‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ is a modern update of a classic story, and Paramount Pictures knew they would need to promote it in a way that honored the past, but also built excitement for the future of the turtles franchise.
To do this, they turned to Loop.
The team knew the Ninja Turtles was a timeless, multigenerational property. To build excitement for the upcoming reboot, the Loop team explored ideas that showed how Turtles fandom could transcend generations, but still go viral today.
The best way to get people excited about something is to show how much other people love it. This kind of social proof propels fan movements across genres, and Loop knew it could work for the TMNT reboot.
The current-day Ninja Turtles fan community is deep and wide, but also fairly insular. We needed a super-fan. Someone who’s passion for turtles was so infectious that you couldn’t help but get excited.
We need someone who really liked turtles. We needed “Turtle Boy”... the “Zombie Kid”... none other than Jonathan Ware himself.
Back in 2007, Ware’s obsession with turtles launched him to viral fame. In case you don’t know (you definitely know), the clip shows him wearing zombie makeup at a county fair, but when a local reporter asked him about it, he doesn’t want to talk about that. He wants to talk about how much he likes turtles. He replies, simply, “I like turtles.” and an internet star was born.
But in 2023, did he still like turtles?
The Loop team tracked him down to see if his passion has endured all these years. Luckily, it had, and he was more than happy to help share his love of turtles - and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - with the world.
We recreated the iconic meme, only this time our local reporter asked him about the new movie. “I Like Turtles” was not only a reference back to this beloved piece of internet nostalgia, but also an advanced review of the new TMNT reboot from the most famous turtle fan in the world.
Jonathan’s pithy review of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie received 109M+ views, 80+ organic press pieces and 3.6M+ likes across social platforms.
We also produced an interactive live show on TikTok where Jonathan interacted with other, less famous turtle fans.
Viewers engaged with Jonathon through challenges that appeared throughout the stream. As viewers completed challenges, they were rewarded with unique comedic sketches, animations, and more that celebrated the legend of Turtle Boy.
