Shane Gillis’s SNL Joke Sparked Massive Backlash. Why Outrage Is a Dangerous Business Strategy

I’m not here to tell you whether the joke was funny or whether it crossed a line—I haven’t watched Saturday Night Live in over 10 years—but I did start seeing it trending in my feed. Plenty of people say Gillis went too far, while a few others found him hilarious. They can all have their opinions, but today I want to explore what happened to see whether outrage marketing (like this viral moment seems to be) is becoming a legitimate strategy.

Controversy used to be a marketing risk—now it’s a playbook

For most of my career, brands ran from controversy. My agency helped them design crisis plans to make the controversy go away as fast as possible, minimizing potential damage to the business and the brand. One of the many niches that I work in is childcare centers. You can imagine the types of controversies and crises these centers face regularly. The objective was always to have that controversy shifted out of the limelight. Nobody wanted to be the trending topic or, dare I say, canceled for the wrong reason.

To me, it seems to have flipped. In a world where attention is the scarcest thing on earth, more and more brands are deliberately courting controversy. The edgy ad. The divisive hot take. The post engineered to make half the internet angry, because angry people share. One of the professional Fortnite players I work with always tells me he loves the people who think he cheats or don’t like him because they stay the longest, and he makes the most ad revenue from them. Outrage feels like cheap fuel that burns fast, but if you’re only measuring reach, it can look like it works.

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Outrage travels faster than trust

Here’s the part I want you to sit with. Outrage and trust do not move at the same speed. Outrage is instant. One post, one bad joke, one spicy take, and you’re everywhere by morning—just look at Kelly Clarkson, Art of Play, and Molly the singing bird.

Trust is slow. You build it one good experience at a time, over months and years, and there is no shortcut.

So when you chase outrage, you’re trading the slow thing for the fast thing. You get a mountain of attention, and almost none of it is the kind you can actually use. I’ve said this a hundred times to clients: a million angry views is not a win. You can’t bank attention you earned by making people mad. The audience that shows up to be outraged doesn’t buy from you, doesn’t come back, and doesn’t tell their friends anything good about you. They showed up for the fight, not for you.