NYC’s suffering from serious influence-a — and one man’s hilarious TikTok videos could be the cure.
After a divisive decade that saw the city fall under the spell of obnoxious influencers, an anonymous social media account administrator for a local, family-owned popcorn company has become the hero Gotham needs — delighting viewers with viral clips mocking the tiresome trend of crummy content creation.
From faux-foodies to freebie-obsessed fashionistas, nobody’s safe from the self-described ‘de-influencer’ in charge of the Daadi Snacks account, where the mystery man racks up scores of views on sarcastic send-ups of social media’s worst offenders — all delivered in a dead-on rendition of the nasally, uptalky, vocally fried ‘influencer voice’ that’s become the noxious norm.
Typical methods clearly aren’t for this unnamed marketing man turned app agitator — he’s too busy snapping up new fans with satirical reactions aimed squarely at the hordes of entitled interlopers running amok on Big Apple streets.
“I’m literally shaking. They sent me an $80,000 car instead of a $120,000 car. I guess they do say God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers,” the popular pot-stirrer joked in his most successful video aimed at a typically tough-to-take over-sharer, with nearly 9 million views to date.
Not only are the punny pushbacks from a formerly-unknown ‘corn popper making people laugh, they’re also helping him beat actual influencers at their own game.
Since achieving newfound notoriety, the small company, which now has 300K followers on TikTok and another 150K on Instagram, has struggled to keep product in stock.
Daadi Snacks offers vegan, all-natural popcorn — characterized by South Asian-inspired flavors like Sweet Chai and Spicy Masala, according to the brand.
The instigator claimed in a recent post that he’s not in it for the content creation money, like most people posting to TikTok at this level — “I post to speak my mind and help my family’s snack biz,” he explained last May.
For his trouble, the de-influencer says that he’s received multiple cease and desist letters and several lawsuit threats from irate creators — apparently irked by his increasing popularity.
And he’s missing out on even more followers due to the nature of his content, he said.
“People unfollow me because they say I’m too mean to influencers, but I would argue I need to be meaner,” he mused in one video.
Plenty appear to agree, with a recent Reddit thread heaping praise on the mystery man.
“I can imagine … a lot of toxic influencers choking on their matcha lattes searching their Balenciaga bags to reply on their smart phones adorned with cheap cubic zirconia crystals,” a poster snarked.
“‘Influencers are boring and unoriginal and can get bent,” another chimed in.
Daadi Snacks declined to comment.
