The fruit bowl has set off something big – berry, berry big – on social media.
On Feb. 5, TikTok user @pr4yforgabs posted a short and sweet video of a bowl of chocolate-covered strawberries that has taken the platform by storm, garnering over 191 million views and 27 million likes at the time of publication.
In the video, the user shows off a bowl of chocolate-drizzled strawberries using on-the-beat close-ups with flash set to Bobby Caldwell’s 1978 song “What You Want to Do for Love.”
No description, explanation or caption except for the hashtags #fy, #foryou, #strawberry, #chocolate and #chocolatecoveredstrawberries. User @pr4yforgabs did not respond to requests for comment.
It was the user’s first video to go viral, but now it’s such a surprise success, the rest of his videos include follow-up videos of pancakes and frozen fruit, and a tutorial on how to make the famous chocolate covered cake. Strawberry – has accumulated millions of views.
The video is part of a trend where people show off the foods they love — like pomegranate seeds, crepes and Nutella, ramen, Oreo pancakes and more — by zooming in on them with the flash on to Caldwell’s tune. Some videos show their pets, loved ones and more leaving the world of food. Korean pop group Tomorrow X Together has also joined the trend.
Caldwell’s track has now been used in over 2 million TikToks, including countless videos of this particular trend. On Feb. 24, “What You Won’t Do for Love” reached No. 1 on the TikTok 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 reborn — he died in 2023.
The comments section for the Chocolate Covered Strawberries video is buzzing, to be sure, with over 276,000 comments from people mostly expressing disbelief at the video’s number of views and wondering what could have happened.
“189.7M views for chocolate covered strawberries?😭 (love them),” commented one confused user.
“19.6M for strawberry with chocolate that’s insane,” wrote another person, who must have been more shocked now that it got nearly 8 million more likes.
“Last time I saw this it was at 26.6 and now it’s at 27.5 like-,” commented another.
“Strawberry chocolate at 26M 😁,” wrote illusionist influencer Zach King, making it the most-viewed video of all time on the platform. His TikTok featuring his “Magic Broomstick” ride has received over 2.3 billion views – billion with a “B”.
“My whole fyp right now,” TikToker Katie Richie wrote on her short video poking fun at the trend, which itself has gone viral with 36.9 million views.
“Bella Porch: ❤️63.7M / Strawberry Chocolate: ❤️26.3M,” wrote one TikTok commenter, pointing to the most-liked TikTok videos of all time: Poarch lip-syncing and British rapper Miley B’s “M for B.”
This led to people revisiting Porch’s 2020 video and asking, “Who came from the strawberry chocolate video?” Leave comments like
Why is a simple video of chocolate covered strawberries going viral?
Many comments on the Chocolate Covered Strawberries video expressed confusion over the video’s massive virality, so one TikToker shared her theory as to what was going on.
“We’re in an era of TikTok where everyone is trying to be a creator,” TikToker @sammi.social says in his video, adding that many users are trying to come up with something new beyond dance challenges and lip sync. Sync users are used to viewing on the platform. “This falls under the category of offensive humor and posting, so it looks completely different to what you’re seeing on your page.”
The TikToker says that as soon as this started to become popular on its own smooth and chocolatey qualities, other ingredients came into play.
“Now we have an extra layer of people wondering why this is so popular, because most of the comments are either saying why is this so popular?” “Remind me to come back” comments often appear on videos that users want to promote, she says. “Think of the egg on Instagram that got more likes than Kylie Jenner. People want to be a part of something that feels very anti-establishment right now.
Duncan Ware, CEO and founder of Influential, an influencer marketing firm, echoes the sentiment that TikTok viewers may be looking for something “fresh” right now — but that luck also plays a part in the video’s virality.
“The disproportionate success of this video shows how unpredictable viewer response can be. Even the same materials may not achieve the same results,” says Ware. “It’s certainly interesting that TikTok’s algorithm can amplify videos so quickly. It’s likely that initial positive engagement — likes, shares, longer watch times — led the algorithm to promote Strawberry’s videos to an ever-wider audience.”
Additionally, according to another expert, it could also be related to the age of the song — and the age of TikTok’s user base.
“We saw this during the pandemic: people are trying to go back to a simpler time in life and use nostalgia. It’s a very powerful kind of theory on social media,” Ari Lightman, professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy, tells TODAY.com. He adds that trends like cottagecore and sour were signs that people were drawn to retro activities and aesthetics during stressful times.
“I think maybe, you know, in terms of other videos that use R&B tracks and things like that bring a simpler time,” Lightman says. “Old things that haven’t been exposed to many people become new, and things become trendy and hip. It’s a cyclical wave.”
