The Onion doesn’t do brand safety.
In fact, the less brand safe, the better. Working for The Onion is like “leaning into all of my worst habits,” quips CMO Leila Brillson on this week’s episode of AdExchanger Talks.
There aren’t many topics that The Onion shies away from, instead embracing jokes about Jeffrey Epstein and proposing deeply unappetizing RFK Jr.-approved alternatives to Halloween candy.
But its content isn’t all political.
The Onion manages to reach a wide audience by focusing on “the absurdities of daily life,” says Brillson.
Although people who grew up reading The Onion, now in middle age, make up a large share of its readership, there’s also a growing contingent of Gen Zers who send each other headlines on Instagram. That group is constantly expanding, she says, because the content is “extremely social” in nature.
But The Onion doesn’t just live online.
Dedicated fans can now buy a membership that includes receiving physical newspapers and other “surprises” through the mail. The goal was to monetize almost entirely from dedicated (or, as Brillson put it, “rabid”) fans with minimal focus on traditional advertising and monetization techniques.
2025 was about “proving we can do this,” says Brillson, giving a nod to The Onion’s recent mockumentary about Jeffrey Epstein, which aired in theaters in over 30 US cities.
The Onion also benefits from being one of the few publishers to remain unscathed by the rise of Google’s AI overviews and the uptick in chatbot use. AI, simply put, “does not get satire,” Brillson says, which has been protecting The Onion’s site from traffic declines.
Well, for now, at least.
“Famous last words,” Brillson says.
Also in this episode: The Onion’s refusal to make allium-related puns, the strategy behind its in-house agency and Brillson’s staunch aversion to generative AI.
For more articles featuring Leila Brillson, click here.
