Koi UFO Video 110 : Huge water slide (Megawoosh)
[DEBUNKED] Koi UFO Video 109 (with "UFO" standing for "Unbelievable Filmed Occurrence", an acronym for which you can credit/blame ufologist Curt Collins...) was uploaded to Youtube on 3 August 2009 with the title "MEGAWOOSH - Bruno Kammerl jumps" and it appears to show a man going down a huge waterslide on the side of a hill before launching off a ramp at its base and flying through the air into a small paddling pool.
The original copy of the video had over 6.8 million views on Youtube as at January 2016. There are multiple further copies on Youtube. The video is regularly posted on Facebook, usually with no accompanying text. During 2015, I would estimate that I saw this video being posted (often in UFO discussion groups) about once every week or two.
In fact, the "megawoosh" video was a hoax created as a viral advertisement for Microsoft Germany by advertising agency MRM Germany. It was seeded onto more than 60 websites by viral marketing agency Elbkind, hired by MRM. Within a few days of the video being released on Youtube in August 2009, online discussion of the registration of one of the Megawoosh websites by an employee of the German subsidiary of marketing agency MRM Wordlwide quickly prompted MRM Germany CEO Alexander Ewig to state in a press release (emailed to Gigaom.com on 11 August 2009) that “We developed Megaswoosh as a viral campaign for Microsoft Germany”. Maik Koenigs of Elbkind told Janko Roettgers of Gigaom that the video was a case of creative compositing, combining several elements together to create a final video. Gigaom reported in August 2009 that it had been told that a stuntman slides down the slide, secured by a rope. Then there’s a body flying through the air, which is animated. And finally, the big splash. “He actually jumped from a wooden ramp into the pool,” explained Koenigs. Of course, you don’t get to see any of this in the final clip, thanks to careful editing that makes it look like a single take".
Despite the admission in August 2009 that the video was a viral advert for Microsoft, in 2010 it featured in an episode of Mythbusters (Season 8 Episode 8) in a segment entitled "Waterslide Wipeout". The Mythbusters team "busted" this video on the basis that a person would not have flown through the air to anything like the distance shown in the hoax video. The Mythbusters first built a scale model of the slide, and discovered that the concept was plausible. For some reason, the Mythbusters team neglected to mention that the hoax had been admitted long before they "busted" the video...
The video continues to circulate online. This is one of the best examples of a viral video that refuses to die. Since the video is amusing it continues to circulate in cyberspace even though the events on the video aren't real. Viral videos are simply the latest proof that people don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
3. The real background to this video
4. Relevant online discussions
1. The relevant video
This video appears to show a man going down a huge waterslide on the side of a hill before launching off a ramp at its base and flying through the air into a small paddling pool.
Screen shots from this video are included below for ease of identification.
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
The original copy of the video had over 6.8 million views on Youtube as at January 2016. There are multiple further copies on Youtube. The video is regularly posted on Facebook, usually with no accompanying text. During 2015, I would estimate that I saw this video being posted (often in UFO discussion groups) about once every week or two.
3. The real background to this video
In fact, the "megawoosh" video was a hoax created as a viral advertisement for Microsoft Germany by advertising agency MRM Germany. It was seeded onto more than 60 websites by viral marketing agency Elbkind, hired by MRM.
Within a few days of the video being released on Youtube in August 2009, online discussion of the registration of one of the Megawoosh websites by an employee of the German subsidiary of marketing agency MRM Wordlwide quickly prompted MRM Germany CEO Alexander Ewig to state in a press release (emailed to Gigaom.com on 11 August 2009) that “We developed Megaswoosh as a viral campaign for Microsoft Germany”. Maik Koenigs of Elbkind told Janko Roettgers of Gigaom that the video was a case of creative compositing, combining several elements together to create a final video. Gigaom reported in August 2009 that it had been told that a stuntman slides down the slide, secured by a rope. Then there’s a body flying through the air, which is animated. And finally, the big splash. “He actually jumped from a wooden ramp into the pool,” explained Koenigs. Of course, you don’t get to see any of this in the final clip, thanks to careful editing that makes it look like a single take".
A video can be seen online of the stuntman visibly secured by the rope, used to film the first element of the composite video.
The admission of a hoax received coverage from the mainstream media in August 2009. For example, the website of Sky News published an article entitled "Death-Defying Stunt Exposed As Clever Fake" reporting that MRM Worldwide had issued a statement which included the following:
"We really enjoyed the discussion about whether our film was real or not.
"At the beginning we didn't want to tell at all, but after reading several people's comments, who were seriously thinking about trying this on their own, we decided to reveal officially that we used some digital magic to make the film.
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT TRYING THIS! IT'S JUST A MOVIE."
...
"With Megawoosh, we developed a viral campaign for Microsoft Germany which generated unbelievable response in communities, in just a few hours," it added.
Despite the admission in August 2009 that the video was a viral advert for Microsoft, in 2010 it featured in an episode of Mythbusters (Season 8 Episode 8) in a segment entitled "Waterslide Wipeout". The Mythbusters team "busted" this video on the basis that a person would not have flown through the air to anything like the distance shown in the hoax video. The Mythbusters first built a scale model of the slide, and discovered that the concept was plausible. They then built the full size ramp next to a lake so that they could avoid injury if they missed the target. After several runs, the Mythbusters concluded that the 115-foot (35 m) flight distance was impossible, as they could only travel at a maximum distance of 72 ft (22 m) with a peak speed of 30 mph (48 km/h). During the closing credits of that episode, the MythBusters briefly mentioned that while they had been busting the video in the field, their researchers had busted the video in cyberspace by contacting the people responsible for making the video and receiving confirmation that the video was made using CG (computer graphics).
For some reason, the Mythbusters team neglected to mention that the hoax had been admitted long before they "busted" the video...
The relevant segments of that Mythbusters episode total about 20 minutes, of which part can be seen online.
Despite the admission of a hoax and the Mythbusters episode showing that the physics in the video simply don't work in the real world, the video continues to circulate online. This is one of the best examples of a viral video that refuses to die. Since the video is amusing it continues to circulate in cyberspace even though the events on the video aren't real. Viral videos are simply the latest proof that people don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.
4. Relevant online discussions
Relevant online discussions include the following:
2009 (August) discussion on the Unexplained-Mysteries discussion forum entitled "Megawoosh"
2011 (August) discussion on the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum entitled "the ease of HQ video fakery"
