OhayoKarlo

Final Destination: Bloodlines, the sixth installment in the Final Destination franchise, is now showing in the Philippines. As someone who saw the original movie and its sequels, I can’t be behind a moving truck without getting anxious — all thanks to that scene. I think it was after the third movie that I eventually got tired of the franchise. It started feeling repetitive. However, I recently watched the latest film, and it was great. But this post isn’t a movie review.

What really caught my attention was how I found out about the movie–through a viral TikTok video.

A user named Rhys posted a clip of a truck made to look like it was carrying giant logs, clearly a nod to the infamous Final Destination 2 scene. According to the caption, the truck was spotted along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City. As of this writing, the video has over 18 million views, 2.8 million likes, and more than 100,000 shares. It’s even been picked up by international media. Clearly, millennials who were scarred for life by that highway scene felt seen because we’ve all been lowkey traumatized since.

Now, you might be thinking: “But Karlo, that’s guerrilla marketing, not digital. Why are you talking about it here?”

Well, here are two reasons:

1. Offline campaigns can spark online virality.

When real-world promotions are unique or disruptive enough, they naturally get shared online. Today, the success of any offline activation often depends on whether people will find it interesting enough to post. That’s exactly what happened here. One well-placed truck, and boom…18 million views later, everyone’s talking about Final Destination again.

2. It might not be as “organic” as it seems.

Here’s where it gets interesting: Rhys’ TikTok account only has two videos — one posted over a year ago, and this one. Despite the video’s massive virality, no other clips of the truck have surfaced online. Most reposts use the exact same footage. It’s as if the truck was only out there for that one perfect shot, then disappeared.

To me, this smells like a coordinated marketing effort. Maybe it was just a lucky moment, but I’ve seen something similar before.

[EDIT: I saw another clip of the truck posted by someone with more than 400k followers on TikTok. Seems like an influencer. Still smells like a campaign to me.]

Years ago, a video went viral showing Cebu Pacific flight attendants dancing to Lady Gaga’s Just Dance during the safety demonstration. It seemed like a random passenger caught a fun moment and shared it. Years later, I worked with someone from the PR agency that handled that campaign. Turns out, it wasn’t so random. The uploader’s account only had one video, the viral one, because it was created specifically for that campaign. They even used a low-res, shaky camera to make it feel authentic and “user-generated,” avoiding the polish of a professionally shot clip. It went so viral that it got picked up by international media including CNN, Fox News, and Huffington Post. The clip currently has more than 11 million views.

So is this Final Destination truck another well-crafted viral moment disguised as a spontaneous upload? Maybe. Maybe not. But whether or not it was a planned stunt, it’s a great reminder of one thing:

Virality doesn’t always need a big budget — just a strong visual, cultural relevance, and a bit of creative execution.