America Runs On Instagram

Author: David Perell URL: https://www.perell.com/blog/instagram One-line: Before the internet, restaurant brands grew within geographic regions; on Instagram, interests replace coordinates, and modern restaurants design the whole experience as shareable “Instagram bait.”

Key claims

• Pre-internet, restaurant growth was geographically bound — Dunkin’ owned New England, Wawa the Philadelphia area, In-N-Out the West Coast.
• Regional chains can’t outspend national ones like McDonald’s, so smaller restaurants depend on customers to market for them — advocacy in physical social environments (schools, markets, parks, churches).
• On Instagram, interests beat geography. What we see is determined by our desires more than our coordinates; topological neighbors act like topographical ones as posts flow coast to coast every second.
• Modern restaurants are designed as Instagram bait — Sweetgreen’s radiant interior artwork, By Chloe’s ’80s menu typography. They pioneer internet-native marketing and reshape youth culture along the way.

Notable quotes

“On Instagram, our interests and desires determine what we see more than our geographic coordinates.”

“From Sweetgreen’s radiant interior artwork, to ByChloe’s 80s-style menu typography, the entire experience is Instagram bait.”

How it connects

• Instagram — the platform that dissolves geographic limits on brand growth.
• Marketing — internet-native, customer-as-marketer strategies replacing ad-budget reach.

Verbatim source notes — restored from Roam, 2026-09-21

• Compared to national competitors like McDonald’s, regional chains have low advertising budgets. Smaller restaurants depend on customers to do marketing for them. Dunkin’, Wawa and In-N-Out inspired customers to advocate for them in physical social environments: schools, markets, parks, and churches.
• On Instagram, our interests and desires determine what we see more than our geographic coordinates. Los Angeles and New York are on opposite coasts of America, and before the Internet, communication between them was largely restricted to letters, phone calls, and newspapers.
• Before the internet, the organic growth of restaurants was limited to geographic regions. Dunkin’ dominated New England, Wawa dominated the Philadelphia-area, and In-N-Out dominated the West Coast.
• Modern restaurants reflect this new geography. They’re pioneering internet-native marketing strategies, and reshaping youth culture along the way. From Sweetgreen’s radiant interior artwork, to ByChloe’s 80s-style menu typography, the entire experience is Instagram bait.
• But on Instagram, topological neighbors act like topographical ones. Every second, thousands of tweets, emails, texts, and Instagram posts flow between across the United States.