Jake won't answer your emails and neither will Gen Z 😬

Gathering Gen Z insight from MessyTikTok

Three days ago, TikToker @jake_kuhlman posted a video of himself lip-syncing to Cardi B's "Bartier Cardi" with his shirt off while stepping out of his Mercedes Benz. It was a classic thirst trap — nothing worth turning heads — until @ally_jones_23 duetted the video and blessed us all with some quality #messytiktok content (see definition below).

In the duet video, Ally calls Jake out for making thirst trap videos when he hasn't done any work for their group project that is due the following day. She also informs us that the project is worth 20% of their final grade, and captions the video: "you haven't been answering your email, so I figured I'd try this."

The video instantly caught Gen Z’s attention, including Jake's, who commented "oops I'm on it!" Although Ally may have posted the video primarily for entertainment purposes, many viewers empathized with her, sharing their own experiences with irresponsible team members. As of now, the video has collected 16.4M views, 3.2M likes, 22.0K comments, and 101.6K shares.

Hoping to further capitalize on Ally's video, Jake uploaded another video the next day. It begins exactly the same way as the first: Cardi B, no shirt, Mercedes. However, as he steps out of the car, the audio from Ally's video begins to play and he jumps back into the car, pulls out his computer, and seemingly begins to work diligently.

The video was very well received and is currently standing at 13.7M views, 2.8M likes, 9337 comments, and 14.9K shares. Many viewers congratulated Jake for his character development. Even Ally commented: "Good job Jake, I must say the growth within 24 hours has been astronomical... keep it up 👍🏽 but if we get anything less then an A ...👊🏽 (bop)"

This messytiktok catapulted Jake and Ally into TikTok stardom. In the last three days, Jake gained over 300K followers and 9M likes while Ally, who hadn't even surpassed the 10K benchmark prior to these events, is now at 67K followers and 4M likes.

The takeaway

On the surface, this series of events appears to be no more than an entertaining story. However, that is far from the truth. In fact, this story reveals quite a bit about Gen Z. First and foremost, it shows that we are unafraid to call each other out. If someone messes up, we call them out for it and hold them accountable. Second, we not only communicate with each other on TikTok through comments but also duet and stitch videos. Third, we use Google Docs to facilitate group work in remote environments, and finally, we appreciate people who can take a joke. Although Jake was publicly exposed, he didn't get offended. Instead, he got his work done and created a parody video.

For brands or anyone who wants to get ahold of Gen Z, this video offers yet another invaluable insight. As evidenced by this story, sending emails to Jake won't work, and neither will it work for the majority of Gen Z. The best way to communicate with Gen Z is through platforms that they actually use, including TikTok. The ultimate goal would be to create original content that resonates with Gen Z, but for the time being, simply commenting under relevant videos should do the trick!