WebMD parent company defends return-to-office video that mixed dancing with the ominous words 'don't mess with us'

• WebMD's parent company has sparked an uproar over a video telling staff to return to the office.
• The video feels decidedly off, mixing clips of staff dancing with a message reading "Don't mess with us."
• Its tone was "an intentional decision to keep the topic light and somewhat ironic," the company told BI.

You probably haven't seen a return-to-office mandate like this before.

That is, unless it includes clips of employees dancing to the New Orleans song "Iko Iko" and ends on the vaguely ominous note, "Don't mess with us."

We're talking about a video circulating online from Internet Brands, which owns a portfolio of brands across the health, automotive, legal, and travel industries, of which the best-known is WebMD.

The internal video was aimed at instructing employees to return to in-person work but was also made public on the company's Vimeo page.

It begins with shots of staff doing mundane things at the office, like making coffee and fetching copies. Internet Brands CEO Bob Brisco then addresses the employees watching.

"Many of you have come back to the office, and we've noticed. It's made a big difference," he says. "Unfortunately, too big of a group hasn't returned. We're getting more serious about getting everyone back into the office for the simple reason that we're better when we're together."

Various other executives chime in to nail down the message.

"We have been slow in getting back with some people and in some places. That's about to change," one says.

Another adds that managers will contact employees soon to explain how office attendance will be "implemented and tracked."

The video feels pretty cringey at times. When one exec talks about the need to "crush the competition," we see a clip of someone erasing the word "competition" off a whiteboard. Then, we see someone's hand crush an empty can of Dr. Pepper. Next on the screen flashes a stock clip of a man taking a meeting from home, where he's wearing a dress shirt and boxers.

Brisco later appears in the video again, saying, "We aren't asking or negotiating at this point. We're informing of how we need to work together going forward. It's again for the simple reason that great companies are built by great people working together and seeing each other eye-to-eye and tackling the big task."

The video then shows a screen many Google Meet users will recognize, but with a twist. Someone clicks a link to join a meeting, and the message reads, "Ready to join? No one else is here." The video, however, adds an extra line: "Everyone is in person now!"

The video closes out with clips of smiling employees dancing, set to the tune "Iko Iko," with a phonetic spelling of the ending lyrics placed alongside one translation of them: "'We mean business' or 'Don't mess with us.'"

After the video made the rounds online, Internet Brands updated it to address its poor reception.

"Wow, this video has gotten a lot of attention! For the 'record' our return to office policy is a hybrid one. We've been rolling out these hybrid policies for over a year," the company wrote in a message added to the start of the video.

Regarding the video's strange tone, the message adds: "As to comments/criticisms on the tone/style, Yeah, corporate videos are corporate videos!" with a shrugging emoji.

Internet Brands further emphasized in a separate statement to Business Insider that the tone the video struck was deliberate.

"Our executive team feels strongly that both our company and our employees are more successful when they can collaborate in person," the company said. "The tone of the video was an intentional decision to keep the topic light and somewhat ironic, in the context of knowing very well that the Return To Office issue can be emotionally charged. Nonetheless, we take our individual and collective productivity seriously and firmly believe the best way to learn and grow is to be together."