Posted on 13th March 2023
A new police chase effect is a huge hit on TikTok, with nearly one million people joining in with a trend about the traits that might get them into trouble, or the things they'd go to jail for.
We first alerted subscribers to our Buzz service to the effect in February – and since then it's been used by hundreds of thousands more people, including former One Direction member Niall Horan, whose video's been viewed 2.3 million times.
The effect was created by Mexican band Los Huracanes del Norte and named after the line "cayó la ley", which translates as "the law fell", in their song El Gato de Chihuahua. It puts the TikToker's face on a person in a house surrounded by police before cutting to them attempting to run away while being followed by police cars.
People started using the effect to show what they'd go to jail for – like in this example from @dearmirrorball giving the options "never listen to Taylor Swift music again or go to jail right now", which has been viewed more than two million times.
Other early examples included videos from Yungblud fan @todaysgender, Sage ("stop watching Tangled or get arrested"), @lanadelslayyyy ("when Lana Del Ray songs become illegal") and @iluvpqsta, who says "go to jail or never listen to Taylor Swift and watch a Marvel movie again."
The trend then evolved, with people posting about the character traits that could send them to jail if they became illegal. Content creator @caleb.finn posted about preferring to go to jail than stop making horror videos (four million views):
Other examples taking a similar approach include @landangyal2 – "if requesting Murder On The Dancefloor a hundred times in a row was illegal" – (1.1 million views), @abiidabiii – "if laughing at serious situations ever became illegal" – (575,000 views), @elleray__ who would run away from police if consuming two litres of Pepsi Max a day became illegal, and @v1oletbrandd who would make a break for it if constantly playing Young Hearts Run Free became a crime.
Spotting TikTok Trends
The police chase effect trend is just one of the new trends quickly picked up and tracked by our Buzz service, which highlights some of the big talking points emerging on TikTok and social media every day.
Buzz from Shooglebox is used by journalists, creators and brand teams who need to spot and stay on top of the latest trends.
It includes a constantly updated box of cards showing at a glance and linking to viral videos, TikTok trends and other things going big on social media. Buzz customers also get regular updates alerting them to some of the things they might otherwise miss or discover late.
This stack of cards for the police chase trend gives you an idea of how Shooglebox works – and how it could help you go from spotting a trend right at the start to tracking its development over time.
If you're interested in signing up or finding out more about Buzz get in touch here.
