As Jaguar found out in 2024, a rebrand doesn’t always go to plan.
This tricky art of switching up how you present yourself to your fanbase and the general public makes it even more impressive when celebrities make it look so easy. From Miley Cyrus to Madonna, there are plenty of examples of stars not only surviving a reinvention, but thriving after one.
And we should also include Anthony Padilla in that list.
Smosh, and the Founding Fathers of Internet humor
Daniel Anthony Padilla was born in Sacramento, California and, with his family struggling and living off food stamps, those early years didn’t suggest show business was in his future.
But, as the adage goes, diamonds are only made under pressure, and it could be the hardships he faced that polished his sparkling sense of humor.
In 2002, Padilla had set up smosh.com - named after a misunderstanding about what a mosh pit was - a very early form of social media filled with the sort of daft, inane humor that would grow and become the meme culture of today.
A school friend, Ian Hecox, would join Anthony, and together they grew Smosh into a home for sketch comedy and lengthy, original skits.
Way before RuPaul had his queens lip-syncing for their lives, Smosh had the boys lip-syncing to the likes of the Pokemon theme - a video that, at one point, was the most viewed YouTube video of all time (alas, those pesky copyright laws struck and the video was taken down).
Smosh was how we got to know him, and it started his journey to where he is today, with 3 million Instagram followers and over 7.7 million followers on his personal YouTube channel. Not bad for someone who started out posting Adobe Flash animations.
But how long can someone do the same thing?
A rebrand is always a gamble
Lip sync videos and early meme humor still have their time and place, but Anthony Padilla wanted to grow. And if he wanted to do more, it was fair to assume the fans who had grown with them over the years were outgrowing the old content too.
Which is why it wasn’t too much of a shock when he quit Smosh in 2017.
He was open about the reasons. Posting to his personal channel, he talked about a lack of creative freedom.
Still, if you’ve already got a built-in fan base, should you risk it all to be true to your potential? What did he get for betting on himself?
A second chapter of success that surpassed the first.
From Smosh jester to interview king
After smosh, Anthony - now older, wiser and savvy with how to properly use a huge platform - wanted to dive a bit deeper with his content.
His hugely successful series, I Spent a Day With…, was a world away from lip sync videos, and maybe that was the point.
So often a rebrand fails because it’s not really a rebrand. It’s, pardon the French, same sh*t, different name. And on the other side of that, rebrands don’t work because they go too far. A brand or a personality becomes almost unrecognizable.
Padilla’s pivot to deep, mature conversations spotlighting unsung heroes and niche communities was different than Smosh, but still very true to the culture of connecting communities through the medium of the internet.
Purposely avoiding gimmicks and viral trends, Anthony’s series opened up new worlds to fans of his, both old and new. He spoke with people who escaped cults. He interviewed Shaolin monks. He spotlighted survivors of human trafficking and more.
Suddenly, the jokester was giving a voice to the voiceless and offering millions the chance to educate themselves on topics that they might have been afraid to discuss with IRL friends.
And you know you’re doing a good job when The Washington Post crowns you ‘YouTube’s Interview King.’
After proving he wasn’t just one half of the Smosh guy, Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox decided to buy back the rights to Smosh in 2023.
After such a rebrand, why would he go back?
Well. This time, it’s on his terms. While, by their own admission in interviews with Variety, they weren’t really prepared for the whirlwind the first time around, everyone involved has grown.
Smosh 2.0 is definitely one to watch.
