Box office hit Get Out inspires a new internet challenge, HBO gets a large audience to watch ice melt, Zara gets called out for a body positive ad, and more stories that went viral this week…
Get Out Inspires the Latest Internet #Challenge
Get Out, the satirical horror film currently dominating at box offices (with an astounding score of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes), has inspired a new #Challenge. Originating as a Snapchat video, the #GetOutChallenge recreates the movie’s chilling scene where one character is running at full speed towards another character before making a sharp turn to avoid impact. Within a matter of days, the original video garnered 3.6 million views, making the challenge as viral as the film and generating comical and “surprisingly spot-on” recreations on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Even NBA celebrity Steph Curry has gotten in on the trend, with a video that has been viewed over 2.5 million times.
Millions of GOT Fans Watched Ice Melt
With the promise of revealing the premiere date of Game of Thrones’ seventh season, HBO made a live stream of ice melting go viral. This week, the network started a Facebook Live stream of a massive block of ice being hit with flame throwers, asking viewers to comment “fire” and “dacarys” to make the ice melt faster and reveal the hidden date inside. The process took a while to say the least, but still drew 1.3 million viewers within an hour of streaming. A few snags and comments from impatient, angry fans later, the network finally released the announcement along with an official teaser which garnered over 28 million views.
Zara’s Body Positive Campaign Backfires
A tweet expressing frustration towards Zara’s choice of models in a body positive ad has gone viral with almost 30,000 likes and over 15,000 retweets. Broadcaster Muireann O’Connell snapped a pic of a “love your curves” poster at a Zara store featuring two slim models, along with the comment, “You have got to be shitting me, Zara.” It has been trending on the platform since, and picked up by Time Magazine, the Huffington Post and Perez Hilton, highlighting the importance of body image issues today, and sparking debate on how it should be handled. In our Body Positive research, 80% of 13-33-year-olds have said they would rather see brand advertisements with models who have curves.
The Best Boyfriend Ever Goes Viral
A university student is getting lots of love on the internet for being a good boyfriend. Earlier in the week, Mark Cadiz tweeted out side by side pictures of him wearing sneakers and then wearing women’s sandals, adding the caption “When bae has a chem lab and she forgot her shoes lol.” His girlfriend explained that with the stress of midterms she forgot to wear close-toe shoes to her chemistry class—but instead of having to drive back home and change, her boyfriend offered his shoes to her. Cadiz’s tweet has since been liked over 160,000 times and retweeted over 35,00 times, with many on the internet dubbing him “best boyfriend ever.”
Links We’re Passing
A video of two talented little boys tossing pizza in a Jersey City shop has garnered over 24 million views, the latest dance craze is #LilUziVertChallenge, and TIME gets called out for a tweet about Amal Clooney’s baby bump while she was speaking at the UN.
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