Beyond the Brand’s Grave. A Hypothesis of a Digital Afterlife for Defunct Brands

In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Metaverse as the next evolution of the Internet – a vision that, while not fully realised, has sparked new debates about the future of digital environments. Since its inception, the Web has served as a vast repository of traces, memories, identities, and information for individuals and social entities. But what happens when these traces persist or are reactivated within immersive digital spaces, evoking the concept of a “Digital Afterlife”? By framing brands as complex, living-like organisms, this study explores their persistence through digital memory and symbolic traces, examining how past actions and ethical stances may shape their posthumous identity in immersive online environments. Through a speculative design methodology supported by a literature review, the research culminates in the Brand Afterlife Meta-Agency (BAMA): an original fictional yet structured design framework in which a defunct brand’s legacy is translated into a symbolic 3D modelled avatar shaped by brand data and user perceptions. Rather than offering empirical validation, the speculative scenario opens a space for critical reflection on how memory, ethics, and digital design converge to shape brand identity beyond its commercial lifecycle.