Magic John Screen Protector

Submission 7,837

Part of a series on TikTok. [View Related Entries]

Overview

The Magic John Screen Protector is an iPhone screen protector sold by the Chinese company Magic John and advertised by a man known as Brother Liang who became well-known on TikTok for his bizarre advertisement skits of the product. The skits, which feature Liang supervising his factory, sometimes referred to as his "sweatshop" by commenters, advertise the screen protector as having "full automatic adhesion" and a "28-degree privacy angle." Magic John began advertising on TikTok in April 2022 and became increasingly popularized in August and September, inspiring fancams and ironic memes about him later that year.

Background

Magic John's screen protectors are sold through Vemimi.com^[1] and are available for a number of iPhone devices.On April 20th, 2022, TikToker^[2] @magicjohn.official posted his first video advertising his screen protectors. In the video, he showcases the sturdiness of the screen protector and its water resistance, garnering around 2,000 views in five months.

On April 21st, he began uploading skits where he interacts with his factory workers before segueing into an advertisement for the case. In many of the skits, Liang is shown having stern interactions with the workers. For example, on April 22nd, he uploaded a video to TikTok^[3] where he scolds a worker for bringing her boyfriend, whose "brain is not good" to work (shown below).

The way Brother Liang acts towards his employees in the skits, as well as the frequent discussions about their salaries, has inspired joke comments about him running a sweatshop. For example, on May 14th, he uploaded an advertisement skit to TikTok^[4] where he discusses the salaries of his factory workers with another employee, garnering over 900,000 views in four months (shown below, left). On May 22nd, he uploaded an ad to TikTok^[5] where he scolds a worker for taking her lunch early and then product tests her work, garnering over 70,000 views in four months (shown below, right).

On June 3rd, 2022, the @magicjohn.official account stopped posting videos, but on August 1st, Magic John started posting on a new TikTok account under the username @magicjohn_us3. The videos feature an English text-to-speech voice-over and follow the same format, showing John interacting with his workers, including several child workers. Many of these new videos feature the workers pulling pranks on John, like putting firecrackers in phone cases or accidentally or purposefully breaking screen protectors. For example, on August 14th, he posted a video to TikTok^[6] where a child at the factory breaks a screen protector. It's revealed he's another worker's younger brother. She says he's there to play but he says he's there to work and shows off a pile of screen protectors he just finished making, followed by Brother Liang testing them (shown below). The video gained over 3 million views in a month.

On August 30th, another TikTok account seemingly run by Magic John, @magicjohn.uk, began posting videos. On September 2nd, the account posted a video to TikTok^[7] where two children are working at the factory, garnering over 2 million views in a month (shown below, left). On September 3rd, he uploaded another video to TikTok^[8] featuring the child workers, garnering over 2.1 million views in three weeks (shown below, right).

On September 17th, @magicjohn.uk uploaded a video to TikTok^[9] where a worker puts a firecracker under a box then John shows off the phone screen protector while it burns, garnering over 5 million views in five days (shown below).

Online Presence

As Magic John's videos continued to go viral on TikTok in August and September 2022, people began making videos about him, including ironic meme edits like fancams. On September 20th, TikToker^[10] @ramalmedia stitched one of Magic John's videos where he jokes about hitting a kid, saying he'll buy and test the screen protector for 10,000 likes, garnering over 600,000 views in two days (shown below, left). On September 21st, TikToker^[11] @loughh posted a similar video where he reacts to Magic John and says he'll buy a protector for 50,000 likes, garnering over 7.6 million views and a million likes in a day (shown below, right).

On the same day, TikToker^[12] @bloxcrewanime posted a fancam edit of Magic John footage, garnering over 191,000 views in under 24 hours (shown below).