Of course, OTOH, fads traditionally are perpetrated first using force–in-your-face ad campaigns, brainwashing kids, big bucks celeb endorsements, or some very attractive visual designs. In this day and age any one of us can create some significant, far-reaching memes thanks to the internet, and some can be also fad-like.

Of course part of the difference between meme and fad is in its expression (to borrow a genetics term). What happens on the internet tends to stay on the internet, so to speak. It\’s hard to \”show\” distinction, also, without spending some money to make yourself behave/appear differently.

I suppose many fads actually involve physical objects (hula-hoops, pet-rocks, chia-pets), while memes are exclusively information-based. Atoms vs. bits. Both have their fuzzy relationship with intellectual property (surely the pink flamingo lawn-ornament is in the public domain by now?).

Answer: some fads are memes, some are marketing triumphs.

Being purely intellectual in nature, a meme doesn’t require a trip to the shopping mall to perpetuate itself, so it can live on, after even the contents of the dusty bins at the back of the five-and-dime have turned over once or twice. On beyond eBay.