Phil Swift Slaps On Flex Tape
About
Phil Swift Slaps On Flex Tape refers to a two-panel image showing the Flex Tape spokesman Phil Swift slapping a piece of Flex Tape onto a leaking water tank. Starting in January 2019, the image gained spread as an object-labeling meme, with a variation in which the tape and Phil Swift's hand let through water gaining popularity in early November 2019.
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Origin
On January 12th, 2017, American adhesive manufacturer Swift Response uploaded a commercial for its tape product Flex Tape to YouTube.[1][2] In the commercial, company spokesman Phil Swift slaps a piece of Flex Tape onto a leaking water tank, stopping the leak. The commercial accumulated over 17.8 million views in three years and, following a September 2017 review by YouTuber JonTron, [3] achieved the status of a meme.[4]
On January 29th, 2017, an unknown Redditor posted a GIF based on the video to /r/gif subreddit, gaining over 330 upvotes in three years (shown below, left).[5] On the same day, the GIF was added to GIPHY.[6] On December 10th, 2018, Redditor SwAg_LaMp posted a one-panel meme showing Phil Swift attaching Flex Tape captioned "Back of laptop: *exists* / College girls with stickers:", with the meme receiving over 25,100 upvotes in six months.[7] Between January 7th and 27th 2019, imgflip user whosscruffylookin95 posted a two-panel format based on the GIF and referencing the post, with an additional caption added in (shown below, right).[8] This image is the earliest known example of the format.
Spread
The format saw a moderate spread online in the following months, with more examples of the meme appearing on Reddit, imgflip and other websites.[9][10] A February 21st, 2019, repost of an Apex Legends / Fortnite meme by iFunny user Freath received over 52,300 smiles in nine months (reupload shown below, left).[11] Starting in early July 2019, the format saw an increase in popularity on Reddit. For example, a July 21st, post by Redditor Kennythedingus received over 21,200 upvotes (shown below, right).[12]
Leaking Hand Version
On November 5th, 2019, Redditor jaameszxc posted a meme with the second panel altered to show both Flex Tape and Phil Swift's hand to let through water. The meme gained over 77,500 upvotes in one day (shown below).[13]
On the same day, Redditor AwwHeelijk posted the altered template to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial subreddit, gaining over 2,000 upvotes in one day.[14] In the following hours, multiple notable memes based on the format were posted on Reddit.
Various Examples
Templates
Search Interest
External References
[1] Wayback Machine – FLEX TAPE ™ Commerical
[2] YouTube – FLEX TAPE® Commercial
[3] YouTube – Waterproofing My Life With FLEX TAPE – JonTron
[4] Know Your Meme – Flex Tape
[5] Reddit – Flex Tape sealing leak in big tank of water
[6] GIPHY – Water Tank GIF
[7] Reddit – Honestly, how do they even get them?
[10] Reddit – Nb people are valid but I feel like I'm appropriating nb identity by using it to plaster over my lack of decisiveness
[11] iFunny – Freath's Post
[12] Reddit – I don’t think flex tape can fix that
[14] Reddit – Phil Swift flex tape template
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