Jacob Batalon Cashes In on His 'CEO of Sex' Meme for DoorDash

DoorDash found a particularly internet-native way to sell the convenience of buying things you would rather not explain out loud.

The brand has named Spider-Man star Jacob Batalon the CEO of CringeMart.

It's the latest extension of a campaign about purchases people prefer to make privately.

Batalon’s appointment directly references a meme that has followed the actor since 2019. 

The original "CEO of Sex" meme came from a photo of Batalon in a gray suit at the "Spider-Man: Homecoming" premiere.

A Reddit user paired the image with the absurd executive title in late July 2019, and Batalon had nothing to do with any of it.

It spread through ironic meme communities because Batalon looked like a strangely convincing startup founder.

Sony Pictures got to the joke before DoorDash did.

In June 2026, Sony Pictures posted a Batalon promo titled "A message from Founder & CEO, Ned Leeds."

The video, a mock TED Talk, launched the real Spidey Tracker site Sony built with Samsung Galaxy.

The studio never said the word meme, and it never had to.

Fans got it immediately, with one of the most common comments being, "The CEO has spoken."

DoorDash is now the second brand in two months to cast Batalon as a chief executive.

Casting the star of a famous meme skips the tedious work usually required to establish a brand character.

The CEO of CringeMart Speaks

The short spot starts with Batalon turning to the viewers and introducing himself as "the CEO."

He then walks through the challenges of the job, including families who chant "CEO" at him in the family planning aisle.

"And those receipts, they're almost as long as..." he says, rolling out a giant receipt in front of him.

The gag gestures at the meme without anyone at DoorDash having to explain it.

He caps off the ad by inviting viewers to shop at CringeMart straight from their DoorDash app for a "great night delivered."

In true Gen Z fashion, the Instagram post was flooded by overwhelming support, memes, and other references to the "CEO of Sex." 

Several treated the casting as overdue recognition. "This is the best ad I've seen in a while," one wrote.

The response shows the value of a joke that the audience already knows.

Most advertisers could never touch this one, and DoorDash sells condoms, so the innuendo pays off.

CringeMart Launched With Pranks

DoorDash opened CringeMart as an in-app storefront on August 3.

Customers search "CringeMart" in the app and browse curations like "Go Piss Girl" for UTI tests and "Daily Dump" for laxatives.

Zaria Parvez, DoorDash's head of brand social, framed the storefront as a creator-led idea from the start.

"Creators have an incredible ability to take a simple, relatable truth and turn it into something the internet can't stop talking about," Parvez previously shared.

"With CringeMart, we wanted to lean all the way into that energy."

The campaign launched with internet personality Tana Mongeau in "CringeMaxxing," a three-episode hidden-camera series from creative studio Loop.

The episodes put shoppers through staged checkout scenes lifted from prank shows, pushing the premise across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.

With the addition of the latest Batalon work, DoorDash shows how a campaign can keep growing.

An idea loose enough to hold prank content and celebrity casting gives DoorDash a durable social media marketing property.

4 Million Awkward Orders Back the Joke

The company said more than 4 million customers ordered awkward essentials through the app between April 2025 and April 2026.

It also reported that a condom is sold every 37 seconds and two laxatives are sold every minute.

These figures give the campaign permission to make the subject funny because the underlying behavior is already significant:

• Cast from existing internet memory. A meme carries years of audience recognition that a brand can redirect toward its own product without paying to establish the character first.
• Let the product benefit drive the joke: The premise of CringeMart’s ad with Batalon works because it always connects back to discreet delivery. 
• Give campaigns room to evolve: Mongeau established CringeMart through prank content, while Batalon pushes it forward through celebrity and meme recognition. 

The opportunity for DoorDash is to keep CringeMart recognizable enough that people understand the joke before they even see the product.

Our Take: Can CringeMart Become Its Own Internet Character?

We think Batalon gives CringeMart a recognizable figure who can become part of the brand’s recurring mythology.

Sure, appointing the "CEO of Sex" to run a store where you anonymously buy things you would rather not discuss can sound senseless on a pitch deck.

But on the feed? It makes total sense.

The challenge now is to keep CringeMart content fresh so that people begin anticipating the next episode.

Nonetheless, it's a fun challenge.

And if DoorDash can make the store itself feel like an internet personality, the campaign could have a longer shelf life than a single prank or meme.

Brands pursuing ambitious creative need partners who are all in on their ideas. 

Take a look at these top creative agencies in our directory.