Walgreens Gingerbread Man / GB

Submission 1,073

Part of a series on Viral Videos. [View Related Entries]

About

The Walgreens Gingerbread Man also known as GB, refers to a dancing gingerbread man electronically displayed on the fridges at Walgreens which was filmed by TikToker and Instagram user KilSoSouth (@kilsosouth2x) in 2022, who brought his friends and family to see GB dancing during Christmas time. KilSoSouth's videos went viral on social media, causing many to make fancam edits and memes. GB's display disappeared from Walgreens after Christmas 2022. However, GB returned in December 2023, leading to a viral "GB is back" video posted by KilSoSouth.

Origin

On December 7th, 2022, TikToker^[1] @kilsosouth2x posted a video with text reading, "went to walgreens today just to see him." In the video, @kilsosouth2x showed the viewer a dancing gingerbread man at Walgreens displayed on the fridges. Over one year, the original video received roughly 4.6 million plays and 1.3 million likes (shown below).

Spread

After his first viral video, TikToker @kilsosouth2x posted more content about the gingerbread man in which he brought his friends and family to see it dance. For instance, on December 13th, 2022, he posted a TikTok^[2] with his friends' reaction, gaining roughly 1.5 million plays and 323,300 likes in a year (shown below, left).

On December 17th, 2022, he posted a TikTok^[3] with his mother's reaction, gaining roughly 4.2 million plays and 811,300 likes in a year (shown below, right).

During the same timeframe, the TikToker's videos gained viral reposts on other social media platforms. For instance, on December 22nd, 2022, X^[4] user @glock5L posted the three aforementioned videos, captioning them, "this guy getting hyped over the gingerbread man is killing me 😭😭," gaining roughly 87,000 likes in a year (shown below).

After the 2022 holiday season, Walgreens removed the gingerbread man display from its stores, inspiring TikToker^[5] @kilsosouth2x to post a video on January 6th, 2023, reading, "pov: day 13 without GB," gaining roughly 1.3 million plays and 206,800 likes in 11 months (shown below, left).

Later in 2023, his content about missing GB continued, evident in a TikTok^[6] posted on November 13th, 2023, that received roughly 194,600 plays and 31,900 likes in a month (shown below, right).

GB Is Back

On December 9th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @kilsosouth2x posted a video in which he proclaimed that "GB IS OFFICIALLY BACK!" In two days, the video received over 4.2 million plays and 976,300 likes (shown below).

The new video quickly gained viral spread on other platforms, like a tweet shared by X^[8] user @blephin_ on December 9th, 2023, that received over 56,000 likes in two days.