BAM! Brands & Marketing: Tik Tokkers Get Into "The Swim"

Gen Z has spent the last two weeks waxing nostalgic over Adult Swim, the late-night adult programming block that runs after hours on Cartoon Network. In a trend started by content creator Vano 3000, TikTokkers have been recreating the block’s iconic interstitial bumps in creative ways: using spilt milk, post-it notes, and tattoos, among other things, to showcase the brand’s “[adult swim]” logo to the tune of Vano 3000’s remix of “Time Moves Slow” by the Canadian jazz group and production team BADBADNOTGOOD.

Adult Swim began using bumps to let parents know that the network was no longer playing the kids-oriented programming of Cartoon Network, according to Tricia Melton, the Chief Marketing Officer of Warner Bros Kids, Young Adult, and Classics (of which Adult Swim is a part). But by now, she said, the bumps have “quickly evolved into a way for us to, very personally, talk to the audience.” The first bump aired in 2003, and the network has since premiered over 20,000 of them, all of them varying wildly in theme and style.