# "Millennials Are Killing..." "Millennials Are Killing..." is a phrasal template that mocks trend pieces blaming the millennial generation for the decline of various industries and traditions. The joke built through 2013 to 2016, then broke wide open after a viral Economist tweet about diamond sales in June 2016, becoming one of the defining Twitter running gags of the late 2010s. ## Origin The pushback that produced the meme built through 2013. Time Magazine ran its "The Me Me Me Generation" cover story on millennials that spring, and Gothamist responded with a widely read roundup collecting a year's worth of New York Times pieces about the generation, arguing the paper had painted young people as lazy, entitled, and unmotivated while ignoring the recession, student debt, and housing costs shaping their choices[1]. The New York Times itself published pieces criticizing the same coverage cycle that year[5]. The "killing" framing started appearing in headlines soon after. In 2014, Gothamist ran the piece on McDonald's blaming younger diners for its worst sales slump in a decade, with the fast food giant's Global Chief Brand Officer arguing that the millennial generation had "a wider range of choices than any generation before them"[2]. Similar articles followed, and by April 2016 the New York Post was reporting on Hollywood's "millennial problem," citing a 3.6 percent drop in teen moviegoers and industry powwows about how to get young people back into theaters[3]. - **Platform:** News headlines / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2013 ## Overview The template works by taking any headline built around the words "Millennials Are Killing" plus some industry, tradition, or product, and either sharing it with a dry caption or inventing absurd new versions that push the framing to its logical extreme[5]. The bite of the joke has two layers. Older outlets kept publishing near-identical trend pieces blaming one generation for shifting consumer habits, while the actual reason young people were not buying diamonds, fabric softener, or napkins was usually financial pressure that the original articles refused to name[1]. Formats vary but tend to follow a few conventions. Users post screenshots of real headlines with a one-line reply, string together multiple headlines side by side to show the pattern, or invent parody versions that swap in ridiculous targets. The tone stays sardonic rather than angry, and the joke lands hardest when the industry in question is either obviously in decline for unrelated reasons, such as movie theaters losing teens to streaming[3], or the target is something the audience finds unappealing anyway, like mass-market American cheese or fast food. When Gothamist ran a 2014 piece titled "Promiscuous Millennials Are Killing McDonald's," the writer openly mocked the framing while quoting a McDonald's executive complaining that young diners were "promiscuous in their brand loyalty"[2]. ## How It Spread The joke went from recurring gripe to full-blown template on June 30, 2016, when The Economist tweeted "Why aren't millennials buying diamonds?"[5]. The replies were brutal, with users pointing out the obvious answer that millennials do not have much money and mocking the transparent framing. That tweet became the reference point every subsequent "Millennials Are Killing" joke pointed back to. Momentum built through the summer of 2016. On August 24, Fusion published a piece that linked out to 47 separate articles, each accusing millennials of killing a different industry or tradition, from cereal to bar soap to golf. Two days later, Twitter user @necrosofty posted a compilation image of "Millennials are killing" headlines that pulled more than 2,400 retweets and 2,600 likes, and the Daily Dot declared on August 27 that the backlash had hit its peak[5]. The template kept returning every time a new think piece arrived. On December 16, 2016, the Wall Street Journal ran a story about Procter & Gamble trying to sell fabric softener to millennials, which triggered another round of jokes led by a BuzzFeed editor's tweet that pulled over 2,000 retweets. Philly Mag revived the format on August 11, 2018 with an essay titled "How Millennials Killed Mayonnaise," in which the author described her home-cooked potato salad and Waldorf salad going untouched at family picnics and blamed the rise of what she called "identity condiments"[4]. The article included a passage where the author appeared to link her daughter's aversion to mayonnaise to being a feminist, and Twitter users pounced, with journalist Jamelle Bouie's reply arguing that mayonnaise salad "rightfully" died pulling roughly 3,200 likes[4]. Business Insider then ran a piece on October 10, 2018 arguing that American cheese was falling out of favor because of millennial taste, and the whole cycle repeated again[5]. ## How to Use Making a "Millennials Are Killing" joke typically starts with a real trend piece from a legacy business outlet. Common conventions include screenshotting the headline without comment, replying with a one-line explanation that names the actual cause (usually wages, student debt, or housing costs), or stringing several matching headlines together to expose the pattern. Parody versions tend to swap in absurdly small targets, like the napkin industry or fabric softener, to push the framing past its breaking point. The joke works best when the target industry is either objectively bad or in decline for reasons unrelated to any generation. ## Cultural Impact The joke got picked up by business and food writers themselves, and any new think piece about generational consumer behavior in the late 2010s risked being turned into a punchline within hours of publishing. Marketing teams took notice too; the December 2016 Wall Street Journal piece about Procter & Gamble openly discussed reworking fabric softener marketing to appeal to a younger audience, which itself became meme material. The Philly Mag mayonnaise essay from August 2018 was so widely mocked that Twitter Moments compiled the response, and the phrase "identity condiments" was pulled out of the article and used as its own recurring joke[4]. By late 2018, food publications running stories about American cheese losing ground to sharper alternatives had to acknowledge the format directly to avoid being subsumed by it[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is "Millennials Are Killing..."? It is a phrasal template that mocks the flood of trend pieces blaming the millennial generation for the decline of various industries and traditions[5]. ### Where did "Millennials Are Killing..." come from? The backlash built through 2013, after Gothamist and other outlets began collecting and criticizing think pieces that blamed young people for shifting consumer habits[1]. ### What does "Millennials Are Killing..." mean? It is a shorthand mockery of the argument that millennials, rather than wages, debt, or changing tastes, are responsible for the decline of legacy industries[2]. ### How do you use "Millennials Are Killing..."? People typically screenshot a real headline that uses the framing and reply with a one-line joke, or invent absurd parody headlines pointing at ever-smaller targets[5]. ### Is "Millennials Are Killing..." still popular? It peaked between 2016 and 2018 and is now a classic Twitter template that resurfaces whenever a business outlet publishes a new generational trend piece[5]. ### What kicked off the viral spread in 2016? A June 30, 2016 tweet from The Economist asking "Why aren't millennials buying diamonds?" drew intense mockery and became the reference point for every subsequent joke in the format[5]. ### Who was the McDonald's article about? A 2014 Gothamist piece titled "Promiscuous Millennials Are Killing McDonald's" mocked the fast food chain for blaming its worst sales slump in a decade on young diners rather than its own product[2]. ### What was the mayonnaise controversy? Philly Mag published "How Millennials Killed Mayonnaise" on August 11, 2018, and the article's discussion of "identity condiments" was mocked heavily on Twitter, including a widely liked reply from journalist Jamelle Bouie[4]. ### Did anyone catalog all the "killed" industries? Yes, Fusion published a piece on August 24, 2016 that linked to 47 separate articles, each blaming millennials for killing a different industry or tradition[5]. ### What did the millennial movie business story claim? A New York Post article from April 15, 2016 reported that Hollywood was worried about a 3.6 percent drop in teen moviegoers and had held industry meetings about how to draw millennials back to theaters[3]. ### Why did the joke land so hard? The original trend pieces followed a predictable structure and rarely acknowledged that student debt, stagnant wages, and housing costs were shaping millennial spending, which made the framing easy to mock[1]. ## References 1. [https://gothamist.com/news/in-a-years-worth-of-ny-times-articles-the-millennial-emerges]() 2. [https://gothamist.com/food/promiscuous-millennials-are-killing-mcdonalds]() 3. [https://nypost.com/2016/04/15/millennials-are-killing-the-movie-business/]() 4. [https://www.phillymag.com/news/2018/08/11/mayonnaise-industry-millennials/]() 5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/millennials-are-killing]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/millennials-are-killing Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library