How Charli xcx Turned 2024 “Brat” Through Color, Community, and Collaboration

by Gabriel Muñoz

2024 was brat.

From a new way of life (“Brat Summer”) to the viral TikTok “Apple” dance, Charli xcx’s sixth studio album, brat, not only became a global cultural phenomenon but morphed into its very own aesthetic.

Even Collins Dictionary declared “brat” its Word of the Year and defined it as “a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.”

So how did Charli xcx go from “famous but not quite” (as she sings on brat album track “i might say something stupid”), to one of the year’s most talked about musicians, grabbing everyone’s attention with just a four-letter word?

Here are the three key ways she did it and how brat became 2024’s most ingenious marketing campaign:

Color

Charli’s polarizing but ultimately smart decision to choose such an off-putting shade of green for the brat album cover initially prompted a heated debate among fans and music critics as soon as it was posted. Before brat became such a cultural phenomenon, many people didn’t “get” the album cover and felt it was ugly, cheap and uninspired. While Charli’s reasoning for the barebones album cover was to cut costs, its simplicity (especially compared to other mainstream album covers) pushed brat and Charli in a position to truly stand out and be unique. By summer’s end, brat green was the new Barbie pink.

Charli capitalized on the social chatter the album cover started and boosted its discourse among fans (and detractors) by releasing the Brat Generator. This free online image maker allowed anyone to create their version of the cover and post it on social media. This turned the brat album cover into a meme and a colossal viral moment. Online users changed their profile pictures to brat green and businesses and brands cashed in on the craze too. 

“Brat Green” became the unofficial color of the year (sorry Pantone Peach Fuzz) and won praise from numerous publications. By the year’s end, the brat album art direction was nominated for Best Recording Package at the 2025 GRAMMYs.

Community

Our latest POV mentions how building a sense of community is essential for any brand. With the brat campaign, Charli took this concept to the next level.

Charli has always had a dedicated fanbase (or stans) as she’s been in the music industry for more than ten years and released five studio albums before brat’s release. However, to further draw fans in and build hype (and mystery) around her next musical move, she created an entirely new Instagram account in August 2022: @360_brat. This new Instagram account is private with Charli only approving followers at random intervals. She would then post memes, tease about the new era, answer fan questions and eventually post snippets of new songs leading up to the album’s release in June 2024. Even though Charli would ask fans to keep everything she posted on @360_brat private, the news would always “leak” and spread to the masses across social media and even some news sites within minutes. This news dissemination helped keep Charli’s fanbase invested as she worked on the album and developed the brat campaign with her collaborators throughout 2023 before the era officially kicked off in 2024.

By February 2024, Charli had built a substantial amount of hype around her next musical release. She set things off with the release of its first single “von dutch”, along with the official name of the album, brat, and garish cover. A few months after the cover’s release, Charli prepared a fun opportunity for her fans to participate in and was sure to cause a scene: the Brat Wall. On May 2, she began teasing a mural in Brooklyn on TikTok LIVE. Upon the mural’s completion, Charli made a surprise appearance, causing pandemonium and another viral moment. Soon after, Charli commissioned a Brat Wall in San Francisco, creating another chance for her fans to have a special and experiential moment with her work, pushing even more conversations about the album online. 

With the Brat Wall, Charli intuitively tapped into young consumers’ shift to real-life experiences and human connection in a post-COVID world. By the time the marketing campaign behind the Brat Wall came to an end in July, it had been “remixed” seven different times and live-streamed on Charli’s TikTok three times,  garnering over 300 million media impressions and more than 19 million social impressions through Charli’s accounts alone. She continued the free in-person events for her fans with another one-off brat mural to celebrate the release of the remix album in October (more on that below) and a pop-up Times Square performance in November.

Collaboration

Even before brat’s release in June, Charli began putting out remixes of songs off the album featuring some of her friends and favorite peers. This eventually led to the release of a “new” full-length project: brat and it’s completely different but also still brat. 

Before its October release, she slowly revealed the album tracklist and its whopping 18 collaborators by putting a new spin on the murals. She commissioned billboards with the name of each collaborating artist and installed them in their respective hometowns. This once again created hype and another fun online activity for fans.

Charli’s decision to release a remixed version of brat with so many collaborators extended the album’s campaign but also allowed those artists and their fans to enter her world, further expanding the “bratosphere.” From Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and Lorde, Charli engaged with hundreds of millions of followers by including them in the brat remix package. 

The release brat and its collaborative counterpart further pushed Charli to new heights and popularity, as her Instagram account has grown by almost two million followers within the last six months.

It’s a Brat World Now

Through a polarizing color choice, inventive in-person fan experiences, and collaborations with her peers, Charli xcx not only released 2024’s most critically acclaimed album but also conducted one of the smartest marketing campaigns seen in years. We might not have even seen the end of brat’s reign either, as Brandon Creed, her manager, teased to Billboard in January 2025, “Brat Summer, Fall, Winter is going to continue.”

Whatever Charli decides to do with brat, one thing is for sure: It’s a brat world now and we’re just living in it.