interviews
Bradeazy, The ‘CEO Of Trade Offers,’ Sits Down To Discuss How He Became One Of 2021’s Most Viral Memes And What’s Next For His Content
t’s hard to believe that we’re approaching the halfway point of 2021 already, and while this year has had its ups and downs, at least we’ve gotten a few decent memes to laugh at. Over the last two months, one particular meme featuring a man in a suit with his hands together as he poses a trade has become one of the most prominent. This meme, of course, is the viral “Trade Offer” format that’s seemingly taken over almost every platform across the globe.
Content creator and streamer Bradeazy is the man behind this meme, who first created his version back in mid-March as a one-off video before it later became the most widespread variant across TikTok, Reddit and more. We caught up with him recently to see how it all came together, what he thinks of having his face in memes all around the internet, as well as more about who he is and what he’s planning next after becoming the “CEO of Trade Offers.”
Q: Hello and thanks for joining us, Brad. Let’s start off with a little introduction. Let everyone know who you are and what you’re known for online.
A: Yeah, man, thanks for having me. So I’m known as Bradeazy online, AKA Brad. I graduated with my finance degree in 2015, and I just worked like a normal 9 to 5 boring life up until 2019, when I started posting comedy videos on TikTok just as a joke. I started going viral in 2020, and here I am 2021 with over 2 million followers. I’m most recently known for the Trade Offer meme that's been going crazy around the internet.
Q: To give us some context on your background, could you tell us about your backstory? How’d you get into making online content, and when did you start your YouTube and TikTok?
A: So like I said, I graduated in 2015, and growing up, I've always wanted to do something for myself. I hated having a job and working for other people, so I've tried multiple things like trading stocks, creating websites — I've tried everything and nothing really stuck, so I never knew what that one thing was until 2019. My friends would always send me TikToks in a group chat, just funny videos, and I never had it at the time. I know I kept on telling them like, "I'm never downloading TikTok, this app is just corny, like little kids on it dancing."
One day, I finally was like, "Alright, I'll give it a try," and I ended up being like, "Damn, this is actually really addicting." I made a bet with my friends, just cause I've always wanted to create something, "I bet you guys I can get 1,000 followers by the end of the year." So at that point, it became like a game to me where I would be studying the algorithm, studying what other big content creators were doing and trying to mimic that. By the end of the year, I only got 50 followers, so I was way off my target, and that was after three months of posting every single day. I only had 50 followers, so I wanted to quit. But like I said, it was like a game to me, and I told my friends I was gonna do it, so I just kept going. And that's how I got started and where I am today.
Q: Going back to some of your earliest content, what sort of things did you experiment with, and how have you shifted that over time?
A: Starting out I was testing a lot of things, posting every single day, seeing what stuck, what the algorithm was like, and really just trying to mirror the top creators. One of the first things I started going viral for was just making a dumb video at like 2 a.m. I found the face-stretch filter, where it makes your face look really funny, and I made the video where I was acting like that was my real face. At the time, I knew the algorithm liked watch time, so whenever I posted that video, I made a funny face in the beginning to hook people in, and it ended up working. That was my first viral video using the face stretch.
Eventually, I became known as the “face-stretch guy,” so all of my videos that I posted with the face stretch would do well. But then if I posted without the face stretch, they'd be like, "Who's this guy?" And it never did well. That was one of my earlier goals, which was to try to spread away from the face stretch because I don't wanna be known as just the face-stretch guy. Today, I've successfully moved away from that where I'll still post face-stretch videos, but a lot of my viral videos have been without using that filter lately. I feel like I started the face-stretch meme on TikTok, and I was the top face-stretch guy, but I wanted to get away from that a little bit.
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6907013430885076229
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6919634858910207237
Q: Even before the Trade Offer meme put your face all over the web, you saw success and growth on TikTok, accumulating over a million followers in roughly half a year. How were you able to grow your following so quickly, and why do you think your stuff clicked with people so well?
A: Honestly, it all comes down to me just posting every single day. My daily routine is I'll scroll through the “For You” page, see what the algorithm likes that day, what other people are posting that's doing well, and I'll try to hop on those trends but make my own twist to it. Then, if I see a video that does well, I'll make more of those so that it has a snowball effect where it just keeps doing well.
But starting out, I think one of the main reasons, and this is what I tell a lot of people that are trying to start out on TikTok, is to interact with your audience. When I had, let's say 50 followers, and I post a video with 100 views and there are three people that comment on the video, I would always like their comments and reply to them. So it made them feel special about interacting with my content, and it'll make them wanna come back later. Every day, try to build one or two new followers whenever you're first starting out, and that'll add up a lot after a couple of months. That's really one of the things that kickstarted my account.
Q: Can you tell us a little about your following and what it’s like? Why are you referred to as “Dino King” by fans?
A: I try to keep good vibes with my audience. I never get in any dumb drama. I'm only here just to create good videos, and any time someone's hating in the comments, I'll just block them or whatever. But the “Dino King” name is funny, that's when I first went viral with a face stretch. There was a joke someone made where he was like, "You look like my ARK character." And since the game has dinosaurs in it, we just came up with the name on the spot. I thought it sounded cool, so I was like, "Alright, I'm the Dino King." Only OG followers know that name since I don't really do that wide face anymore.
Q: The “Trade Offer” trend and meme format first kicked off on TikTok back in early March, just a week or two before you created your own variant. How did these earlier iterations inspire you to create yours and where/when did you first see those?
A: The earlier examples were really just my daily process of scrolling through the For You page, seeing what's popping that day, and if I can find anything funny because I feel like people follow me for my sense of humor. So if I find something funny, I'm assuming my followers are gonna find it funny too. I have free time during the day to find what's funny, so I try to make my spin on it for them. But I came across this video one day and it didn't say “trade offer” at the top, it just said “trade something,” and it was just a low-quality selfie. I thought it was funny, and then that was what inspired me to put my own twist on it.
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6894389618515528966
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6937195451330465029
Q: So then you uploaded your version in mid-March that went on to become the most widespread format associated with the meme. Give us the full backstory of how you came up with the idea for it, and what you thought of it at the time?
A: It was just any other day. I didn't have any other ideas, and I thought that low-quality selfie [version] was funny, so I put my own spin on it. It was a funny idea and he got a lot of likes on it, so I remade it. A lot of the top creators on TikTok have these lights in the background that look nice, so that's why I added a nice background. Then I put the suit on just to make it even funnier cause I feel like whenever you say a dumb joke and you're wearing a suit to be serious, it's like a double joke. And then I just made a little dumb face, so that's my spin on it.
The first video that I posted got like one million views in 10 hours, it was going crazy … and then TikTok took it down cause I said, "sloppy toppy." So I guess they didn't like that or something [laughs]. But it was going crazy, and 1 million views in 10 hours is like crazy for me. That was probably on track to be like 10-million-plus views on TikTok, but it got taken down and they didn't put it back up. Like I was saying earlier, whenever I find a trend that catches on, I like to keep snowballing with it. So I posted it a couple more times and it did well, I think around a couple hundred thousand views.
Q: Within just a couple of weeks, your take on Trade Offer spread all over the internet. Do you recall when you first saw other people using your image for the meme, and how did you react to this virality?
A: Yeah. It was just like a normal video that I posted on TikTok, and I was like, "Okay, this is doing pretty well." I posted maybe three or four Trade Offers and they did pretty well on TikTok. Then a couple of weeks later, I woke up and I had a couple of Facebook messages from random friends back home. They're like, "Yo, is this you? I saw you on iFunny, I saw you on Reddit, etc." I was like, "Oh, shoot." So then just randomly one day it started going viral everywhere, and that's just how I saw it going viral. Honestly, I try not to really get into it. A lot of people are like, "Oh you have 2 million followers," but to me, I try not to get too lost in the numbers. I just gotta stay in my lane, keep posting every day, and then try and grow as a creator. So I thought it was cool, but it was nothing like I was going around bragging about.
Q: What was your level of meme and internet culture knowledge at the time? Was this something new to you or were you already savvy with the nature of the internet?
A: I've never really been into the meme culture or anything like that. I never go on Reddit or iFunny, so the level of meme knowledge [I had] I would say was 2 outta 10. The only time I ever send a meme is just some funny little picture I see that I'll send it to my group chat, but I've never been into it. Now that I've become aware of how strong Reddit and iFunny and all these people recreating your videos are, I have that in mind whenever I create my videos. I know if I post this video, it could go viral as well over here, so that helps me out. I’m internet-savvy, I'm just not scrolling through Reddit or iFunny and keeping up with the latest memes.
Q: Since late March, your image has been used in thousands of derivatives, either replacing you with pop culture figures or putting a twist on the original. Among these, do you have any favorite versions or types that you find the most humorous?
A: There's a lot. Honestly, one of my favorite ones is one of them that I made. It was like, "I get drunk, and then you get to take care of me." So I thought that was one of the best ones that were really funny. That's the best thing too — the best Trade Offers are the ones that are the most relatable. So that one was funny and really relatable, so you can send it to your friends. Another good one was, "I receive $3, you receive diarrhea," and it was Taco Bell [offering the trade].
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6943090804550372614
https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6949299563928849670
Q: With how huge the Trade Offer meme has become recently, have you discussed with any friends or family what they make of it? How do they feel about your likeness being used around the web in memes?
A: So, whenever I first started making my TikTok, I tried to hide it from my mom, but she, as a mom, somehow found out about it when I had 50,000 followers. She's always been following along and just watching all my videos from the sideline, so she knows what's going on. But one of the cool things was that some girl she works with texted my mom like, "I was just scrolling through the internet, and I saw your son's face on the front page." She texted my mom that, and my mom texted me about it, so that was pretty funny.
Q: Did your mom know anything about memes? Was she concerned that your face was going all over the place?
A: No, not at all. She knows that I'm in my own lane trying to be a content creator and create stuff, so I guess she's proud of me for having my face out there and going viral.
Q: With the sheer amount of attention and popularity the Trade Offer meme has gotten, have you seen an influx of growth to your channels or following? Has the meme had any significant impacts on you?
A: It definitely helped my channels. My Instagram has been going really well lately cause some of the big Instagram accounts that post my meme are actually cool and they'll tag me, which helps bring in more followers. Also just from the video when I first posted it on TikTok that did well. Obviously, whenever you have a good video, you get more followers, but with the boost outside of TikTok and how crazy it's been, it's been bringing people back to my TikTok. It definitely helped my TikTok and my Instagram. Other than that, everything is still normal around here [laughs].
Q: So what’s next for you? Got anything planned for the near future we should know about?
A: So the next project that I'm working on now is with someone else, and we're dropping a one-of-one NFT of the Trade Offer meme. We're gonna be selling the NFT on May 3rd. So it's gonna be a one-of-one, and we're offering the original template that someone can own. That'll be on May 3rd. But other than that, that's the only big project that I'm working on. Day-to-day, I'm just streaming on Twitch every day, except for Sundays, cause that's the one thing about TikTok, you never wanna put all your eggs in one basket. I'm well aware that 2 million followers are cool, but I could wake up tomorrow and TikTok could find a reason to ban me and I lose all that. So I'm always trying to diversify my audience, posting on Instagram, streaming on Twitch, etc.
Q: So can you tell me a little bit about how you first found out about NFTs and why you want to mint your own?
A: I just heard about it through Gary Vee. He's always talking about NFTs, NFTs, NFTs. And to me, to be honest, it's hard to understand what NFTs are, but it's been so popular lately, especially in meme culture. Owning an original meme and having that one-of-one, a lot of people are finding that valuable. With Trade Offer being one of, if not the most, viral meme templates of 2021, that's something we're going to turn into an NFT. It'll be going live on May 3rd on OpenSea. Right now, we're just finishing up the different details of the project.
Q: Got an all-time favorite meme from all of meme history?
A: Well, there's this little kid from Vine, he had the funniest face. His name is Gavin. That's one of my favorites.
Q: To close us out, I’d like to ask the “CEO of Trade Offers” what you think the worst trade in the history of trade offers was throughout any timeframe. Any particular exchanges or deals come to mind?
A: It was actually a really funny video I saw that was a bad trade. It was the Greeks where it said, "I receive: haha, don't worry about it. You receive: a big wooden horse." That was a really funny video, but in the history of trades, that was a really bad trade [laughs].
Q: Any final word or closing statement to add?
A: I appreciate the interview. My TikTok Instagram is @bradeazy. I have merch on bradeazy.com and stay tuned for the NFT on May 3rd, where it'll be up for auction. If you made it to this part of the article, y'all are a real one, and I appreciate you sticking to the end. But yeah, other than that, I appreciate you having me, man.
Watch our interview with Bradeazy below for the video version of our discussion.
Brad, who goes by his online handle Bradeazy, is a content creator whose viral video became the Trade Offer meme in March 2021. You can follow Brad by checking out more of his content on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch or his website. Visit his OpenSea page for more info about the upcoming Trade Offer NFT.
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