Quick Summary
- A $19 strawberry set the internet on fire. Erewhon’s outrageous price tag sparked massive social media engagement and millions of views.
- The brand’s luxury reputation took center stage. Instead of damaging the brand, the buzz reinforced Erewhon’s image as the go-to for premium wellness.
- What started as a high price became high-impact PR. By embracing its own extravagance, Erewhon turned a single strawberry into a full-blown cultural moment.
Take a humble strawberry, slap on a jaw-dropping $19 price tag, and watch the internet lose its mind.
That’s what happened when upscale Los Angeles grocery chain Erewhon Market placed a single (admittedly large) strawberry in a plastic container with a price that would make even luxury shoppers do a double-take.
The Elly Amai organic Japanese strawberry has generated millions of views, thousands of comments, and a surge in brand awareness for Erowhon.
Add an organic (we think!) taste test by Demi Lovato, and you have a recipe for virality that money can’t buy.
Background
Erewhon Market is a Los Angeles institution synonymous with luxury food shopping and celebrity sightings. Known for its organic, sustainable offerings and eye-watering prices, Erewhon has built a reputation as the go-to spot for health-conscious A-listers and affluent wellness enthusiasts.
Before the strawberry incident, Erewhon was already famous (or infamous) for its premium pricing. The store regularly makes headlines for items like the $20 Hailey Bieber smoothie and $50 raw desserts.
This pricing strategy has positioned Erewhon as an exclusive brand that’s become a lifestyle statement.
What made the $19 strawberry campaign particularly effective was how it leaned into this existing brand perception.
Instead of defending against criticisms of outrageous pricing, Erewhon embraced its reputation to create a viral moment that is reinforcing its luxury positioning while generating massive publicity.
Don’t believe us? Try searching TikTok for the word “strawberry.” Here’s what we found at the very top of the page:
Campaign Overview
At first glance, the $19 strawberry seemed like a happy accident—a niche product that happened to go viral. But was the buzz purely organic, or did Erewhon know exactly what it was doing?
The craze started when influencer Alyssa Antoci, whose family owns Erewhon, posted a TikTok video on February 22, 2025, unboxing and tasting the Japanese white jewel strawberry.
She described it as “the best-tasting strawberry” she had ever had.
@alyssaantociiinsane♬ original sound – lyss
The taste test that started it all.
The post spread like wildfire across social media platforms, with users expressing disbelief, amusement, and outrage in equal measure. The original post garnered over 26 million views on Twitter alone, with thousands of reposts, quotes, and comments.
The image quickly migrated to Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, where it continued to rack up engagement.
Erewhon never formally announced the strawberry as a limited-edition product or launched an ad campaign around it. Their response—or lack of one—only fueled speculation.
Had Erowhon gone too far, or was it playing a clever joke?
The Demi Lovato taste test
On March 8, 2025, Demi Lovato shared a video with her 6.8 million followers. She unboxed and sampled the strawberry and rated it an eight out of ten, noting its lack of tartness and overall sweetness.
The video quickly went viral, garnering 13.8 million views and sparking widespread discussion.
But did Demi deem the berry worth $19? We won’t spoil the ending.
@screenshothq Demi Lovato shared her opinion after taste-testing the wildly popular $19 ‘Elly Amai’ Japanese strawberry sold at Erewhon as she calls it “a waste” of her money in this TikTok video. 🍓 #demilovato #erewhon #viralstrawberry #ellyamai ♬ original sound – SCREENSHOT
Demi Lovato’s taste test. Was it worth the money?
Key Success Factors
Perfect alignment with brand identity
The $19 strawberry stunt worked because it perfectly aligned with Erewhon’s existing brand perception. The store is already known for premium pricing, so the strawberry felt like an extension of that identity rather than a departure.
This consistency made the stunt believable enough to spark genuine reactions while being outrageous enough to drive shares.
Simplicity and visual impact
The campaign’s strength lay in its simplicity. A single strawberry in clear packaging with a bold price tag created an instantly understandable, visually striking image that required no explanation.
This simplicity made it perfect for social sharing—the humor and shock value were immediately apparent without needing context.
Strategic ambiguity
By neither confirming nor immediately denying the strawberry’s legitimacy, Erewhon created a space for speculation that extended the campaign’s lifespan. This ambiguity encouraged people to form their own theories and engage in conversations about whether it was real, a joke, or a commentary on luxury pricing.
Tapping into existing conversations
The campaign cleverly played into ongoing discussions about wealth inequality, inflation, and luxury consumption. With such an extreme example of premium pricing, Erewhon inserted itself into broader cultural conversations, causing the story to spread beyond its immediate customer base to reach a global audience.
ABC News news anchors put the berry to the test—was it worth the hype?
Innovative Elements
Price as the punchline
While most marketing focuses on conveying value, Erewhon flipped the script by making the outrageous price itself the centerpiece of the campaign. This reversal created a meta-commentary on luxury branding that resonated with both critics and fans of premium products.
Self-aware marketing
The campaign showed remarkable self-awareness by leaning into criticisms rather than defending against them. By seemingly exaggerating its most controversial attribute—high prices—Erewhon demonstrated it was in on the joke, transforming potential negative publicity into positive engagement.
User-generated distribution
Instead of relying on paid advertising, Erewhon let shoppers and social media users do the distribution work with user-generated content. This organic spread lent authenticity to the campaign and created a sense of discovery that traditional advertising channels can’t replicate.
Real-world installation as digital bait
The physical strawberry display served as bait for digital content creation. When it placed the strawberry in-store where it would likely be photographed and shared, Erewhon created a bridge between physical retail and digital virality—a clever strategy for a brick-and-mortar business in the digital age.
Mindy Kaling’s surprising verdict on Jimmy Kimmel (near the end of the video).
Impact and Results
The $19 strawberry campaign generated extraordinary results, especially considering its minimal production cost.
Massive social reach
The original Twitter post alone garnered over 26 million views, with extended reach across Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook pushing total impressions well into the tens of millions. The hashtag #erewhonstrawberry trended on multiple platforms, creating a genuine cultural moment.
Media coverage amplification
The strawberry story was picked up by numerous media outlets, including food blogs, lifestyle publications, and even mainstream news sources like USA Today and the U.K.’s The Guardian.
This coverage extended the campaign’s reach far beyond social media and introduced the Erewhon brand to new audiences worldwide.
Brand awareness expansion
For a regional grocery chain with just 10 locations in Southern California, the campaign created unprecedented national and international brand awareness. Searches for “Erewhon Market” spiked dramatically following the viral post, introducing the brand to millions of potential customers.
Strengthened brand positioning
Rather than damaging Erewhon’s reputation, the stunt reinforced its positioning as an ultra-premium grocery destination. The campaign transformed potential criticism into a strength, solidifying Erewhon’s place as the epitome of luxury food retail.
Marketer Takeaways
- Embrace your brand’s quirks. Erewhon turned its high prices from a liability into viral gold by leaning into its luxury reputation.
- Simplicity cuts through noise. A single strawberry and a price tag drove more engagement than multimillion-dollar campaigns.
- Ambiguity fuels buzz. Leaving room for speculation keeps people talking and extends a campaign’s lifespan.
- Lean into controversy. When people mock your brand, don’t fight it—turn the attention into free marketing.
Media Shower’s AI platform helps you do organic viral marketing without the outrageous price tag. Click for a free trial.
