The Discontinued Berries And Cream Starburst Flavor That Went Viral
Nostalgic trends frequently have TikTok in a chokehold. From Y2K styles to old music, reliving the '90s and early aughts is a pastime of many users who are looking for a trip down memory lane. As such, it's not all that surprising when an old style or reference pops up on the app and makes a viral resurgence, including nostalgic foods.
In the fall of 2021, TikTok revived the song and dance of an old Starburst Berries & Creme commercial. The trend began in January of that year, when a TikTok creator uploaded a clip of the "Berries and Cream" song, captioning it at the beginning, "Please make great art with this sound, its [sic] what we all need." Though it took a while to take off again, the song and dance eventually made a resurgence, with many TikTokers posting their own videos doing the dance and even including the audio in other mashups. Though the Berries & Creme flavor had been discontinued, the renewed popularity of the audio, along with the commercial's star, the Little Lad, created a wave of nostalgia that took over the app.
The original commercial and the Little Lad
The "Berries and Cream" song originated in a 2007 commercial for the Berries and Creme variety of Starburst. In the commercial, two friends are discussing the new Berries and Creme flavor when the "Little Lad," a small man in an antique outfit, walks up to them and confirms that they said "berries and cream." He begins to dance and sing, "Berries and cream, berries and cream. I'm a little lad who loves berries and cream!"
The commercial went viral at the time, likely on account of its odd and somewhat uneasy humor. Due to its popularity, Starburst released a follow-up video in which the Little Lad teaches viewers how to do the dance. In it, he explains that his "mummy" made him do the dance whenever he wanted berries and cream. He notes that "mummy's gone now," but he still does the dance. Ironically, the 2007 dance how-to was set up much like the TikTok dance tutorials of today. It allowed users to learn and copy the dance, introducing videos with their own takes on it as the song gradually snowballed back into popularity.
Starburst and the actor responded
When the commercial made its comeback on TikTok, Jack Ferver, a professor and performance artist who played the original Little Lad, responded by making an account with the handle @thereallittlelad on which they did more dances in character and gained 2 million followers in around 30 days.
Starbucks even hired Ferver for a TikTok ad campaign. That November, the brand posted a video to its own TikTok account featuring the Little Lad. In it, the lad did the dance multiple times in different costumes, noting, "Perhaps if enough of us do this dance together, Starbucks will bring back Berries & Creme forever!" The brand even hinted in the caption that if the trend returned, they would "think about" bringing back the flavor. However, it hasn't mentioned this in any videos since, and Berries & Creme remains unlisted on its website.
@starburst Bring back the #berriesandcream dance trend and we’ll think about bringing back STARBURST Berries & Creme
Even without a return of the Starburst variety, the commercial's rise to second popularity brought TikTok together. In an interview with the New York Times, Ferver pointed out the affection of those who comment on their posts, saying, "The whole reason I make work is that I want to help people experience more kindness and feel less alone." The Little Lad tapped into TikTokers' sense of community, whether they watched and relived childhood nostalgia or chimed in with their own versions of the dance.