… the Little Lad who loves berries and cream has (star)burst beyond his commercial origins, joining the ranks of creators like Addison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, and that one dude who reviews types of lawns — cementing himself as a true TikTok star. It’s incredibly rare for a national TV advertisement to re-emerge roughly 14 years later, let alone, find itself at the center of a cultural obsession, yet Graf says he wasn’t too shocked to see his spot makes the rounds on social media – even a decade and a half after it first confused the hell out of audiences everywhere.
“This one doesn’t surprise me,” Graf explained. “Most of the time when some of these come back, I’m kinda surprised. But knowing the talent and effort that created it, I can see it,” he continued, calling the commercials accompanying tutorial “the first TikTok dance—that we just happened to create for YouTube.”
Ian Reichenthal, who served as another creative director on the project apparently agreed. “There’s no way to go into a project saying, ‘Let’s make a character that people will remember 14 years later,” he explained to the industry publication. “I’m super happy to see that happen, but I don’t know why.”
It seems the actor behind Little Lad – a New York City-based dancer, choreographer, and writer named Jack Ferver – also didn’t fully comprehend the commercial player’s viral reemergence, dubbing TikTok’s berries and cream mania “strange” in a recent social media post. Although since appearing in the iconic ad, Ferver has gone on to make a name for themselves in the world of dance, partaking in several “genre-defying” performances, according to their website biography, some of which have been likened to exorcisms, and noted for their humor, it seems even with this success, the dancer has decided to return to their humble, Lad-tastic roots, launching a TikTok page and YouTube channel dedicated to reviving their iconic character.