Duo’s Death: The Marketing Stunt That Shook Duolingo Fans
The green Duolingo mascot owl, Duo, was reported dead by Duolingo on February 11, 2025, on multiple platforms including TikTok and Instagram. The language learning app has been known to use unhinged, sassy, and out-of-pocket humor. While it may not necessarily be the most positive encouragement, the snarky remarks and threats have become the brand voice and consistently get a reaction from the audience.
When and why did he die?
On February 9, 2025, the National Football League (NFL) played the 59th Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the day when commercials are watched the most and companies spend millions of dollars on advertisements. The average cost per 30-second Super Bowl ad in 2025 is estimated at about $8 million.
Duolingo strategically launched this social media campaign two days after the Super Bowl to get people talking about their brand so that they didn’t need a Super Bowl commercial spot, saving them a significant amount of money. The campaign's goal was to get people talking about Duolingo and to increase the number of people doing their language lessons.
The message about Duo’s death on TikTok gained 9.3 million views, over 550,000 likes, 20,700 comments, and almost 120,000 shares. The comment section included verified accounts like Panda Express, “Rest in peace, feathery friend 🙏 We promise unlimited orange chicken in the afterlife 🐼🧡,” Instacart, “Our deepest condolences. Please let us know if you need anything delivered during this trying time,” Calm, “grief is a big emotion. Let us know if you need anything 💙💙💙”, and other users like Chaos, “does this mean I don’t have to do my lesson anymore” to which Duolingo responded, “That’s not what Duo would have wanted.” While this post was being shared, the main Duolingo account and the international Duolingo accounts continued posting updates about Duo, which also generated a lot of attention.
On February 12, Duolingo posted that Duo had been hit by a Cybertruck and to post any leads onto TikTok. This video was viewed more than 25.5 million times with 2.6 million likes and almost 60,000 comments. Later on February 12, Duolingo presented a challenge to bring Duo back to life by completing the language lessons. Duolingo continued to earn more views with posts showing the remaining mascot characters dying, plushie coffins with the deceased mascots for sale, and a message from Luis von Ahn, the Co-founder and CEO. On February 24, Duo was resurrected from the dead and the next day posted a video explaining his death. Faking Duo’s death stunt increased the amount of people talking about the brand, including coverage from CBS News and NPR, while also driving a surge in users engaging with their language lessons. Overall, faking Duo’s death was a successful move.
Can every company do something like this?
NO! Duolingo has very strategic branding which is why their dark humor is successful. This humor resonates with their Gen Z audience, who values risk-taking and unique marketing approaches. Their attitude has become a part of the product, which is already successful.
Duo’s death shocked the internet, but he couldn’t stay away. His resurrections show that Duo and Duolingo know how to keep their audience engaged with chaos and humor. Whether you mourned him or enjoyed him gone, Duolingo’s marketing team and Duo are not going anywhere.
About Abby
Abby is a senior majoring in Advertising & Public Relations, receiving a social media badge, and a leadership certificate. Abby started as an account associate with an emphasis in design, and then became the creative director, and is now GrandPR's first Chief Communications Officer. She has held internships in social media for Honey Bee Gardens Farm, community relations at Lake Michigan Credit Union, and was the marketing intern for the West Michigan Tourist Association.