The Chalamet Way, Unserious Awards Campaigning

Timothée Chalamet’s Oscar campaign is built from the modern playbook of internet culture, and breaks from a sea of prestige-sameness in awards campaigning. He’s showing up to a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest, arriving at the A Complete Unknown premiere on an e-bike, channeling deep-cut Dylan looks on Instagram, and bouncing from SNL to Last Weekend with Theo Von to ESPN with a signature mix of aloofness and self-awareness. As The New York Times put it, “Chalamet seems to understand that authenticity in the internet age is achieved through different means.” His approach isn’t just refreshing—it’s a case study in how social media’s evolving landscape is reshaping awards marketing and beyond.

If there’s a single theme that has defined the social landscape over the past few years, it’s the rise of unserious or unhinged content. Peak Instagram was all about aspiration—the era of the humblebrag, where seemingly candid posts suggested an effortlessly perfect life. Harvard even did a study in 2015 about the effectiveness of humblebragging. But then TikTok came along, flipping the script entirely by making the internet a much less serious place. And if this year’s Super Bowl ads proved anything, it’s that we are living in a moment of unhinged marketing.

But awards campaigning, like most traditional marketing playbooks, tends to follow a predictable formula. Chalamet’s approach blows that up in favor of something looser, more organic, and deeply attuned to the way audiences engage with content today. And that’s the takeaway for any creative brief: In a media landscape saturated with tired formats and over-rehearsed messaging, how can your approach stand out by embracing a little more unseriousness?