Let’s take a quick peek over the fence separating us from TikTok, shall we? There’s been quite some noise from our online neighbors in the past few days thanks to a Kia Sorento, a fire, a Stanley thermal mug, and a magnanimous offer. TikTok user Danielle, who goes by danimarielettering, had her Kia Sorento catch on fire recently. From the looks of her video taken after the fire, it appears only the forward and upper portions of the SUV caught the worst of the flames; in looking around the web for context, we discovered that this isn’t unusual for burn pattern for the Sorento and Sportage (examples here, here, here, and here). As she approaches the wreck and reaches in, she says, “Everybody’s so concerned about if the Stanley spills, but what about if it melts?” Then she grabs the Stanley thermos in the cupholder and shakes it. “Fire yesterday,” she says. “Still has ice in it.”
@danimarielettering Thirsty after you catch on fire? @Stanley 1913 is like no problem i gotchu #fyp #carfire #accident #stanleycup ♬ original sound – Danielle
Danielle captioned the vid with, “Thirsty after you catch on fire? @Stanley1913 is like no problem i gotchu.” That hit the “VIRAL!” button and the horde came clicking with nearly 84 million views and 60,000 comments at the time of writing.
The first comment on the vid was, “Stanley, SPONSOR HER.” The second, “Stanley better cut you a check after this advertisement.” Undoubtedly, a fair number of the views and comments arose from Stanley basically doing just that. Company president Terence Reilly saw Danielle’s video and responded in kind, saying, “We’ve all seen your video. Wow, what an ordeal and we’re all really glad you’re safe. I’ve seen a lot of comments that we should send you some Stanleys. Well, we are gonna send you some Stanleys. But there’s one more thing. We’ve never done this before and we’ll probably never do it again, but we’d love to replace your vehicle.”
Danielle followed up with a couple more videos about the incident, thanking everyone and Stanley for their support, and showing off a box full of mugs. No word on the car, but the unboxing video tells us there are “New car updates coming soon.”
Lastly, just like we discovered how Kias like to roast, Daily Dot discovered Stanley thermoses and tumblers aren’t afraid of fire. A page called Stories of the Unbreakables on the company’s site lists a few tales of Stanleys against the world. Greg Gillard recounts a hotel fire in Maryland that cost him everything he had in the room except one: “After the fire was put out and the rubble sifted through, the only thing left standing, basically untouched? My Stanley thermos.” More recently, TikTok user laurenreho posted a video in August about her own car getting burnt to a crisp — possibly a Subaru Forester by the look of the wheel. Despite getting a proper baptism by fire, the only survivor among the ruins is her Stanley tumbler. It lost its screw top and handle and had quite the patina, but it looks like a new grip and lid could make it usable again. If Stanley’s reading this, Lauren would like a new mug. Or maybe Danielle could send her one out of the new gift set.
