How TikTok revolutionised Andy Warhol’s 15-minute fame cycle
There’s debate over the origins of the quote “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” but it’s generally attributed to Andy Warhol, the bespectacled pop artist who spent a career examining the nature of fame and celebrity.
If Warhol had lived long enough to witness the rise of social media, you imagine he’d feel quite smug. The fleeting fame he described has become a cultural obsession. Rarely a week goes by without the internet crowning a new viral star who is trending one day and forgotten the next.
Vox pop today, viral tomorrow: The rise of street interviews on social media. Credit: Bethany Rae
One thing Warhol could never have predicted was how 15 minutes of fame could now be achieved in about 15 seconds, sometimes less. Street interviews, or vox pops, are nothing new, they’re a handy tool for gauging public opinion long employed by traditional media.
However, in the TikTok era, where virality is the name of the game and content creators have usurped journalists, street interviews are proving to be a double-edged sword: financially lucrative but hard to distance yourself from.
A few weeks ago, Hailey Welch was just another face in the crowd, walking through downtown Nashville, when she spotted Tim Dickerson and DeArius Marlow, YouTubers who shoot man-on-the-street interviews at popular nightlife destinations.
The 21-year-old approached the pair for an on-camera chat, but it was a 10-second exchange that would transform her into an internet sensation. In response to the question: “What’s one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?” Welch paused, laughed, and then served up a joke about oral sex: “Aw, you gotta give him that ‘hawk tuah’ and spit on that thang – you get me?”
Something about Welch’s unplanned and uninhibited video struck a chord, and within hours, the term “Hawk Tuah” was trending online, racking up millions of views and catapulting Welch into meme status.
At first, the Tennessee factory worker avoided the spotlight, but she has since embraced her notoriety (and left her job). In the last week, she launched an official Instagram, with a million followers and counting, and inked a merchandise deal with the company Fathead Threads for trucker hats emblazoned with the term.
According to Fatheads Threads, they’ve already sold $96,000 worth of merchandise, with a backlog of orders yet to be processed.
Australian talent agent Max Markson says that in a situation like this, monetising the moment is about all you can do. “She’s got a manager and a lawyer, so that will be enormously helpful to fast-track the money-making process,” explains Markson.
“They will do a bunch of events, charging brands to host parties, then I am sure someone like Taco Bell will jump on her; if she signs a few endorsements, I reckon she can bank up to $10 million in the next year - that’s America for you.”
Markson previously represented two of Australia’s earliest viral stars. Infamous party boy Corey Worthington, whose 2008 house party made global headlines, and Clare Werbeloff, better known as the Chk-Chk-Boom Girl, after an interview with her about a shooting on a Sydney street went viral in 2009.
“They made money at the time. Corey made $250,000, Clare did some magazine shoots and sit-down interviews, but you couldn’t leverage the exposure in the same way, and that is where social media became profitable for these viral stars,” says Markson.
“I wouldn’t mind bringing [Welch] to Australia, putting her on the road, hosting parties. I can see it now, five nights: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.”
That’s not on the cards anytime soon. Welch has already flagged her intentions to move away from the craze, concerned about how it may impact her future. Adult website Pornhub told TMZ that they expect the number of searches for the term to have reached 4.7 million this week, while Welch has already rejected an offer from Playboy.
“I don’t really want that to be, like, my image,” Welch told popular US podcaster Brianna LaPaglia. “I don’t want to be known as just that video.”
Australian comedian Georgia Godworth understands this struggle all too well after going viral in May for conducting a street interview with director Baz Luhrmann without realising it was Baz Luhrmann. In less than a day, the video garnered more than 100,000 views on TikTok and more than 3.7 million views on X, with much of the focus on Godworth’s failure to recognise Luhrmann.
“It was a lot. I was not expecting it to go so viral. At first, I was happy, then I was extremely paranoid and thought my life was over,” says Godworth. “It was like an ongoing roller coaster of emotion because I had never been in the spotlight like that, and I hadn’t ever been faced with hate online; I did about 300 breath work sessions that week.”
Godworth concedes that while going viral had some upsides, a boost in followers and opportunities, it also opened her eyes to “how quickly the world can be talking about someone or something.”
“I’m leaning more towards developing my own style now,” she says. “I’m currently watching YouTube interviewers who are not in the clickbait TikTok format.”
Occasionally, bailing people up on a busy street corner can highlight the positive power of social media. Brisbane-based tech start-up Getahead is an app that matches jobseekers with employers, but it’s become famous online for its TikTok videos, in which it asks everyday Australians what they do for work and how much they make.
“We interviewed this guy who was living out of his car and washing cars to make ends meet, the video went viral, and next thing you know, a CEO who watched it hired him to clean the cars for his entire company, says Getahead founder Sam McNamara. “Now that guy has started his own TikTok channel and runs a successful car washing business, that’s wholesome content.”
‘I said something silly, and now my life has changed.’
Hailey Welch
As long as TikTok algorithms reign supreme, we’ll continue to see the more street interviews surge to the top of our feeds. We don’t know how Warhol would feel about things, but in the case of Welch, she intends to make those 15 minutes last forever.
“I said something silly, and now my life has changed,” said Welch in a recent interview. “Can’t wait for what’s ahead.”
Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at thomas.mitchell@smh.com.au or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.
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