Going Viral With the Wrong Crowd
What nobody tells you about going viral when something you create takes flight with the wrong audience.
It’s impossible to make something that will appeal to everyone. I know that, you know that.
When I launched Brenne, I used to say “a hard pass or strong yes once you’ve tried it lets me know I’ve done well at creating something special.” No desire to be in the middle and forgettable. I’ve always wanted to create something unique enough to shine — and attract enough people who love it to actually sustain a company.
It’s a risk, of course, but that is a big piece of entrepreneurship and innovation no matter what field you’re in.
With Hi-Snaps, we spent a ton of time researching, trying, and examining what other brands were out there in the hemp THC drink space when we were in development. We believe there is space for all brands and wanted to make sure we launched with something that felt uniquely us, something that we could speak about authentically and honestly, a brand that would attract, well, us if we weren’t the founders.
Here’s what was important:
Something LOW-DOSE — we wanted a light shift, not to become one with the couch. We’re not looking to numb ourselves from society nor do we have anything to “prove” by how “strong” we can handle our THC. Our sweet little 5mg dose is a perfect gentle lift that lets us still be in control of our thoughts, bodies, and the good times we’d like to have.
Something portable, DISCRETE, & chic — enough said. At this stage in our lives (if ever), we’re not bong, bowl, or roll girls and we are certainly not bringing those into a restaurant or any of the MANY places we bring Hi-Snaps — concerts, galas, parties, travel, dinners out, sporting events, friend’s homes, and beyond.
Something that is NOT smoking — I have asthma so while I’ve enjoyed a joint or two in my day, 100% of the time it’s triggered an asthma attack, so that’s really not for me. Plus, we like building brands and there is really no branding in joints much beyond the rolling papers…
Something that is NOT a gummy — everyone has a bad edible story and so do we. The unpredictability of edibles is wild. (I have a whole explanation of why you should never “eat half & think you’re getting half the dose” at the bottom of this article.)
Something that is NOT a bulky can! — there seems to be a new hemp canned beverage brand coming out every other day, but the issue for us was bulk and forced-upon-you flavors. I love the idea of drinking a light dose of THC — it’s social, it feels culturally elevated — but I do not always want to be forced into drinking someone else’s version of a flavor morphed into a can of sugar water. I don’t want the extra calories and I’d like to choose my own beverage, which for me is almost always sparkling water with a squeeze of citrus and a Hi-Snap. Zero calories, zero sugar, zero gluten. When I’m out, I ask for sparkling water in a wine glass so it feels like a spritz, into which I’ll snap + squeeze my Hi-Snap. I stay hydrated and I get a slight buzz that’s comparable to what I might have gotten from a glass of whisky or wine… no hangover, restless night of sleep, or booze-belly required.
In truth, that is only some of the thinking behind Hi-Snaps (I will not bore you with every thought that went into the 13 months of R&D!). And then we launched. The news cycle around hemp was scary. But the reactions from our friends, family, and early adopters were beautiful. Then January hit and since then, we have tried our hand at Meta ads — with the help of a small team who specifically runs Meta ads for hemp brands (what a niche!) but for some reason, we cannot get them to work no matter how many different ads we create (so far, over 98!) or how much money we offer the great-God’s-of-Meta. Oddly, instead — and this is something you can never build a business plan or future growth strategy on — we have gone viral. Not once, not twice, but many times now. On TikTok, on Instagram, and most recently, on Facebook.
The thing about the Facebook one is that, in all honesty, we didn’t realize our Instagram content was even posting to our brand’s Facebook page. Not until Instagram gave us a strange notification:
That’s not nothing in terms of comment counts! But when we visited our Facebook page for the first time since setting it up in November 2025, we saw this on an entirely different post:
3 MILLION VIEWS.
279 SHARES(!) and over 500 comments.
One might be thrilled at going viral — but what happens when you realize you’re going viral with the wrong crowd? As a brand, you can’t stop the viral nature of an organic piece of content (that links to our IG page of the same post that went viral on FB to spare your eyes) the way you could with an ad, which you’d just turn off. Meta just does its thing with organic content and once it realizes something is getting a ton of engagement — in this case, with millions of men toting guns in their FB profile pics writing horrible and nasty things — Meta just keeps sending it to that community. And let me tell you, we got pummeled in the comments. Hundreds of them.
Then what? As a brand you sit back and think: do we engage? If so, how? What do we want to respond to, defend, offer another perspective — or do we simply let them talk themselves out and, where appropriate by metrics we choose in any given moment, own that our product is not for everyone? That last part needs to be okay with people who are jumping on the ‘gang up and be mean’ train.
Just because something isn’t for you doesn’t mean you have to go out of your way to tear it down.
There’s a whole other aspect to your psyche as a human when you sit down and start reading through hundreds of negative, toxic, comments being directed towards something you spent over a year carefully constructing to be the best version of your own creation at this moment in time. That can take its toll on even the most resilient amongst us.
Sam, my business partner, being one of the strongest I know. She couldn’t stay quiet about this onslaught and instead did what she does best — shared what was happening to our sweet baby brand with the expert comedic timing only she can deliver.
It’s hysterical (and a touch horrific) … but I asked her to make me a collaborator on it because it’s so funny, true, and I couldn’t turn away — even when it’s about my own reality. If you wish to watch our/Sam’s Instagram reel about this, click here. (heads up: she does read some of the comments out loud)
So what do you do as a brand who goes viral on the wrong side of the comments? We still have no idea — though finding the humor in it early did seem to help. Anyone want to comment? 🤣
Thank you for reading — the frequency of my posts has slowed as our business has ramped up, but I will keep coming back here to capture these sticky, weird, wild moments that make life feel like it’s really, truly being lived.
🍫 LAST BITE ON EDIBLES:
That 10mg gummy that you bite the head off of and think, “I just want 5mg” — that’s not how that works. The THC is NOT evenly dispersed throughout that gummy.
Think about it this way: if you cook with THC, an unpredictable amount gets burned off in the cooking process — creating unnecessary waste and making it impossible to know what dose would be left. So commercially packaged gummies are injected with THC after they’ve been cooked. Meaning all 10mg may be sitting entirely in the head of that gummy or entirely in the lower half. Either way — buy the dose you want and take the whole serving. Don’t try to “dose” it yourself, because you’ll never know where the THC is in that cute little bear, and you may take all of it or none of it when you bite off its head. You’re welcome. 😊
🌿 Curious about Hi-Snaps? Check them out here. ✨
So proud of you and everything you have done to build this brand. Keep going!!! You're niche. That's a GOOD thing because you know exactly who to target! As a non thc user, I trust you implicitly, have tried and loved. It's the PERFECT amount. There are definitely more of me out there! We can be hi-snaps girls. ;) Xoxoxoxo