
There’s no winning with 👁👄👁. Pronounced "It is what it is”, the Tech-Twitter viral marketing campaign--regardless of whether or not it produces an app--highlights the gullibility of “Tech Bro’s” and utilizes FOMO (fear of missing out) to funnel awareness and possible donations to social causes.
From inspecting the accounts of the in-crowd associated with 👁👄👁—as differentiated by featuring the iconography or “It Is What It Is” in their bio or name—the initiative is an indirect exposé on the state of FOMO in marketing, online, and in general.
It’s hilarious that the account, which is less than a day old, has already grown to almost 6,000 followers. The account follows its creation clique, suggesting—in a now deleted tweet—that all but 59 of those followers have little to no clue about what the initiative is. Some of them have even, presumably, donated.


I say presumably because regardless of whether or not the account follows a user, of the multiple users I’ve talked to, each has, when confronted with a direct question about the initiative, responded with “It is what it is”. This is due to members of the group having signed NDA’s according to an intentionally unnamed source.
Still, what matters most is the fact that this is a real mixture of people in Silicon Valley, using FOMO to expose the nature of exclusionary practices and its impact. Looking at the target market (predominantly white men with money and attitudes),
👁👄👁 is part racial commentary, a rebuff of The Valley’s VC culture, and a look at the future of marketing. One which—quite possibly to the group’s chagrin—will involve 👁👄👁’s own tactics to further the establishment its performative artwork so blatantly distastes.
There is a chance an app will actually launch Friday, June 26, 2020 at 7:00pm PST, but early reviews in the valley on Twitter are worthless. Show me an app that doesn’t have Dom Hoffmann using it. Conflicting reports and media say the app exists; say it’s a Snapchat-like platform; and or say that there is no app at all. What then is 👁👄👁? Until the aforementioned time, there is little chance of a clear answer. For now:
It is what it is.