TikTok saves lives, according to 11th hour TikTok ad campaign
The big, scary TikTok ban turned out to be a mere 12-hour blip, but the ever-popular social media app isn’t out of the woods yet. A lot has happened since January 19, the day the platform was initially supposed to either divest from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or cease operations within the United States. On January 20, for one, President Trump signed an executive order delaying the action by 75 days. Well, those 75 days are almost up (April 5 is the new deadline), and everything on the app seems to be running as normal. It’s back in app stores after being removed in January, as mandated by Congress’ law, advertisers have returned, and influencers aren’t sharing deathbed confessions like they did the first time around.
“It’s a total 180,” H. Lee Justine, a TikTok creator and author, told The New York Times of the current climate. “Back in January, if you were on the app, you were hearing about the ban every single day. It’s not even on my For You Page now—no one’s chattering about it.”
The platform’s recent advertising push tells a different story. Per NYT, TikTok has spent over $7 million just in the past two months to run persistent ads on Instagram and Facebook, as well as in the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and on the streets of Washington. (In contrast, the company spent $5 million on advertising on February and March of last year when Congress was first discussing the ban.) All of the ads seem to have a consistent theme: TikTok literally saves lives. In one, NYT reports, a young woman talks about finding a donor for a vital kidney transplant “because a stranger was scrolling on TikTok.” Another highlights a creator who sells a product that assists in administering CPR.
Despite any anxiety that these ads may betray, however, the company is also showing signs of confidence in its future. In February, Justine attended a briefing call on the impending ban with TikTok executives and other creators, during which the former seemed “really, really hopeful,” she said. “It has been back to business as usual on TikTok’s end,” added Daniel Daks, chief executive of Palette Media, an agency that represents over 230 social media stars. “They continue to plan through projects that reach well beyond the theoretical ban date.” TikTok may yet live to scroll another day.