The New York Knicks, DoorDash and Joe & The Juice each amassed millions of TikTok views in the last several weeks.
This installment of Ad Age’s expanded “Creativity Top 5” series looks at the best TikTok videos posted by brands over the past few weeks.
In this month’s lineup: a two-year-old TikTok trend stands the test of time, two Super Bowl campaigns score big numbers on TikTok and the platform’s bizarre sense of humor goes on full display.
Trending video formats on TikTok typically stick around for just a few weeks at a time. For example, the wild camera jerking and spinning of last year’s “Tube Girl” trend fizzled out in about a month. But one video format that’s held strong on TikTok since 2022 involves the person behind the camera stopping another person on the street and asking them, “Do you speak English?” If they respond yes, the person behind the camera will initiate an impromptu photoshoot with the person. The trend emerged out of the video style of TikTok creator and street photographer Jean Black—but, like many TikTok trends, has since devolved into parodies of the original video format, featuring bizarre photo subjects or intentionally awful photoshoot results.
The New York Knicks opted for the latter, with a “Knicks photographer” asking actress Rachel Zegler if they could take a few photos of her. Though the trend has been around for nearly two years, TikTok users still seem to love it: The NBA team’s video attracted more than 5.7 million views and almost 860,000 likes as of writing.
Joe & The Juice may be a coffee shop, but one of its recent TikToks instead focused on two customers “spilling the tea” (a slang term popular with Gen Zers which means “gossiping”). The five-second video starts with two customers having an animated conversation at a table in a Joe & The Juice café before shifting to show a barista behind the counter listening in on their gossip session just a few feet from the counter. The on-screen text reads, “Customers enjoying their conversation over coffee … Me also enjoying their conversation.”
The video has garnered over 1.3 million likes and more than 10 million views—meaning roughly 10% of the people who watched the video also gave it a like, a ratio rarely seen on TikTok. It also amassed dozens of comments playing on the coffee versus tea pun, such as “serving coffee while they serve the tea.”
TikTok played a key role in DoorDash’s massive Super Bowl sweepstakes offering products from TV spots that aired during the Big Game. The food delivery platform brought on comedy creator Lonnie Marts, aka Lonnie IIV, as a “Dashspondent” to keep TikTok users updated on the giveaway, with one of Marts’ high-energy videos amassing more than 19 million views. But it was DoorDash’s video tallying up all the products the brand would give to one lucky winner that earned the most attention from TikTok.
The video simply features the printing of a very long receipt listing all the products included in the sweepstakes, including $15,000 toward apartment rent, two 30-pound buckets of mayonnaise, five different cars and even a gift card for rival food delivery service Uber Eats. The receipt, set only to the sound of the whirring of the printer, is also interspersed with several cheeky nods to the brands and products being given away, such as “What does one do with that much mayonnaise?”
DoorDash’s video, posted the day after the Super Bowl, has since received more than 30 million views, over 46,000 likes and dozens of users in the comment begging the brand to announce the winner.
Dunkin’s Super Bowl campaign was also closely linked to TikTok—after all, Charli D’Amelio made a cameo appearance in the teaser for its Big Game spot, attempting to teach Ben Affleck how to be an influencer. The coffee and doughnut chain’s TikTok content extended the storyline of its in-game ad, with Dunkin’ sharing several videos of Affleck’s training session with D’Amelio on the platform in the week before the Super Bowl. Dunkin’ followed up its Big Game commercial with a flurry of behind-the-scenes footage of Affleck’s journey to pop music stardom with Tom Brady and Matt Damon. Those videos of the “Dunkings” trio clad in orange and pink tracksuits amassed more than 120 million collective views.
But the most successful TikTok from Dunkin’s Super Bowl campaign was a short conversation between Affleck and Damon (who are close friends off-screen) promoting the “Dunkings Munchkins Skewer” menu item ahead of the Big Game while poking fun at each other. The video scored more than 47 million views, nearly 230,000 likes and dozens of glowing comments about the two actors’ playful back-and-forth.
Duolingo is well known for its bizarre, “unhinged” TikTok content—and this video is a prime example of how the brand earned that reputation. The absurd video features just a photo of a plush version of the brand’s owl mascot, Duo, accompanied by a nonsensical cover of Rednex’s “Cotton Eye Joe” that swaps actual words for a jumble of sounds loosely resembling the song’s lyrics. Those new “lyrics,” such as “gegagedigedagedago” (which in the original song was “If it hadn’t been for Cotton Eye Joe”) are included in a speech bubble above Duo’s head. Despite (or perhaps because of) the video’s absurd premise, it garnered more than 51 million views and 5.5 million likes, as well as about 140,000 comments and 670,000 saves.
The massive engagement Duolingo’s video drew led several other brands to join in on the trend, including Cool Math Games, Ryanair and web browser Opera GX.
