Even if you don’t use TikTok, the short-form video app popular with people younger than you, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the video Nathan Apodaca aka “Doggface” skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” while sipping on some Cran-Raspberry juice. Since Apodaca posted the video, it’s racked up more than 26 million views on TikTok alone, with copies spreading to other platforms. It also had the effect of increasing week-over-week sales of “Dreams,” which was originally released in 1977, by 60 percent. And then Cran-Raspberry juice producer Ocean Spray got involved.
The internet coalesced around Apodaca’s video because it simply could not have been more pure of heart, and clearly Ocean Spray clearly felt the same way—or at least wisely spotted a marketing opportunity. You see, the company learned that Apodaca was longboarding to work because his car battery had died, so it decided to help him out, and with more than a container of juice. Ocean Spray gave him a brand-new Nissan Frontier, and loaded it to the gunwales with bottles and bottles of Cran-Raspberry juice.
The crew-cab Frontier Pro-4X Ocean Spray donated to Apodaca is top-of-the-line and priced from $38,585—equivalent to roughly 15,000 bottles of juice—and painted Cayenne Red Metallic (the hue Nissan offers that’s closest to Cran-Raspberry juice, we assume). It features a 310-hp 3.8-liter V-6 that’s mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission. It also has four-wheel drive, a two-speed transfer case, and a locking rear differential to take it much farther than a longboard off-road. Even though the Nissan Frontier isn’t the newest or flashiest mid-size pickup in the United States, it’s a workhorse and will hopefully prove to be a reliable companion for years to come.
A week after he posted the video that rolled himself, Ocean Spray, and “Dreams” into a viral sensation, Apodaca has a new ride, and we all have a sweet story to remind us that good news is possible in 2020.
