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Spud we like How TikTok helped spark a huge baked potato revival
The Guardian
|September 14, 2024
By 10.30am, a queue is already forming outside a closed baked potato van in a converted tram in Preston, Lancashire.
Waiting in line are customers from Liverpool, Glasgow and Orlando, Florida.
The first customer of the day gets their lunch free and people have camped outside from as early as 4.30am in the past. Ask almost anyone in the queue why they're here and they will give you the same answer - they have seen the Spud Bros on TikTok.
The Spud Bros are real-life brothers Jacob and Harley Nelson.
By broadcasting life from their pitches on social media, they are bringing in new customers from as far away as Australia and South Africa, and they have more than 26 million followers on TikTok.
Over the past year their posts have been viewed 1.5bn times on TikTok and views are running at 10m a day.
They have even introduced global celebrities to the baked spud - the Jonas Brothers are now fans.
"Everyone loves a jacket potato," Harley, 22, said. "It's good comfort food," Jacob, 29, added. "You can't beat it, nice in winter, just filling.
This story is from the September 14, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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