LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. — On Feb. 11, 2025, Duolingo, the popular language app, released a tweet that shocked the world.

“It is with heavy hearts that we inform you that Duo, formally known as the Duolingo Owl, is dead,” tweeted @Duolingo on X.

Duolingo’s social media pages were flooded for two weeks with users commemorating the iconic owl mascot. Users created memes and TikTok videos memorializing the symbol of language learning. In the 24 hours after his death, Duolingo released hints on X by referencing Duolingo’s mysterious cause of death by hilariously sharing clips of Duo’s funeral and Duo getting hit by a Tesla Cybertruck.

Cleverly, Duolingo later released a statement on X saying that doing your lesson is the best way to channel your grief and learn more about the investigation. This prompted Duolingo users to swarm the app, earning more than 30,000 points in a week to revive the beloved green owl.

Why did Duolingo kill off Duo?

While Duolingo may have been trying to gain more popularity on their app, the main reason behind Duo’s death is likely to gain social media publicity. Since his “death,” Duolingo has gained 2.1 million likes and 623,000 shares on the Instagram death announcement. His death announcement on TikTok reached unbelievable heights: more than 63.5 million views on a single TikTok. On X, Duolingo received 240 million views on their tweets, according to Future Social, a social media and marketing strategy blog.

Celebrities seem to be piggybacking off of Duolingo’s genius publicity stunt. Dua Lipa, Duo’s long-lasting crush, reshared Duo’s death announcement and tweeted “Til’ death duo part” with a broken heart emoji, which received over 41K retweets and 606K thumbs up. More condolence tweets included those from Joe Jonas, the World Health Organization and Ace Attorney.

This clever advertising stunt is just one of Duolingo’s strategic choices to market its language app. The random yet memorable pranks, funny videos and even “threats” that Duolingo posts on TikTok and Instagram since 2018 have certainly made language learning app memorable. In fact, since 2020 Q1, Duolingo subscribers have increased from 1.1 million to 9.5 in 2024 Q4. 

But in world dominated by ever-changing social media trends, will this popularity last in the future?

Smart or missed the mark?

Duolingo’s mascot death, a clever marketing tactic, played a significant role in its overall increase in popularity. It can be attributed to the app’s growth and acquisition of more than 1.7 billion social media reactions.

Duolingo is known for using sarcastic, mildy threatening and meme-able Gen Z humor. Its mascot Duo, a colorful green owl, is especially known for his unhinged, dark jokes. One common thread is the owl threatens users to do their Duolingo lessons, or else he warns that something bad will happen to them; on the other hand, when users do their Duolingo lessons, Duo will become happy and well-rested. The owl also claims to be in a loving one-sided situationship with the celebrity singer Dua Lipa, a pun since their names are similar. This bizarre marketing strategy seems to have worked thus far; but the real question is if it will hold the test of time as dark and unhinged humor and memes can quickly go out of fashion.

Will Duolingo be able to keep up with the ever-changing demands of social media humor? Or will Duolingo become irrelevant and a shallow reminder of company attention-seeking?

Researchers and psychologists debate the success of Duolingo’s advertising.

“Duolingo’s memorable, unhinged marketing strategy has propelled them to the forefront of Gen Z’s attention. However, as the novelty fades, the brand’s heavy reliance on the initial shock value and attention-grabbing tactics might cause them to struggle to keep their audience engaged, raising questions on the sustainability of their current marketing tactics,” said Daily Bruin staff writer Alexandra Bakshian.

Clearly, while Duolingo’s success may currently be rocketing, their social media popularity may not be long-lasting, especially if Duolingo’s humor only caters to Gen-Z, who are known for their short attention span for trends. Besides, some argue that killing off their beloved mascot for views and likes may send the wrong message about Duolingo as a company.

“I don’t like it when they kill off mascots because they don’t have to kill my bird,” joked Los Alamitos High School sophomore Ella Cox.

However, some argue that Duo’s death was successful through its psychological and social effects on the public.

“Duolingo has ultimately left long-lasting effects on the way brands view unhinged marketing. Time after time, each of their stunts are proven to be successful following their impressions on their social channels,” said No Good staff writer Yesenia Hernandez.

Besides brands, Duolingo has a track record of young Gen Z engagement, making a profound impact on youth in social media.

“I think Duolingo advertising works because it eats and it’s funny,” said LAHS junior Aniyah Smith.

Out of all of its social media apps, Duolingo has the most followers on TikTok (16 million), compared to Instagram’s 5 million followers, X’s 1 million followers, and Facebook’s 2.3 million followers. Since the average age of TikTok users is 24 years old, it seems Duolingo’s bizarre social media tactics appeal mainly to Gen Z users, and they are very successful on that front.

“About 60% of (Duolingo) U.S. learners are under 30,” said Duolingo Blog staff writer Cindy Blanco.

In fact, since it’s roll-out of this social media marketing campaign, Duolingo has increased the amount of active users on their site up 62% from the previous year.

It seems like that green owl may be around for a long time.