"Why make your insecurities our problem?" reads a tweet from supplement brand Protein World, after complaints poured in over a controversial billboard. It's followed by a passive aggressive winking emoji and tweeted directly at a potential customer – breaking every rule in the social media playbook, right?

According to the world of online dating, coming across as an arse to some can make others love you more. If having haters makes those who like you like you all the more, does the same psychology apply to our relationships with brands? And does it actually pay for a brand to rub part of its audience up the wrong way?

It may have once satirised branded content – “oh, awesome, a sponsored post by a snack food company on my favorite media website” – but with the creation of an in-house advertising agency, The Onion will now cater to marketers with native videos and articles. Why would any brand pay to be ridiculed?

Internet memes were once relegated to the depths of 4chan and Reddit. As memetic content surfaces in the mainstream, brands are looking to incorporate memes into their own ads. But can the spontaneous, bottom-up spirit that makes them so potent really be bottled and sold?