

Pretending to game the system: Fans hoax "Girlfriend" vid to the #1 spot on YouTube. - wmeredith
http://www.voltagecreative.com/blog/2008/08/girlfriend-video-tops-youtube-with-viral-viral-marketing-not-a-typo/

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icey
I have to admit, I never thought the day would come that I would think "Wow,
that Avril Lavigne fansite sure had some good strategy."

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OneSeventeen
No kidding. Great reality hack.

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sanj
This reminds me of my third most favourite MIT hack:

In 1998, Bill Clinton gave MIT's commencement address.

The MIT administration discovered that a rather embarrassing hack was planned.
To forestall it, a few days before commencement, a sternly worded message was
emailed around:

 _Any students who appear at the commencement exercises wearing a black beret,
a blue dress, kneepads, or any combination thereof will be denied entrance._

Needless to say, the hack itself was never intended to be performed.

~~~
mleonhard
Who were they trying to get excluded from the commencement?

~~~
zenspider
Monica Lewinsky

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clay
Those tech journalists that wrote those stories didn't even check out how
youtube deals with these things... How obscenely lazy can you be?

~~~
astine
They're not lazy, they're looking for a good story. It's good business to spin
a mundane story as sensational news. They're after the same thing as Avril
Lavigne, views.

~~~
TFrancis
As people generating entertainment for their readers, you're right. It was a
good story. But, as "journalist" they, in my opinion, are lazy. They failed to
fully research the issue and present it as clearly as possible.

~~~
astine
If by 'journalist' you mean someone who how a vocation of providing the public
with important news and information, you for have a fundamental
misunderstanding of the modern news-media. True journalists, I'm afraid, are
few and far between. Muckracking is a far more profitable occupation, both in
terms of finance and popularity. It's why idiots with voting power are a
better filter than your standard copy-editor. Money and power are self
reinforcing pursuits; truth and integrity are not.

</pessimism>

On the plus side: once you realize how the system works, you are free to game
it to get your message across. It becomes amazing the kind of stunts you can
perform.

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ALee
This effect should have a name- it would kill me if someone called it the
Girlfriend Effect.

A) Hack (that fakes A). B) As media cries foul, the media causes A to happen.
C) Echo chamber as bloggers find out the real story, which adds to A (not
necessary, this just adds to the effect).

It's not the Streisand Effect because there is no attempt to ban, it's that
the media exposure causes the hoax to become real. So, I'm sure there is a
ghost story/supernatural/Greek myth parallel somewhere.

~~~
wmeredith
The wolf cry that attracted the wolf?

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mynameishere
Horrible song. And why does _every_ pop song have voice resampling these days?

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nuclear_eclipse
Since I don't really listen to pop, what are you meaning by 'voice
resampling', and what does it do for/to the song?

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mynameishere
It's "auto tune". The original idea was to correct mistakes, but it's now used
as an effect, specifically the "cher effect". It's not too excessive in the
above song, but it's still pretty bad.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Believe_>(Cher_song)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bTREzJL83A>

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shiranaihito
It was extremely unfortunate how that (kind of) effect became a trend in
soulless mainstream music for many years to come.

A similar effect was used extensively on Blackstreet's album "Another Level",
where it caused much less harm (being more restrained).

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beaudeal
honestly, i didn't think the day would come that i would be so impressed by
the ingenuity of the avril lavigne fan club in relation to viral marketing.
kudos.

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petercooper
Interesting strategy, but Girlfriend came out 18 months ago. That post reviews
the song and the song as if they're something new.

