When something that began as a shrug-and-a-laugh turns into something that people are taking seriously almost instantly, it’s known as an internet moment. One such instance is the “Let’s Buy Spirit” campaign. With its yellow tails parked across tarmacs from Fort Lauderdale to Victorville, Spirit Airlines perished on May 2 at three in the morning. A few hours later, a voice actor by the name of Hunter Peterson shared an idea on TikTok that initially sounded a little off. About 40,000 people had pledged close to $26.5 million through his partially constructed website by Monday morning.
Peterson is not an aviation executive, despite having worked on Hyrule Warriors and Honkai: Star Rail, according to his IMDb page. The closest thing to airline experience on his resume is a YouTube video he made about flying Spirit for a full day. He presented the numbers in the original TikTok, which was set to Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky,” with the upbeat assurance of someone who had just come up with the idea: 250 million American adults, 20% of whom contribute to the cost of a Spirit ticket, and you’ve bought yourself an airline. “We nationalize Spirit Airlines,” he said with a smile. “Owned by the people.”
This kind of pitch ought to have died in the comments section. Rather, it continued to move. Over 2.8 million people watched the original video. In less than a day, the number of Google searches for “let’s buy spirit com” increased by about 1,000%. By Sunday afternoon, traffic caused the website, which Peterson acknowledges he created in about an hour using an AI tool called Manus, to crash. It was momentarily replaced by an error page that read like a confession: “The movement grew so fast it overwhelmed our servers.” You can practically hear the fear of someone who truly did not anticipate any of this as you read that.
| Campaign / Key Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Movement Name | Let’s Buy Spirit (Spirit 2.0) |
| Founder | Hunter Peterson, voice actor based in the U.S. |
| Launched | May 2, 2026, hours after Spirit Airlines ceased operations |
| Concept | Community-owned airline funded by public pledges |
| Suggested Minimum Pledge | $45 (price of a single ticket) |
| Reported Pledges (as of May 4) | ~$26.5 million from nearly 40,000 “founding patrons” |
| Inspiration | Green Bay Packers ownership model; WinCo Foods ESOP |
| Founder’s Other Credits | Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Honkai: Star Rail, Smite 2 (via IMDb) |
| Viral Trigger | TikTok video set to “Spirit in the Sky,” ~3 million views |
| Governance Idea | One vote per patron; dividends scaled to pledge size |
| Status of Funds | Pledges only — no money actually collected yet |
| Backup Channel | Instagram account @spiritair2.0 (100k+ followers) |
To his credit, Peterson has made it clear that no real money has changed hands. After floating a Venmo, he walked it back. The promises are self-reported via a homemade form, non-binding, and unconfirmed by anybody other than Peterson. The numbers have been reported by Yahoo News and other publications, but they have not been verified. The pledges might vanish as soon as a legitimate bank account appeared, or the totals might be inflated. The gap between intent and follow-through is typically larger than it appears, which is the awkward shape of all viral fundraising.
The cultural aspiration is intriguing nevertheless. Peterson frequently brings up the Green Bay Packers, the only community-owned team in the NFL with a shareholder structure that dates back to 1923. He brings up the employee-owned grocery store WinCo Foods. Regardless of contribution, each pledger would receive one vote under the proposed framework, and dividends would be scaled to the size of the pledge. He maintains that outside venture capital would be “non-voting.” For a sector that depends on debt, fuel hedges, and shareholder pressure, that is a pretty radical governance concept.
It’s another matter entirely whether any of this could withstand contact with the FAA, the bondholders who killed Spirit’s bailout, or the fundamental capital needs of operating a fleet. Peterson’s current public search on Instagram for aviation attorneys will have a lot to say about that. Additionally, Spirit’s real assets are presently being seized by creditors such as Citadel and Ares Management. Regarding TikTok movements, none of them are sentimental.
Nevertheless, it’s difficult to ignore its allure as you watch this develop. Spirit was well-liked. They wanted it to exist even though they didn’t always enjoy flying it. The speed at which 40,000 strangers raised money to support a defunct airline speaks volumes about how weary Americans have grown of seeing things they enjoy being purchased, disassembled, and subtly priced out of reach, regardless of what Peterson ultimately decides to build.
