Snopes sheds light on the origins of another beloved Christmas myth: “The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer… was developed for commercial purposes by a Montgomery Ward copywriter at the specific request of his employer…”

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Snopes.com

Was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer created to bring comfort to a girl whose mother was dying of cancer?

CLAIM
The character ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ was created by a father to bring comfort to his daughter as her mother was dying of cancer.

WHAT’S TRUE
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by a man whose wife was dying of cancer.

WHAT’S FALSE
The story of Rudolph was created by a father to bring comfort to his daughter as her mother lay dying of cancer.

ORIGIN
To most of us, the character of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, immortalized in song and a popular holiday television special, has always been an essential part of our Christmas folklore, but Rudolph is in fact a mid-twentieth century invention whose creation can be traced to a specific time and person

Read the whole story here.

Olympian Michael Phelps unsurprisingly lost his Sunday race against a simulated great white shark.

“Twitter users blast Michael Phelps for not racing a real shark”
by Chris Perez
New York Post
July 24, 2017

Can you blame him?

Social media users were tearing Michael Phelps to shreds for his "race" against a Great White shark on Sunday night - calling it a "scam" - after he chose to swim side-by-side with a simulation, instead of the real thing.

"Don't say Phelps is racing a shark if you're not going to put him against an actual shark,"
tweeted Breyanna Davis, who was one of countless viewers to get confused over the way the televised swimming competition went down.

"So you mean to tell me Michael Phelps didn't even race a real shark? It was just a simulation. I'm mad. More like Shark WEAK!" said Frank Costa.

User @M_Frosti added, "smh Michael Phelps isn't actually racing a shark. He's just racing a simulation of a shark. Biggest scam of 2017." Read more.

A clever and controversial Burger King TV ad stokes fears about the internet of things and our accelerating rate of information exchange.

“Burger King's new ad forces Google Home to advertise the Whopper”
by Jacob Kastrenakes
The Verge
April 12, 2017

Burger King is unveiling a horrible, genius, infuriating, hilarious, and maybe very poorly thought-out ad today that's designed to intentionally set off Google Homes and Android phones.

The 15-second ad features someone in a Burger King uniform leaning into the camera before saying, "OK Google, what is the Whopper burger?"

For anyone with a Google Home near their TV, that strangely phrased request will prompt the speaker to begin reading the Wikipedia entry for the Whopper. It's a clever way of getting viewers' attention, but it's also a really quick way of getting on viewers' nerves - just look at the reactions people had when ads accidentally triggered voice assistants in the past.
“Burger King's ad relies on Wikipedia, which is maybe not a good idea”

While Burger King is far from the first to recognize that it's possible to mess with someone else's smart speaker, it's certainly the first to put it into a widely run ad campaign. The spot is supposed to begin running in prime-time slots across the US today on networks including History, Spike, Comedy Central, MTV, E!, and Bravo, and it will air during Adult Swim, The Tonight Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Google wasn't involved in the ad's creation. That means this isn't an expansion of Google's ad tests (people weren't happy when Google built a Beauty and the Beast ad into the speaker), but it also leads to some real issues for Burger King. For one, it has to use weird phrasing - "What is the Whopper burger?" - because that's the query that actually gets the result it wants. Asking "What is a Whopper?" gets you the definition of the word "whopper."

And then there's the bigger problem: Google gets its explanation of the Whopper from Wikipedia. And as we all know, anyone's free to edit Wikipedia. Read more.

Hate to be the bearers of bad news, but that dude riding an ostrich in rush-hour traffic was part of a viral marketing stunt. Shocker.

“Yep, That Video Of A Guy Riding An Ostrich Through Traffic Is Totally Fake”
by Lee Moran
Huffington Post
September 4, 2016

It was a brilliant idea to beat the traffic.

But sadly the viral video (above) of a man riding an ostrich to beat rush hour in Almaty, Kazakhstan, is totally fake.

The Bank of Astana claimed it was behind the hoax dash cam-style footage on Friday, after the video spread like wildfire across the web.

“What possessed us when creating this idea? The thought that many of us live bored and pragmatic lives,” the bank posted on Facebook.

“Team Bank of Astana believes that we need to stop just daydreaming “• and we must act to embody our wildest dreams, here and now,” it added. Read more.

Arnold Pranks Fans as the Terminator…to benefit after school programs (and promote his upcoming film)

Brought to you by Docomo Wireless Carrier to promote the high-speed capability of their new LTE network…

Watch the video

via Yahoo News

From Charlie Todd of Improv Everywhere:

The Pirates of Central Park

For our latest mission, we staged a pirate invasion on the Central Park Lake, converting a rowboat rental into a pirate ship. Actors dressed as pirates from Disney”™s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction set sail on the lake, searching for the keys to their treasure chest. The pirates interrogated the New Yorkers and tourists on other rowboats and by the shore, much to their delight.

Enjoy the video and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos.

Created and Directed by Charlie Todd / Produced by: Deverge / Music by Tyler Walker

Update, September 23, 2014: BUSTED! Snopes.com exposes this titillating hoax.

Intent on getting an MTV reality show, Jasmine Tridevil (not her real name) gets a third breast implanted on her chest…

Jasmine Tridevil Gets Third Boob ‘Because I Don’t Want To Date Anymore’
by Andy Campbell
The Huffington Post
September 22, 2014

A Florida woman spent $20,000 to get a third boob surgically implanted on her chest in a twisted attempt to look less attractive to men.

“I don’t want to date anymore,” Jasmine Tridevil, 21, said in a recent radio broadcast when asked why she added the extra mammary complete with an artificial nipple and tattoo to resemble an areola.

But she’s still proud of the triple nipple.

(more…)

The “Fight ALS (aka Lou Gehrigs Disease) with the Ice Bucket Challenge” campaign has been wildly successful, raising more than $94 Million dollars in just a few months to help raise awareness and find a cure for this debilitating disease. Millions of people all over the world have been videotaped letting someone pour ice water over their heads (or doing it themselves). And in their enthusiasm, there have been some spectacular fails:

An ambitious prankster sometimes needs an assist from co-conspirators with some leverage. But those people may have more to lose.

British pop singer Lily Allen has a long history of orchestrated controversy and publicity stunts, but her latest online jape may have put jobs at risk.

According to The New Zealand Herald, Allen landed at Gold Coast airport in Australia and apparently convinced security personnel to cuff her and pretend to arrest her. She posted this picture to her Instagram account with the tag “#uhoh.”

This photo of Lily Allen in handcuffs has been removed from Instagram.

It got thousands of “likes,” but it’s gone now. And airport authorities say the incident is being “investigated internally.” Allen, for her part, is in the clear and free to continue spreading her unpredictable brand of sass.

From Erin: Wait till you see the new Barbie doll!

American Apparel’s Valentines’ Day window display causes a sensation on New York’s Lower East Side. Read about it at rawstory.com and Gothamist

From Tim Jackson: Special effects are creeping into the real world: A beautifully constructed prank used to advertise a new horror film, “Devil’s Due”. Wait ’till one of these causes a real heart attack.

An animatronic “devil baby” in a remote controlled stroller goes on a rampage through the streets of New York City and hidden cameras record people’s reactions.

Watch the video:

Submitted by Joe King: Spoiler alert… get out your hankies

From WestJet:

“…with the help of 175 WestJet volunteers, three airports and Santa himself, we made a Christmas miracle happen for more than 250 guests on two Calgary-bound flights.

Watch the video

From Joe King:

The ‘alien jellyfish’ WAS a hoax!
by Ellie Zolfagharifard and Sarah Griffiths
DailyMail.co.uk

Glowing creature in Bristol harbour turns out to be publicity stunt for a TV programme

Videos of light appeared on YouTube with many claiming it to be an ‘alien’

Biologists suggested it may be a marine salp which has drifted off course

But it turns out the ‘alien’ creature was placed in the harbour to promote a new TV programme about magic that will air on Watch.

…The guerrilla campaign was created to launch a new show called “˜The Happenings”™ on Watch, which features the magicians “˜Barry and Stewart”™ and is made by the producers of Derren Brown.

…It launches on Monday December 9 at 9pm on Watch.

Read the rest of this article and watch the video here.

To attract people to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles Holiday Spectacular, December 14-15, 2013 at the Alex Theatre, GMCLA parodies the KMart “Show Your Joe” ad.

Watch the videos:

The Original KMart Ad: