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Hilarious Memes for Drake’s “Hotline Bling” Video Is What PR Dreams are Made Of- Kudos to His PR Team

It is a proven fact that Publicity stunts do, indeed, work. Sometimes they work for you, and sometimes they work against you. In the case of the official video release of Hip-Hop sensation Drake’s “Hotline Bling,” it’s clear that Drake and his Public Relations team have clearly found out what works in his favor and are using it to its full capacity.

From the moment I saw the video, there was no doubt that this was a meme in the making; this was an overwhelmingly obvious observation that could not be denied. The video wasn’t showy, there was not much dazzle or dazzle, it is simply Drake dancing for most of the music video, awkwardly, in a box. The moment I watched the video I flashed back to Bill Cosby dancing away to The Cosby Show Theme song, I saw a glimpse of a nerdy kid dancing in box and someone back stage from marketing yelling ” Keep Going! This is Golden!”, What I was watching was no accident. This was intended to start a meme firestorm from the start, and that it most certainly did.

As one who knows the business of PR, it didn’t take me long to guess that Drake’s team simply borrowed from their own previous success of his ” No New friends” video that hit in 2013. Much to the internets amusement Drakes adoring fans photoshopped and popped the image of him walking away from a couch in to a plunder of images. From him bouncing soccer balls off of his head, to him walking away from President Obama and more. His walking memes went viral shortly after his “No New Friends” video was released. The album sold more than 500,000 copies and also peaked on Billboard’s Top 100 List. Considering the response and results, it made perfect sense to repeat the strategy for “Hotline Bling”. The same effect was seen with this summer’s release of his “Back to Back” track when it came to his Meek Mills diss tracks. When it comes to Drake his team knows that PR dreams are made with hilarious memes.

Yes Drake is talented in his own right and “Hotline Bling” was already consistently on the tip of out tongues prior to the release video, however Drakes branding is strong. It is the sexy intelligent guy that used to play on Degrassi, but can still be musically inclined enough to win a rap battle with someone like Meek Mills. So people love him. They love his guts, and they love that he isn’t afraid to make fun of himself. His PR team has it right. Hotline Bling will not leave anyones mind anytime soon due to the fact that the hilarious memes are continuing to spread like wildfire. Images of Drake playing wii while dancing, images of drake as Bill Cosby and images of drake dancing to salsa music will stay in our brains long after we stop singing ” You used to call me on my cell phone.” This is something Drake’s PR team understood, and they wasted no time in letting the magic of PR take its course.

With all of the meme fun Drakes fanbase is not so much laughing at him, as they are with him. It is wonderful to see artists that don’t take themselves too seriously by giving us something to meme and remember forever.

See the video here: https://youtu.be/uxpDa-c-4Mc

Monique Tatum

Monique Tatum is the CEO of BPM-PR Firm, a PR and Marketing firm based out of NYC. The firm services clients for full scale public relations campaigns, events, social media, influencer and celebrity marketing for fashion, beauty, lifestyle, corporate communications, technology and more.

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