It seems that artists constantly have to raise the bar to stay relevant these days. But with the rise of social media it has become much easier to do so. Justin Bieber has 28,904,889 followers on twitter, so he decided to use this large fan base to his full advantage.
On Wednesday, October 10, Bieber tweeted, “Yesterday during the show me and my tour manager josh had some stuff stolen. really sucks. people should respect other’s property.” Shortly after, he created a false Twitter account with the handle @gexwy.
The false account claimed they had the stolen computer and camera and they would post his personal footage. “Gexwy” tweeted, “Good job with the password protected @justinbieber. Weak.” The date for this reveal would be Friday, October 12 at #Noon.
#Noon became a trend instantly, and the media swarmed in on this supposed scandal. Justin retweeted 26 news sources, including Fox News Entertainment, that were covering this big event which was sure to tarnish the pop star.
At 12:00 p.m. sharp, Beliebers all over the world sat at their computer waiting to see whatever this perpetrator had to show. However, they soon realized that they were “punked.” Instead of some secret video, they saw the release of the much anticipated “Beauty and a Beat” video featuring Nicki Minaj.
I’m sure his fans were not surprised that Bieber would do something like this, as he is a notorious prankster. Only minutes after the incident, “Justin Bieber” was trending on Twitter and his fans got a good laugh out of the whole ordeal.
Bieber’s career started on YouTube, so he is no stranger to the power it has. This time, he not only pranked his fans but also had the media buzzing over this false claim.
The Video: http://youtu.be/Ys7-6_t7OEQ