What if the biggest threat to your brand isn’t what you do, but how people feel about what you do?
The internet no longer just reacts to decisions. It judges them.
It’s a direct line between the brand’s biggest moments happening right now. Defense contracts sparked an exodus of AI users overnight. A CEO takes a bite of a hamburger and it becomes a meme. One car company turned its advertising into a mini-documentary series. None of it went as planned, but some brands handled the disruption much better than others.
AI politics sparks user backlash
When news broke that OpenAI had signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense (renamed the Department of the Army under the current administration), many ChatGPT users didn’t take it lightly. U.S. uninstalls jumped 295% per day on February 28, according to data from Sensor Tower, a mobile analytics company that tracks app performance. This compares to a typical daily variation of about 9%.
At the same time, downloads of Claude, an AI assistant developed by Anthropic, skyrocketed, briefly pushing the app to the No. 1 spot in Apple’s App Store. why? That’s because Anthropic had publicly declined a similar partnership with the Pentagon, citing concerns about domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons. That decision quickly became part of the conversation.
AI tools are no longer considered neutral utilities. People are paying attention to who is behind them, what they represent, and who they are affiliated with.
What this means for real estate professionals
Your clients are doing the same for you. They’re not just looking at the work you do, they’re looking at the choices you make. What tools you use, how you talk about them, and whether you’re transparent about your processes. You don’t have to take a public position on every technology headline, but you do need to be intentional about it. If the audience feels something is off, they will notice and move on quickly.
Supreme Court leaves AI copyright restrictions in place
The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case that could change the way we think about AI-generated content and ownership. The case began when a computer scientist named Stephen Saylor attempted to obtain the copyright to an image that was created entirely by his AI algorithm. The U.S. Copyright Office said no. A federal court agreed. And now the Supreme Court is leaving these decisions untouched.
Current standard: If something is not meaningfully created by humans, it cannot be copyrighted. Works that involve actual human creative input can also qualify, but purely automated output stands on its own.
What this means for real estate professionals
This ruling concerns how we are beginning to legally and culturally define content generated by AI. The line is being drawn that AI is a tool, not a creator. This means that the more human thought, judgment, and creativity you incorporate into what you create with AI, the more it actually becomes yours. This is worth remembering as these conversations continue to evolve.
TikTok outage raises new questions about transition in the US
TikTok users in the U.S. have been hitting some walls lately. Technical issues at Oracle’s data center, the cloud computing company that currently hosts TikTok’s U.S. operations, caused posts to be delayed and slow for users. This is part of a larger transition in which TikTok’s recommendation algorithms for US users will be moved to Oracle’s managed US-based infrastructure.
Technical issues are not surprising given how large-scale this type of migration is. But users are already nervous about what the ownership change means for the platform, and each outage fuels speculation about whether content is being manipulated or suppressed.
What this means for real estate professionals
If TikTok is your main marketing channel right now, this is a reminder to diversify. A power outage will occur. Platform changes ownership. The algorithm changes. If your visibility is completely concentrated in one place, you are one update away from being lost. Spread your content across several platforms and avoid starting from scratch.
McDonald’s turns viral awkwardness into marketing moment
A few weeks ago, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a video of himself sampling the chain’s new “Big Arch” burger. The goal was honest product reviews. What actually happened was that the internet turned it into a meme, mainly for what viewers called the awkward little bite and stilted delivery. It spread quickly.
But McDonald’s didn’t back down. They kept posting, entertaining the internet, and moving the story onto something bigger. The new ‘First Job Confessions’ campaign transforms McDonald’s ordering kiosks into reality TV-style confession booths where customers share stories about their first jobs. We’ll be traveling to several cities for National Employee Appreciation Day and encouraging people to submit their stories online using #FirstJobConfessional.
Two very different moments, but when put together they reveal something important. When you show up directly without a PR filter or safety net, the internet reacts on its own terms. Sometimes that’s great. Sometimes it’s a meme. The brands that recover are the ones that keep emerging anyway.
What this means for real estate professionals
Not all posts will be published. Some will end up flat. Some people may get unexpected reactions. that’s ok. Consistency is more important than perfection. Keep showing up, keep being yourself, and the right audience will find you.
Ford turns F1 return into streaming story
Ford has teamed up with Oracle Red Bull Racing to return to F1 for the first time in more than 20 years. And they’re doing something a little different than just running a few commercials about it.
As part of its “Ready Set Ford” campaign, Ford is using a sequential ad format on Apple TV. This means that the ads run in a specific order and build on each other like episodes of a show. Together they form a short “micro-documentary series” (think mini-documentary series, but in ad format) that explains how the engineering behind the F1 program ties in with the cars that the public actually drives.
The campaign will also run on social, digital and out-of-home channels, but the Apple TV component will make it feel like more than just an ad. That’s a smart shift. Instead of interrupting the show with a 30-second spot, we’re giving them something worth watching.
What this means for real estate professionals
Marketing works the same way. A post is just a post. But a series of posts, including some market updates, client stories, neighborhood spotlights, and behind-the-scenes moments, builds something up. Over time, your audience will begin to trust your point of view because they’ve seen it play out consistently. Think about what your version of a “micro-documentary” might look like. What story are you telling throughout your content?
TL;DR
OpenAI’s defense deal sparked a backlash, with users rushing to try out competing AI tools. The Supreme Court confirmed that art generated entirely by AI cannot be copyrighted. TikTok’s outage related to new U.S. infrastructure is a reminder that we shouldn’t rely on just one platform. McDonald’s turned its viral CEO moment into a broader storytelling campaign, and it kept going. Ford is using continuous streaming advertising to build a longer brand story around its return to F1.
The internet is always watching and will always put its own spin on things. You can’t control it. What you can control is how consistently you show up, how clearly you communicate your values, and how quickly you adapt when the narrative changes. That’s what builds a brand that people actually trust.
Every tool you use, every platform you rely on, and every story you tell affects how people perceive your business. The most durable brands are those that consistently show up, adapt as the narrative changes, and remain firmly rooted in what they actually stand for.
Every week on Trending, digital marketer Jesse Healy takes a deep dive into what’s trending on social media and why it matters to real estate professionals. From viral trends to platform shifts, she analyzes everything so you can understand what’s worth your time and what’s not.
Jessi Healey is a freelance writer and social media manager specializing in real estate. She covers how social media trends are shaping the industry. Find her on Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, or Bluesky.
