Brands have discovered the ‘Damn Daniel’ meme

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:

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:

Vans also took notice and posted an inexplicable poll that’s garnered 145,000 votes:

The company hasn’t yet returned a request for comment.

More in Marketing

Why brands are running to Strava

Starbucks announced a nationwide partnership with fitness app Strava, asking participants to walk 22 minutes a day for at least 10 days.

Tariffs forced Temu to slash its U.S. ad spend on nearly every platform

The Chinese e-commerce giant traded upper-funnel reach for high-intent shoppers — and still grew its user base.

Why DSW and other brands are pivoting back to ‘old’ marketing tactics

Amid AI and digital saturation, DSW is shifting ad spend to real-life activations and traditional media to deepen customer connections.