Brands have discovered the ‘Damn Daniel’ meme

By Digiday • February 22, 2016 •

It’s hard to keep up, but there’s a new teenager the Internet is obsessing over.

His name is Daniel Lara, a high school student from California, who’s the center of the latest viral video called “Damn Daniel.”

Admittedly, it’s easier to watch than explain, but turn the volume down.

Here it is:

Damn Daniel pic.twitter.com/Va10hmpePO

— josh (@josholzz) February 16, 2016

The clip, which are several Snapchat videos stitched together, was tweeted by his friend Joshua Holz, who playfully harasses his friend with the phrase as a way to troll his friends’ outfit and white Vans. “Damn, Daniel,” Josh screams. “Back at it again with the white Vans!”

Since being uploaded on Feb. 15, the original tweet has racked up 263,000 retweets and 330,000 likes.

Not surprisingly, now brands are glomming on to Daniel and his Vans because the Internet won’t let us have nice things. Axe, Zappos, Clorox and even a British football team have all deployed the phrase:

#FindYourMagic. Every. #DamnDaniel. Day. pic.twitter.com/VqMaPJ43ZK — AXE (@AXE) February 19, 2016

Whatever happens to those white shoes @Daniel_laraa, just know that we’ve got your back. #DamnDaniel #BackAtItAgain pic.twitter.com/0pIiH2EHln

— Clorox (@Clorox) February 18, 2016

“Back at it again with the white vans!” #DamnDaniel If any Daniel’s need new a new pair -> https://t.co/3x8ndxF7mO pic.twitter.com/OWcBaTHmpJ — Zappos (@zappos) February 21, 2016