As looksmaxxing becomes co-opted by restaurant chains, gay people get the last laugh
Looksmaxxing doesn't seem so cool when it's co-opted by restaurant chains.
Mark
One of the pillars of the now-ubiquitous looksmaxxing trend is taking amphetamines to suppress one’s appetite. So it is quite ironic indeed that some of America’s most gluttonous restaurant brands are co-opting the phenomenon’s jargon to push high-calories dishes that are oozing with gooey sauces and sodium.
Once relegated to the dark corners of the internet, looksmaxxing is now 100% mainstream. The most notorious looksmaxxer, who’s been arrested multiple times this year, has ascended to cultural omnipresence through viral clips that show him “mogging” and “maxxing”–as well as live-streaming his rhinoplasty.
It doesn’t matter that these bizarre phrases emanate from the incel community and encompass odious actions such as hitting one’s face with a hammer to improve bone structure or taking anabolic steroids. They are everywhere, and as a result, brands are diving in. Without a doubt, looksmaxxing is at its apex.
But does that also mean it’s past the point of being cool?
How about we take this to the next level?
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The Wall Street Journal recently published a feature examining how brands from fast food chains to skincare lines are going all-in on “maxxing.”
The fact that they don’t acknowledge, or even know, the meaning behind what they’re putting out is beyond the point, says the co-founder of a brand consulting firm.
That’s how we get the Cheesecake Factory posting IG videos about “sauce-maxxing” cajun salmon or Carl’s Jr. encouraging its customers to “spicy chicken maxx” and “self-respect maxx” (which apparently involves eating a fried chicken sandwich).
Of course, the 20-year-old king of looksmaxxing would never stuff his face with cheesecake or cheeseburgers (he sticks to a “primal diet“). But he’s not the target of these ad campaigns.
We are.
In a statement, Carl’s Jr explained that looksmaxxing “captures an all-in mindset—getting the most out of what you want,” and provided the fast food chain with “a “culturally relevant way to launch a menu item that ‘goes bigger’ when competitors are going smaller.”
To us, equating “mogging” (Alpha Male of the Group) with a new spicy chicken sandwich seems like a stretch. But then again, we’re not fancy ad execs!
(@cheesecakefactory)When it comes to the skincare industry’s embrace of “maxxing” and “mogging,” we can draw more easily draw the connection. Men are buying beauty products at record rates.
Over the past four years, health and beauty products marketed to men has rose 15.3% to $5.7 billion, per the WSJ.
The CEO of L’Oréal Group said this year on an earnings call that men now constitute half of their potential customer base.
Just like short shorts and hairless torsos, straight guys are now appropriating gay skincare habits. Earlier this summer, Symone smartly explained that LGBTQ+ people have been maximizing themselves for years–free all of the toxicity that straight guys bring along with it.
Given their queer customer base, beauty brands have to be especially careful about how they approach these new buzzwords. This past March, CerVe posted a TikTok poking fun at looksmaxxing, with Olympic snowboarder Jake Pates explaining how he “frame-mogged” his competition at the Olympics. (“Frame-mogged” means to physically tower over a beta and assert male dominance.)
@cerave looksmaxxing protocol with #CeraVe
@jake pates #DevelopedWithDerms ♬ original sound – CeraVe
As “maxxing” and “mogging” become affiliated with multibillion-dollar companies, the movement will naturally seem less cool. That could cause creatures to resort to even more extreme practices, says an NYU professor who studies corporate responsibility.
We’ll see just how much these conglomerates can “profit-maxx” off such a weird and sleezy ideal.
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“The men are in crisis”: Symone issues hard pass on straight guys into looksmaxxing
“No one wants to date that. You’re fun to watch. It’s fun to look at you. But I don’t want anything to do with you.”
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