Welcome back to The Shoppe! This week, we’re talking about Starburst’s Berries and Creme TikTok contest, Etsy’s shoppable virtual house, Facebook’s outage, and what happens on the internet in one minute. Don’t forget to subscribe so you can be notified every time we post!

Starburst Launches Berries and Creme TikTok Contest for Halloween

A Starburst commercial that aired fourteen years ago has resurfaced and gone viral on TikTok as users have been posting videos imitating the Little Lad who loves berries and creme. To build off of this momentum, Starburst has started a contest on the app where users who post their best impression using the berries and creme sound have the chance to win a Starburst Little Lad Halloween costume, which includes a wig with a bob and bangs, an oversized jacket with a frilly collar and cuffs, pantaloons, and matching socks. The timing of this trend worked out perfectly for the candy brand, as consumers are stocking up on sweets in preparation for Halloween.

Etsy Releases Shoppable Virtual House

Online handmade goods marketplace Etsy opened the Etsy House last week, an augmented reality experience. Users can tour a virtual house decorated with curated items available for purchase online, like furniture and artwork. Partnering with a creative visualization studio called The Boundary, Etsy said that users can hover over products they like to see more information and get the link to the product page. More and more eCommerce companies are turning to augmented and virtual reality to deliver a better shopping experience from home, which many consumers may prefer over crowded stores, especially as the COVID variants continue to spread.

Facebook and its Apps Experience Outage

On Monday, October 4th, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all went down at the same time. While it’s not unusual for a social network to experience outages, it is rare for such a large network to have multiple apps go down simultaneously. The outage lasted for almost six hours, and Facebook released a statement explaining that it was caused by a configuration change to its routers. The company did not go into much detail, but they said, “this disruption to network traffic had a cascading effect on the way our data centers communicate, bringing our services to a halt.” The outage occurred less than 24 hours after whistleblower Frances Haugen appeared on 60 Minutes accusing the company of encouraging hate speech for profit. As a result, Facebook’s stock also dropped up to 6% in shares, experiencing their worst single day decrease since October 30, 2020.