• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, November 16, 2016

If it’s fleetingly cool on social, you can bet brands will leap on it. Latest case in point: #MannequinChallenge.

Videos of pro athletes, celebrities and just plain old folks frozen in action have been everywhere on social since late October, when the trend supposedly originated with some Jacksonville, Fla., high school students.

Kraft’s Oscar Mayer and Planters, along with Caribou Coffee, are among the brands that have jumped on the craze as a means of engaging and being “relatable” to young consumers.

Oscar Mayer and Planters leveraged the highly visual, somewhat surrealistic image potential of their respective Wienermobile and NUTmobile, capturing their roving teams taking on the #MannequinChallenge and posting the videos on Instagram and their Twitter channels. (View on Instagram: Wienermobile, NUTmobile.)

Caribou Coffee shot “mannequin” video during an appearance on Nov. 15 and 16 at the Mall of America. 

The brand was at the mall to run a pop-up “coffee lab” as part of its “Over the Top” holidays campaign. Caribou has added a variety of toppings and whips to its holiday menu so as to offer 500-plus new drinks, and is encouraging fans to share their own innovative Caribou beverage creations on social, using #TopBou.

Caribou’s mannequin footage is posted on Instagram and Facebook, and promoted on Twitter.