CTV London, community leaders join viral ‘This Is Who…’ childhood photos trend

CTV London’s Lauren Stallone, Carlyle Fiset, and Julie Atchison discuss the viral baby picture trend.

A viral trend that blew up on social media this week was the “This is who…” carousel.

Businesses like Starbucks and Sephora took part in the trend, showing off their team members’ favourite childhood pictures, paired with their current professional roles.

“Social media has been around for long enough that businesses really are internalizing it to their day-to-day operations,” said technology analyst, Carmi Levy.

“They understand the power of social media and they’re no longer seeing it as a threat to their existence.”

Levy said this kind of trend helps to “humanize” the brand.

“That reinforces why they do business with you in the first place,” said Levy.

“It is by definition, a good thing.”

Levy also pointed out that this trend is like the “2016 Trend” that went viral in January.

“We are seeing a lot of nostalgia-based trends that are playing out on social media,” said Levy.

“I think a lot of people are thinking, let’s get back to basics, let’s put the social back in social media and these trends certainly reflect that.”

CTV London took part in the trend, with help from leaders in the community like Mayor Josh Morgan and London Police Chief, Thai Truong.

“I think this fits that bill very nicely,” said Levy.

“It offers up something in a chaotic time, that quite frankly people need.”

Take a look at CTV London’s version of the trend, featuring some community leaders:

Carlyle Fiset

Lauren Stallone

Julie Atchison

Daryl Newcombe

Reta Ismail

Sean Irvine

Mayor Josh Morgan

London Police Chief Thai Truong