ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — While many TikTokers these days go to the extreme to stand out in hopes of going viral, Creekside High School senior Samuel Beasley did the opposite.
A few months back, Beasley posted a video bobbing his head to Silk Sonic's "Fly as Me" with the caption "We about to get the most fire Old Navy commercial ever."
“Just the way the lyrics were and the way it sounded, it just sounded like it would be like an Old Navy commercial," Beasley said.
Apparently, many agreed with Beasley as more than a thousand comments started rolling in.
“It just kind of became almost like this big community thing where everyone was like throwing in ideas of what would be in this hypothetical commercial," Beasley said.
Suggestions like dads dancing, or a slow-motion jump in the air.
The thing is, Beasley didn't know who was actually reading those comments. A few months later, Old Navy representatives reached out asking to use those ideas for a new campaign called "Written by the Internet."
High school senior, Samuel (Sam) Beasley, inspired the campaign with a single post on his social media. The post features Sam nodding to an upbeat song with the caption “we about to get the most fire Old Navy commercial ever.” Sparking excitement with fans, the post generated over 1,000 comments, with people sharing ideas around what they’d want to see in an Old Navy ad. Old Navy gave the people what they wanted and turned virtual commenters into co-creators, creating a commercial entirely scripted by user social media comments! Bringing the Democracy of Style and Service to life in a whole new way.
The commercial was released earlier this month.
“I’ve seen the ad myself on Twitter. I’ve seen it on Hulu, and my friends will text me like, 'Samuel, I just saw your Old Navy ad, this is crazy.' It's such a cool thing that, you know, something like a TikTok I posted has turned into something like this," Beasley said.
Beasley will head out to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks to watch a second commercial be filmed.
Old Navy is inviting others to share their ideas on social media by tagging @OldNavy.