Viral TikTok paint-mixer hired by Central Florida business after publicized termination

TikTok account created by 22-year-old Tony Piloseno exceeds 1.6 million followers

ORLANDO, Fla. – TikTok creator Tony Piloseno, 22, now calls Central Florida home after his termination at a northeast Ohio Sherwin Williams went viral last year.

Piloseno’s popular TikTok account Tonesterpaints, which posts paint mixing videos, currently ranks as one of the most popular on the short-video social media platform, with more than 1.6 million followers and 26.5 million likes.

“When my sixth video got one million views, that’s when I realized, this is something I can share with the world how important paint is and how cool it can be,” Piloseno told News 6.

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Winter Garden based paint company Florida Paints hired Piloseno as their new sales and digital marketing associate, after Piloseno said he was let go from Sherwin Williams for gross misconduct.

@tonesterpaints

Found my new home at Florida Paints ☀️be ready for more paint videos ##firstday ##FestiveFashion ##fyp

♬ Home - Edith Whiskers

“A few months later, I was fired for gross misconduct because people were calling customer service to see if they could put blueberries into paint,” he explained in one video.

In a statement to News 6, a spokesperson with Sherwin Williams confirmed Piloseno is no longer an employee and added, “We wish Tony the very best in the next phase of his career.”

“I appreciated what my old company did for me, all the information they had given me and the opportunities, helping me find my passion in a job I really wanted to do,” Piloseno added.

Don Strube, co-founder of Florida Paints, told News 6 he had seen Piloseno’s TikToks before he was fired, and was eager to hire him when the opportunity appeared.

“I’m becoming a bit of a TikTok addict,” Strube said. “I contacted Tony and started the process of convincing him to come to Florida. After our first conversation, I knew he loved our industry. Tony’s gift of delivering what you can do with color gets people excited and thinking about how they can change or improve their environment.”

Piloseno continues to post on his popular TikTok account, now featuring videos shot from his new office.

“What I’m trying to do is change the way paint is marketed and seen by the world,” he said.

“It’s cool,” Strube added. “Everybody needs paint, whether they want to buy it or not. And what is paint? It’s a way to deliver color. And what would the world be like without color?

When Piloseno worked at Sherwin Williams, he said his TikTok account had amassed about 400,000 followers. As of mid-January, it currently has 1.6 million followers.


About the Author:

It has been an absolute pleasure for Clay LePard living and working in Orlando since he joined News 6 in July 2017. Previously, Clay worked at WNEP TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he brought viewers along to witness everything from unprecedented access to the Tobyhanna Army Depot to an interview with convicted double-murderer Hugo Selenski.

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