joke. Okay? All right, next up in this family, we have clickbait content. Clickbait, to me, is sensationalized or intentionally misleading headlines just to get clicks. Okay? So not necessarily angry, but you feel like you've been gooped. Like you feel like you've been tricked into reading the post. You feel like you've been tricked into clicking a link.

Andréa Jones [00:10:56]:
You feel like you've been tricked into watching a video, and it, whatever it is on the other side of the trick, doesn't match the hype. Okay? Clickbaiting, to me is another form of getting attention. I remember this from the YouTube days. Back in my YouTube days, there were a lot of ways that people would use clickbait. One of the most popular ones was to use like a traditionally beautiful person, usually female, on your thumbnail video. Usually in a provocative way. It doesn't matter what your video is about, but that would get more clicks on the video. Okay? That's clickbait.

Andréa Jones [00:11:30]:
The purpose is to get clicks. Even this video has nothing to do with this, you know, sensual woman showing off her assets on the thumbnail. Okay? Clickbait. I also think of, like, buzzfeed articles as clickbait where they'll say things like four shocking truths about your toothbrush. Number three will blow your mind. It's like that kind of, you know, headline where you're like, okay, like, is. Is a toothbrush really that shocking? But then you're clicking it, you're reading it, you're like, I knew all of this anyway. So that, that to me is clickbait.

Andréa Jones [00:12:06]:
Okay, then we have shit posting. Shit posting is different from satire and clickbaiting in that it is intentionally random or highly absurd. The point is to create confusion through humor. And it is the chaos gremlins of the Internet. But to me, shit posting is usually harmless. And it usually has a lot to do with like, Internet culture versus emotional manipulation. Shit posting. I follow a few shit posting pages and I just love how random they are.

Andréa Jones [00:12:43]:
There's one person who I follow who claims that they shit post intentionally to build their business. And I still don't see the correlation, but I sure be looking at those posts and I'm in the comments because it's just chaos. It's drama for the sake of drama, but it's harmless for the most part. Okay, so that shit posting to me, to me, it's like for a little giggle, for a little haha moment, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. Posting harmless. And there's a person who I follow on threads who combines all of these.

Andréa Jones [00:13:19]:
But I'm gonna. I don't know if I should say her name or not, but I'm gonna talk about her because a lot of her posts to me are rage baiting and rage baiting in this family. Again, specifically provoking anger or frustration. The sole purpose of rage beige rage bait is to generate outrage. Okay? There's like an emotional manipulation there that to me is damaging. And it is a fine line to go from satire to rage bait. Okay? Rage baiting is like, I want to make people angry. Satire is like, I want to make people think.

Andréa Jones [00:13:57]:
Clickbaiting is like, I want to trick someone. Rage baiting is like I want to make them like, explode, you know? So this person, I'll say her name. I'll put the link in the show notes. She's actually a journalist, Katie, not a polis. Not. Not. Not police. Oh, I'm sorry, Katie, I said your name wrong.

Andréa Jones [00:14:16]:
But I'll put her link to her threads account because I followed her initially because of a satirical post she did, and I believe it was around feminism and, you know, the idea of paternal leave and Matt leave. And I can't. I could not find the post. So maybe she deleted it or maybe it was not as far back as I scrolled. I scrolled back about six months and I couldn't find it. But the post had a lot of people in the comments who didn't get it. And so this is the reason I followed her, because I was like, oh, this is funny. I hit follow.

Andréa Jones [00:14:50]:
Then I went to the comments and I was like, oh, people actually think this is real? And they were getting heated. When I say heated, he tid heated about this concept of women taking time off and men taking time off after having a baby.

Andréa Jones [00:15:11]:
And me, you know, having just had a baby, having taken Matt leave twice now, was interested in the conversation. The amount of men in the comment section who were just angry at the implication that they should be hands on with their children was wild to me. Absolutely mind blowing that she would suggests that in her post. So this Katie person, who I don't really know, frankly, I just follow her on threads, has an interesting satirical account that often slips into rage bait. And she does this very intentionally. Okay? I know she's a journalist. I've seen her articles in places like Business Insider. And yet most of what she posts is intentional to enrage people or to incite some sort of response for them.

Andréa Jones [00:16:03]:
So I'll give an example of one. I did find one of her recent posts. I did really well. Do y' all remember the dress? The infamous dress? Is it white and gold or is it blue and black? Well, she posted this three days ago, basically reinciting this. And this, to me, is a shitpost. Like, this is why I'm saying she's a perfect example of all of these. It could be satire, it could be a shit post. But she posted a photo of the dress.

Andréa Jones [00:16:30]:
The dress, the white and gold, the blue and black with the, I believe, the original caption that says. Wait, help me check something. What colors are these dress? My friend says it's black and blue. I see white and gold. And the comment section is full of people who are in on the joke, right? They. They understand that this was Internet culture from years ago.

Andréa Jones [00:16:53]:
And then there's a bunch of people in the comments who are like, I don't get it. And then there's some people who are actually chiming in and. And trying to say if it's white or gold or. Or blue, black and blue. And of course, Internet culture, things are popping up. Like, someone said Laurel, and I was like, whoa.

Andréa Jones [00:17:15]:
I forgot that that was a thing. Or Yachty, do you hear? Yachty, do you hear Laurel? This was Facebook virality back in the day, right? Innocent shit posting. But some of her posts lean towards rage baiting. So she posted this PSA back in May for male journalists, calling them out and saying, when you. We can see you reply, fire emoji to Instagram models several times a day here on threads. You don't need to stop, by all means, enjoy. But it shows up on the feed. And the comment section is mostly people like, in on the joke, but some people aren't.

Andréa Jones [00:17:58]:
Some people aren't in on the joke, and some people are getting angry. They're getting angry like, oh, what if this was a female? How would you feel? And so to me, this is the danger of this thin line, very thin line between satire and rage baiting. All of these tactics aim for virality, but the key difference is the emotion that they trigger. And we can't control people's emotions. So if you have an account like this, it can be very easy to slip into rage baiting. And that's the most harmful one to me because it relies on negativity.

Andréa Jones [00:18:40]:
And completely dismisses the curiosity, the humor, or the chaos of the other good parts of the Internet. Now, I don't know if any of you are considering rage baiting or if you're a marketer and your clients are. But I do have to talk about the long term consequences of this strategy. First of all, it can have negative impacts on your brand long term. While short term engagement is great. These tactics erode trust. And I think satire, shit posting and clickbaiting go into this category as well. Rage baiting being the most extreme version of this because people feel manipulated and that manipulation reduces credibility.

Andréa Jones [00:19:27]:
It harms relationships with your community. It's just not a good feeling. Like no one wants to feel like they were tricked into something.

Andréa Jones [00:19:37]:
There is a tick tocker Winter Zezus I believe is her last name. And she creates these fake scenarios in her content that half the comments are like, oh, is this real? You know, some of the comments are like upset on her behalf and then the other comments are like, it's fake, it's fake. And her community keeps saying it's fake. Right. And she has.

Andréa Jones [00:20:05]:
Over 92 million views on her videos. 92 million views on her videos. By creating these fake scenarios. Things like she'll pretend to be at a restaurant eating some food and you'll hear a voice off camera come up and interact with her in a rude way or something like that. And she doesn't say that it's satire at all. Her, her account just says she's 23 and she lives in New York City.

Andréa Jones [00:20:34]:
She doesn't explain it at all. And so a lot of people think it's real. And she's creating rage bait to get paid because TikTok has a creator program and the more people like share engage with her video, the more she gets paid. Her top viewed video is. Has 26 million views. 26.9 million views. That's wild, right? And so short term she gets paid, but long term, my brain can't help but go to what are, what are you doing? Like where is this going? Yeah, I think it could be very harmful for your brand. Second thing is, I think there's a huge mental health component with rage baiting.

Andréa Jones [00:21:13]:
And the way the algorithms are today.

Andréa Jones [00:21:17]:
Constant exposure to these rage inducing content pieces can negatively impact mental health. And you can very easily slip into a loop of only seeing rage bait content. And this happened to me briefly on TikTok. So I really enjoy TikTok, their algorithm, Chef's Kiss. Love it. But early days, TikTok didn't understand the difference in the style of cooking videos that I like. And I love watching people cook. I don't know what it is about.

Andréa Jones [00:21:44]:
I don't know what it is. I just love it. Give Me a recipe. Let me see. You start with, like, the scrap, the. The ingredients, and then come up with something beautiful. I love it. However, there are these videos of people intentionally making terrible food so that people in the comments leave comments on it.

Andréa Jones [00:22:00]:
I'm talking. They'll take a burger, they'll wrap it in bacon, they'll deep fry it, they'll put ice cream on top with sprinkles with fireworks coming out of it. And by the end, you're like, what is happening? I can't tell you how many times I told TikTok, click those three little dots. Do not give me this content. I like cooking videos. I don't want rage bait. Now, TikTok understands me, and I'm a very happy place with the algorithm. However, some people watch those videos and don't understand that the creators behind those videos are intentionally crafting these stories that are designed to incite their rage.

Andréa Jones [00:22:38]:
Like, no one really is creating a hamburger covered in bacon, deep fried, add ice cream and sprinkles with fireworks at the top and then eating it. They're not doing that on a daily basis. They're doing it because you're watching the video and you're getting upset. And the thing that was upsetting me was the amount of waste. They would, like, not just create one burger, they would do this for like 20 burgers at a time. And the amount of waste was truly upsetting to me. I was getting upset. I could feel my emotions rising.

Andréa Jones [00:23:06]:
And so I want you to know, like, as you're watching content online, this goes for anything. Just know it's all fake, right? Internet is fake. Okay? And it can. You can actually harm yourself. You can harm your mental health. The more you consume these videos, if you don't recognize the toxic environment that's created by people with these, this content, and then the algorithm, because we're rewarding it by reacting to the video.

Andréa Jones [00:23:34]:
So to break the negativity, I do recommend you recognize this. And I want to talk about how you can steer clear of these tactics as well as of these videos. As a consumer, but from a marketing perspective, my mindful marketers out here, I. We need us to unite and create positive content. Um, I'm on a personal mission to do this right now. I do not love the content that is designed to provoke outrage or to make people angry. I don't like canceling content or cancel culture, calling people out. Um, to me, all of that content is a slow spiral into a very unhealthy mental health place for me.

Andréa Jones [00:24:21]:
And so my mission is to create content that inspires, you know, curiosity and, and joy and thoughtful, meaningful conversations or moments of connection and levity. You know, moments of, of I feel seen and, and so recently on Threads, I posted about Crocs because I always thought Crocs were ugly. And they still are. I still believe that they're ugly. However, my mom came to visit and I actually tried on her Crocs because my feet grew in pregnancy and I'm now the same size as my mom. And I tried them on, slipped them on, and I was like, whoa, these are comfortable and so light. And that was three months ago and I haven't stopped thinking about it. And I finally bought my pair of Crocs and I went to Threads to talk about it.

Andréa Jones [00:25:10]:
And it felt like one of those unifying moments where in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't make a difference. It didn't, you know, build my business. It's not selling anything, it's not adding any value. But it is a moment where I got to connect with people. You know, people who, you know, may not have commented on any other posts, were commenting about their Crocs. Most people were team Crocs, to be honest. There were a few people who were like, never in a million years. I was like, okay, talk to me after you've tried them on.

Andréa Jones [00:25:42]:
There were some people telling me about the little, I think they're called giblets that you, that you put on there. And I have not got that far yet. I just have one pair, my first pair. And I will tell you, my, my two year old wants her own pair as well. And so it was just one of those moments where I was like, this to me, is one of the beautiful things about community on the Internet. It's not about always selling something or promoting something or trying to do something like that. To me, it's about those moments of connection. So focus on the positivity key here.

Andréa Jones [00:26:12]:
Also, if you're a marketer like myself, I'm on a mission to educate people on what's rage baiting, what's even like satire or shit posting. Because to me it's up there with like a scam in that people who don't know may get taken in by it. And I don't want them to be manipulated in this way. It's the same reason I post about the Facebook scams. Every time I get one in my email inbox, I post about it and say, this looks like it came from Facebook, but it's not. And here's how you can see that it isn't things like that. I just, I'm on a mission to educate, and I encourage you to do the same with your community and then also set your own boundaries as a content creator, as a business owner. Just be mindful of getting caught up in the temptation of virality.

Andréa Jones [00:27:00]:
And there's the There is another thin line between a hook and clickbait. And to me, a hook accurately reflects what's happening in that content piece, whereas clickbait doesn't. And it's just a trick. And rage bait is just to make people angry. So definitely avoid those quick wins of building anger in favor of having, like, meaningful conversations with people. So that's my episode on rage baiting. What do you what do you think about all of these things? I love conversation about this. You can hit me up on threads, on Instagram, dms.

Andréa Jones [00:27:40]:
Let's continue the conversation there. In the meantime, make sure you rate and subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I just saw we have 4,000 followers on Spotify. I had no idea that we had that many over there. So thank you for listening to the show. Leave your rating. It helps more wonderful people like you find us so that we can be in community together. I'll be back next Tuesday with another episode.

Andréa Jones [00:28:04]:
Bye for now.