Ocean Spray CEO skateboards to Fleetwood Mac, cranberry juice in hand, to recreate viral TikTok
- Tik Tok star Nathan Apodaca's video of skateboarding while drinking cranberry juice and listening to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" went viral in September.
- Now, the cranberry juice company Ocean Spray is getting involved in the craze.
- Ocean Spray's CEO recreated the meme on Tuesday.
- The company also surprised Apodaca with a "cranberry red" truck filled with Ocean Spray beverages on Tuesday.
- Besides bringing more visibility to the brand, Apodaca's video has also created a resurgence of interest in the Fleetwood Mac song, with "Dreams" shooting up to No. 9 on Spotify's US charts.
The CEO of cranberry company Ocean Spray has responded in kind to TikTok's latest craze: the "Dreams" challenge, in which participants sip cranberry juice as they skateboard to Fleetwood Mac.
In the video that started the trend, which has been viewed 26.2 million times, Nathan Apodaca cruises along the Idaho highway on his longboard, a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry in hand. Fleetwood Mac's hypnotic hit, "Dreams," plays in the background as he takes a swig from the bottle and lip syncs into the camera.
On Tuesday, Tom Hayes, Ocean Spray's President and CEO, recreated the meme, and Ocean Spray surprised Apodaca with a "cranberry red" Nissan truck filled with Ocean Spray beverages. Apodaca had originally filmed the now famous Tik Tok after his car broke down, and he needed to get to work via his longboard, according to the LA Times.
Hayes isn't the first big name to recreate the meme: participants from Dr. Phil to Fleetwood Mac's Mick Fleetwood have also posted Tik Tok's replicating Apodaca's now-famous ride.
Few could predict that cranberry juice, skateboarding, and the groovy sounds of Fleetwood Mac would combine to be the latest viral craze, but commentators have said that Apodaca's calming video, published September 25, "soothed the anxieties of a stressed-out nation" and is the "TikTok star that 2020 needs." Fleetwood Mac's blissed-out track, which was originally released in the 1977 album "Rumors," has also received renewed attention following the viral video.
Though the song is decades old, Dreams now holds the No. 9 position in the US Top 50 most-streamed songs on Spotify, joining the ranks of current stars like Shawn Mendes and Cardi B. The craze also seems to be introducing new fans to Fleetwood Mac. Spotify saw Fleetwood Mac listening increase by 127% worldwide, as well as a 242% increase in people listening to the song for the first time, according to the streaming company.
Apodaca, who is known as @420doggface208 on Tik Tok, works at a potato warehouse in Idaho and is a father of two, the LA Times reported. Following the popularity of his video, fans have donated over $10,000 to the viral star, TMZ reported. Apodaca has said that he would give some of the money to his mother and would use some to upgrade his RV, which lacks running water.
"It's been a wild ride for sure," Apodaca said in an interview with Adweek. "I love my Cranberry Raspberry Ocean Spray, so now I have a truckload."
Ocean Spray named Tom Hayes as the company's CEO and President in July. Before joining the company, he was president and CEO of Tyson Foods. Ocean Spray is a co-operative owned by more than 700 growers in the United States, Canada, and Chile.