TikTok video with chocolate covered strawberries goes viral
A bowl of fruit has become something more—a berry, a big berry—on social media.
On February 5th, TikTok user @pr4yforgabs posted a short and sweet video of a bowl of chocolate covered strawberries, which took over the platform and had over 191 million views and 27 million likes at the time of publication.
In the video for Bobby Caldwell’s 1978 song “What You Won’t Do for Love,” the user simply shows off a plate of strawberries dipped in chocolate, using close-ups with flash to the beat.
There is no description, explanation or caption other than the hashtags #fy, #foryou, #strawberry, #chocolate and #chocolatecoveredstrawberry. User @pr4yforgabs did not respond to requests for comment.
This was the user’s first video to go viral, although now that it has become such a runaway success, the rest of the videos, including subsequent videos on pancakes and frozen fruit, as well as a tutorial on how to make the famous strawberry chocolate pancakes, have racked up millions of views.
The video is part of a trend in which people show off their favorite foods — like pomegranate seeds, pancakes and Nutella, ramen, Oreo pancakes and more — zooming in on them with a flash to Caldwell’s tune. Some videos leave the world of food and feature their pets, loved ones and more. Even Korean pop group Tomorrow X Together has joined the trend.
Caldwell’s track is now featured on over 2 million TikToks, including countless videos about this particular trend. On February 24, “What Won’t You Do for Love” hit No. 1 on TikTok’s Billboard Top 50 despite being released nearly 50 years ago, becoming the latest example of TikTok’s penchant for bringing vintage music back into the spotlight. Unfortunately, Caldwell is no longer around to see his song revived – he died in 2023.
The comments section for the chocolate covered strawberries video is certainly crowded, with over 276,000 comments from people mostly expressing disbelief at the number of views the video has gotten and weighing in on what could happen.
“189.7 million views chocolate covered strawberries??😭 (I love them though),” one confused user commented.
“19.6 million FOR CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY IS INSANE,” wrote another person, who must be even more shocked now that it has almost 8 million likes.
“Last time I saw this was at 26.6 and now it’s at 27.5 something like that,” another commented.
“Strawberry chocolate at 26M 😁,” wrote influencer magician Zach King, who has the most viewed video of all time on the platform. His TikTok showing him riding a “magic broom” has received more than 2.3 billion views – that’s a billion with a B rating.
“My whole life right now,” TikToker Katie Ritchie wrote in a short video poking fun at the trend, which itself has gone viral, racking up 36.9 million views.
“Bella Poarch: ❤️63.7 million / strawberry chocolate: ❤️26.3 million,” one TikTok commenter wrote, calling attention to the current most popular TikTok video of all time: Poarch lip-syncing and bobbing her head to the song “M” by British rapper Millie B. in B”.
This caused people to go back to Poarch’s 2020 video and leave comments like, “Who came from the strawberry chocolate video?”
Why does a simple video of chocolate covered strawberries go so viral?
Many comments on the chocolate-covered strawberries video express bewilderment at its extreme virality, so one TikToker shared her theory as to what could be going on.
“We’re living in a TikTok era where everyone is trying to be a creator,” TikToker @sammi.social says in her video, adding that many users are trying to come up with something new beyond dance challenges and lipsticks. users are accustomed to seeing synchronization on the platform. “This falls under the category of irreverent humor and lewd posting, so it is completely different from what you probably see on your For You page.”
TikTokers say that once it started becoming popular just for its smooth and chocolatey qualities, other elements came into play.
“Now we have an additional layer where people are wondering why this has become so popular, which leads to most comments either asking, why has this become so popular?” she says, adding that the “Remind me to come back” comment often appears in videos that users want to make even more popular. “Think about the Instagram egg that got more likes than Kylie Jenner. “People want to be part of something… which seems very anti-establishment right now.”
Duncan Ware, CEO and founder of Influentially, an influencer marketing firm, shares the view that TikTok viewers may be looking for something “fresh” right now, but that luck also plays a role in a video’s virality.
“The disproportionate success of this video shows how unpredictable viewer reactions can be. Even similar content may not produce the same results,” says Ware. “TikTok’s algorithm can quickly boost videos, which seems interesting. It’s likely that early positive interaction—likes, shares, long watch times—led to the algorithm promoting the strawberry video to a wider audience.”
Additionally, according to another expert, it could also be due to the age of the song and the age of TikTok’s user base.
“We’ve seen this during the pandemic: people are trying to return to simpler times in life and using nostalgia. This is a very powerful principle in social media,” Ari Lightman, professor of digital media and marketing in the College of Information Systems and Public Policy, told TODAY.com. Heinz University of Carnegie Mellon. He adds that trends like cottage and sourdough are signs that people are gravitating toward retro activities and aesthetics during stressful times.
“I think maybe you know that other videos that use R&B tracks and things like that bring back simpler times,” Lightman says. “Old things that many people may not have come across or that are now becoming new are becoming fashionable and trendy. It’s a cyclical wave.”