Last week, a photo that appeared to show Justin Bieber eating a burrito in the way that others might play a harmonica spread like wildfire on the Internet. It caused no small degree of distress on social media, and ultimately inspired some significant media coverage. It turns out the image, which seemingly captured an incognito Bieber having a troubled lunch on a park bench, was a prank by the YouTube channel Yes Theory. The group posted a video showing the brainstorming for the stunt, and posted footage of them staging the photo with Bieber look-alike Brad Sousa, who the YouTubers flew in from Canada.
The video also shows the process of the group working to get the picture to go viral, through techniques like posting to Reddit (it took hold thanks to r/mildlyinfuriating) and building credibility to court media coverage. “To get this thing to go viral, we have to have people in the news think it’s real, because those are the people who are gonna spread it,” Thomas Brag of Yes Theory explains at one point. Watch the 12-plus-minute clip below, if you’re interested in further details.
For real, more crucial weird-Bieber news, check out our recent investigation, Is Justin Bieber’s Solo Trip to Disney California Adventure Cool or Sad?
does….justin bieber not know how… burritos work ? pic.twitter.com/WWKP2ttARe
— Ryan Bassil (@ryanbassil) October 25, 2018
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