Jenna Bacon, Campus Carrier arts and living editor

Berry College has built a solid presence across major social media platforms over the years. TikTok is the most recent platform the college joined, and it’s been using the app for a few years to share campus life in a fun, creative way. On Aug. 5, Berry College’s TikTok account shared a stunning drone shot of the Ford Complex, set to Chappell Roan’s newly released track, “Subway.” The text on the post reads, “Our applications are open if you’re looking to get away.” 

That post has now garnered 20.6 million views, 2.7 million likes, and 28.6 thousand comments. The post went viral after Emma Kim, a 21-year-old University of Georgia student, left a cheeky comment calling out Berry for rejecting her application.

“Ok but y’all rejected me 2 years ago,” Kim said. 

TikTok users quickly joined in on the joke, coming to Kim’s defense in the comment section. One user commented, “But Emma never got a chance to get away,” paired with a picture of a crying girl. Another user commented, “This comment section killed me because what do you mean everybody collectively came together just to protect one person they barely know?”

According to the member of Berry College’s social media team, before the viral video was posted, the Berry College TikTok account had just successfully reached their summer goal of 8,000 followers. In the two days after the video was posted, Berry College’s TikTok follower count jumped from 8,000 to 20,000. The account now has 54 thousand followers.                                                                                                                                  

It wasn’t long until other TikTok users started to also jump on the trend, which had been marked with the  tag #justiceforemma. 

“I have seen a lot of other businesses, schools and people putting their own spin on it, which I think is really cool,” a member of Berry College’s social media team said. “It’s also great marketing, because this trend’s happening, so they’re thinking of ways to make the trend work for them too.”

Various schools, businesses, brands, and professional sports teams took part in the #justiceforemma trend including the San Francisco 49ers, the Chicago Cubs, StubHub, University of Georgia, University of Miami and Xavier University. 

Big brands weren’t the only ones who were excited to put their spin on the trend. Berry alumna Katelyn McCook (25C) decided to showcase her love for Berry using the #justiceforemma trend as well. According to McCook, once she realized how quickly the trend was taking off, she decided to make a post of her own. 

“When I made my post, I included the words “Berry College” on both text and caption as well as the #justiceforemma hashtag just to cover all my bases,” McCook said. “I just really saw potential, and if I were perceiving another college posting that, I would also want to see current students posting. So, I thought that would be something that people would want to see.”

All of this excitement left a lot of people wanting to know more about the person they were rallying behind. According to Kim herself, she is a rising junior at the University of Georgia, majoring in biology, and she enjoys working out and cooking in her free time. After finding Berry online while searching for potential colleges to apply to, she decided to submit an application but received a rejection letter a few weeks later. 

Kim didn’t recall having any ill will towards Berry when she left her infamous comment.                             

“I guess I thought it was funny,” Kim said. 

She did not expect her comment to garner as much attention as it did and was shocked to see how quickly the #justiceforemma trend took off. Fortunately, most of the videos and comments that have been directed at her have been positive. 

“Most people are super, super nice,” Kim said. “I’m used to the internet being very skeptical and harsh, but this was like a whole 360. I had no idea the internet could be this nice.” 

With the influx of comments and attention, Berry had to decide how they were going to respond. Assistant Vice President of Digital Marketing and Media Cameron Jordan provided some insight into why Berry chose to respond the way they did.

“Anytime something happens in social media that you notice, you have to make a choice. We could have shut off comments, or taken a defensive posture and explain this was an admissions decision,” Jordan said. “Or we could have just leaned into the joke and actually benefited from it. That was the better option because that’s how we end up benefiting from what was happening.”

According to Jordan, Berry College’s website traffic was running around four times the typical amount during the peak of the #justiceforemma trend.

This trend was one that surprised almost everyone involved. Fortunately, this massive inside joke led to numerous people discovering Berry College and all the amazing things it has to offer.