Because Everybody Loves a Challenge
February 4th, 2008 by Alec McNayrPosted in Marketing, Metrics, Viral | No Comments »YouTuber Neil Cicierega, who posted popular Harry Potter Puppet clips, posted a video in early January inviting people to post death threats on his life.
He outlines the criteria for the death threats (plans, motives, feelings afterwards) and the prize for his “death threat of choice” (a restraining order). The video has been viewed over 150,000 times (150,001 if you watch below).
Talk about viral. There are 293 response videos to his request, detailing the many ways he can expect to be maimed, tortured, and even killed.
What an ironic commentary on our time that Neil, an internet celebrity, uses YouTube to encourage pseudo-stalking for purposes of comedy, statement, and/or publicity.
If nothing else, it’s an interesting case study on engaging user interaction.
