By Megan Graham
When Anna Fleming complained in a TikTok video that Honda had "ghosted" her after promising to replace her broken-down car, an army of amateur consumer advocates flooded Honda with demands for justice.
"Why didn't you follow through on giving Anna a car???" one TikToker among thousands commented on a Honda video promoting its Odyssey minivan. "And to think I was about to purchase a Honda," said another.
But their passionate campaign had one fundamental problem: The story wasn't true.
It was a joke, Fleming later made clear. Some commenters swung from loudly railing against Honda to embarrassment and regret. "GIRLY I WAS DEFENDING YOU," one wrote on a new post by Fleming to explain her intention. "...now you got me looking bad."
Fleming wasn't alone: A slew of recent posts have accused brands of "ghosting" people after pledging free products.
Social media gives individuals a megaphone in disputes with companies that treat them poorly, while executives use it for consumer insights, customer service and marketing. And algorithmic feeds like TikTok's "For You" page now expose some people's posts far beyond their followers, sometimes to their complete surprise.
The "ghosted" trend feeds on all those dynamics -- along with TikTokers' penchant for riffing on other users' content.
It began after Sydney Clements, a medical student at Indiana University, said the beauty brand Revlon hadn't fulfilled its promise to replace a lip oil she lost while line dancing. Millions of views piled up as cosmetics and skincare brands including Prada Beauty, Paula's Choice and NYX chimed in with offers to send her their own products.
Others quickly imitated the language in that post to claim that brands including Oatly oat milk, Southwest Airlines, Tesla, Louis Vuitton, Domino's Pizza, Toyota, E.l.f. Beauty, appliance maker Ninja and BMW had "ghosted" them too, sometimes but not always adding a hashtag or note indicating that their videos were satire to avoid confusion or potential legal trouble.
Some "ghosted" creators seemed to see humor in demanding free products that were either absurdly expensive to expect or too basic to bother with. Others may have just latched onto an emerging trend for attention. Any free goods that actually resulted would be a bonus.
But not everybody who saw the clips got the joke.
No flights to Italy
Many of the brands being called out haven't publicly responded, even when commenters pounce.
Southwest decided not to engage with one post calling out the airline after determining that it didn't seem to describe real circumstances, according to John Young, its manager of social and digital strategy.
JetBlue didn't appear to respond on a woman's post claiming it had failed to deliver a promised free flight to Italy after her original booking was canceled, even as comments like "ewwww" accumulated. The airline said it doesn't fly to Italy, which some other commenters also pointed out.
But KitchenAid commented on a post from Priscilla Lopez, a California-based creator who made a few joke posts about being ghosted by the appliance brand and others. The brand's account apologized and asked for her to DM with more details, seeming to believe it was a real complaint. KitchenAid owner Whirlpool said in a statement it encourages anyone with a genuine issue to reach out directly so it can help.
Honda for its part hasn't defended itself to Fleming or her champions on TikTok.
"We're aware of a recent TikTok video that has circulated widely," the company said. "The individual who posted it has since confirmed that the content was intended to be a joke."
Honda is watching the situation and determining whether "any additional steps are needed," it said.
Fleming didn't think people would take her post so seriously, she said in an interview. "It's a joke," she said. "I thought that was clear."
She explained in a follow-up video that she had tried to make her satirical intent plain by closely mimicking the language of the Revlon lip oil video. She also edited the original caption on her post.
"I only thought 200 people would see this," Fleming said.
"They are a huge corporation," she added of Honda. "I do feel bad for the people who've wasted their time commenting and wanting to rally behind a situation. I'd obviously rather it be used towards something else....But I don't feel bad for a corporation."
Sydney Clements, the medical student whose video inspired Fleming and others, said she didn't want to direct hate toward any brand and was only trying to make sure Revlon didn't get free publicity for a promise it didn't keep.
The brand originally offered her new lip oil in the comments on a TikTok that she made about losing hers, then sent a direct message to confirm her address, according to Clements. But weeks later, no lip oil had arrived, and the account didn't respond to a follow-up message, she said.
Clements never intended to start a trend, she said. "Mine was definitely a real situation with proof and I don't want this to become a joke," she wrote in a comment on one of the videos that followed hers, or for brands to "take heat for something that hasn't happened."
Hungry to connect
Revlon Chief Digital Marketing Officer Kelly Solomon said the company "should have acted more quickly" to get Clements's package out after the initial conversation.
"When the second TikTok came out, our team acted swiftly and with humility, immediately taking accountability and sending her a package to ensure we got it right this time," Solomon said in a statement. Revlon followed up with a second package of products and a handwritten apology, she said.
The root of the trend is just consumers' desire to connect with brands, said Casey Savio Samuels, senior vice president of strategy at marketing and technology services company Monks.
Brands that are savvy in social media should view such a moment as an opportunity, she said. A brand facing a viral post like Fleming's Honda video should send a private message to figure out what exactly is going on, then jump into the comments with a solution or joke if that's the right route, according to Samuels.
"People are in those comments looking to see what Honda is going to do, how they're going to react," she said. "And that very much is going to shape -- in the future -- what they think of that brand."
Write to Megan Graham at megan.graham@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 24, 2025 06:00 ET (11:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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