TikTok makes Fleetwood Mac Dreams Come True

A TikTok featuring a middle-aged chap called Nathan Apodaca has gone viral over the past few weeks.  The post has helped propel Fleetwood Mac’s classic track ‘Dreams’ up the charts 43 years after it originally appeared.  The short film has also been replicated by several famous old rockers, including Mick Fleetwood himself, all keen to get in on the act. 

The popularity of this simple post by Nathan Apodaca reminded us of the ‘Chewbacca mom’ post that caused a similar sensation a few years ago, which we’ve re-posted below.  In short, no matter how hard people try to make a post ‘go viral’ it’s the innocent and genuine ones that have enduring appeal.

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Why Chewbacca Mom?

If you haven’t heard about the video that’s doing the rounds, featuring an American mum laughing hysterically at herself in a Chewbacca mask, then you might well have been living under a rock.

Candace Payne filmed the 4-minute video on her mobile phone in her car after buying the mask as a birthday treat for herself. She posted it on her Facebook page on 20 May. Just three days later, it has been viewed 134 million times and counting.  It is already the most-viewed Facebook Live video ever.

I’ll be honest; we hate it when clients ask us to ‘make something go viral’. 

Creating something with such astonishing powers of self-perpetuation is every marketer’s dream. Reaching an audience of millions, at virtually no cost, is the Holy Grail. And lots of very clever people devote lots of time trying to create such instant fame for a person, tune, idea, performance or product. 

And this is the point. As humans, our senses are highly tuned. We can spot a fake a mile off. It can’t be manufactured.

Candace Payne is the real McCoy. 

Her harmless, irrepressible, uncontrollable and self-abnegating chuckle is quite simply infectious, just like a virus. She is innocent and genuine. She is guileless. There is no hidden agenda, no cynicism behind her post.

And it is these qualities that have made her ‘go viral’. 

If you could do with a laugh (or have just crawled out from under your rock), take a look at Candace in action!