Issue 49 ☞ Stanley cups keep going viral: why?
And - Certified Recs
This time last year, an odd video was shared online of customers rushing through a Target store in the US to buy Stanley cups. Before long the video had gone viral. It racked up 16 million views on TikTok, and 21 million views on X, and resurfaced every few months on different accounts, generating additional views. The Stanley cups in the video were large and red and pink, part of a limited edition run made for Valentines Day. Target, seemingly pre-aware of the massive demand, told visitors they were only allowed to buy two at a time.
Stanley is a 110-year-old brand; the company’s early products were produced for a blue-collar customer base. It is not a manufacturer that has typically produced lifestyle items.
And yet, somehow, it has become very, very cool.
How?
The Stanley expansion was first driven by three women: Linley Hutchinson, Ashlee LeSueur, and Taylor Cannon, founders of The Buy Guide. In 2017, the trio published a post on Instagram that praised a Stanley product, the 40-oz Stanley Quencher. The post gained attention, so much so that when Stanley discontinued the tumbler, Hutchinson, LeSueur, and Cannon explored the possibility of reintroducing it to their customer base. In spring 2019, the trio collaborated with Lauren Solomon, a national sales manager at Stanley, and purchased 5,000 Quenchers at wholesale cost. The risk paid off: The Buy Guide sold out of its first 5,000 cups in about four days. It sold the second 5,000 cups in an hour, catching the attention of Stanley executives. New leadership at Stanley, recognising the Quencher's potential, collaborated with The Buy Guide to expand the brand beyond its traditional customer base of workmen and outdoorsmen. “We can show them what it would look like if women could market it to women,” LeSueur said.
The thirst for Stanley products slowly grew in the subsequent years, but really took off in early 2022, when the brand was featured in the New York Times and also began to gain attention on TikTok, via the #WaterTok tag, a trend focused on hydration. Influencers praised the cup for its convenient features: it had a straw, it had a handle, it fit easily into car cup holders. In November that year, a woman’s Stanley cup was the only item that survived when her car caught fire — when it was later retrieved, it still had ice inside. The woman posted about the incident on TikTok, and this video too went viral, garnering 92 million views and 9 million likes. Stanley president Terence Reilly later cited the TikTok video, stating the ordeal showed that the product is “built for life”. He offered the woman free Stanley cups and a new car.
Stanley’s star has been rising since. In January, several Target employees were fired for buying limited edition Stanley/Starbucks cups the store had on sale; the company cited a policy that prevented employees from gaining an unfair advantage over customers. The firings became news, and also went viral. Two weeks ago, the Quencher cup featured in a sketch on Saturday Night Live, cementing its position beyond the supermarket and in the culture. (Dakota Johnson, SNL’s guest host, used the sketch to joke about the sheer size of Stanley’s 40-oz containers, dubbing them “big dumb cups”, and riffing on the types of customer who buy them, which are mainly women.)
Owning a Quencher isn't just about hydration; it has become a lifestyle choice embraced by a community influenced by social media and traditional news. Boiled down, the Stanley cup’s remarkable journey exemplifies the intricate interplay between consumer culture, brand identity, and the power of media in shaping contemporary lifestyles. The evolution of the Stanley cup from the Hydro Flask to YETI Mug mirrors past trends. What’s next? Look only to TikTok, where influencers continue to dictate the shape and direction of emerging trends. Then SNL will write a sketch about them.
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