A company tried to fool the internet with fake viral videos for 2 years
You may have heard of Zardulu, the possible creator of the subway pizza rat, but now there is a new fake viral video machine in town.
An Australian company has come clean, telling the world it has been creating fake videos for two years with the intention of them going viral and fooling news sites and TV news channels around the world.
The Woolshed Company, a film production firm based in Melbourne, produced eight videos, including viral hits involving a bear chasing a snowboarder, a shark spotted in Sydney Harbour and a lion taking revenge on a trophy hunter.
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Some of the videos were clearly fake, and were often debated on the news rather than covered. But in a statement on its website, the company said the debate around authenticity helped to spread the videos further.
In what it labelled a "social experiment," The Woolshed Company claimed it received more than 205 million views across 180 countries and 1.6 million "Likes" on Facebook. In other words, it screwed with a lot of people and created work for a lot of photo manipulation experts.
"We set out to better understand exactly how to create short-form, highly sharable, ‘snackable’ content, that is capable of reaching worldwide mass audiences without the luxury of pricey media buys, ad campaigns, publicity strategies or distribution deals," the company explained on its website.
Think you've got the eye to spot a fake Stormtrooper falling down a staircase? Why don't you spend the day testing yourself on the full collection of hoax videos:
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Jenni Ryall is Mashable's VP of Content Strategy. She spends her time launching cool, new things such as Mashable Deals and Mashable Reels. On the other days, she is developing strong partnerships with companies including Apple News, Flipboard, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.
