Brilliant Prank

[JJReyes]

This posting is not meant as commentary that is for or against a politician and his presidential campaign. It is about some adults and teenagers who are too young to vote able to come up with a brilliant prank.

The campaign proudly announced receiving more than one million requests for tickets for their Tulsa, Oklahoma rally.  The indoor stadium can only accommodate 19,000 spectators and another 40,000 spillover crowd in an open area. This announcement discouraged many supporters from even going to the event. While provisions were made for no-shows, the organizers did not realize that many ticket requests were fake. Fans of a K-Pop group realized that they could reserve tickets and never show up.  The prank spread through the Tik-Tok community and eventually to postings on Facebook.  One message received two million views and 700,000 likes. To conceal what they were doing, the postings would be deleted within 24 or 48 hours. Rally organizers and the media had no clue what was happening. 

The Tulsa City fire marshal indicated that there were 6,200 spectators at the rally not counting staff, security and those seated in the VIP sections. Less than the expected 19,000. The outdoor spillover crowd never materialized so the speech for this group was cancelled. The message is, "Never underestimate teenagers."  

 

Edited June 21, 2020 by JJReyes

[Joey G]

OK.... but what's "brilliant" about a prank like this?  So, some teenagers messed someones plans... hope they are "brilliant" enough later in life to do something worthwhile with their time.

[Old55]

Prank or  sabotage? 

Edited June 21, 2020 by Old55

[Dave Hounddriver]

The thread got me interested in researching what happened:

Quote

That said, the original idea for the mass ticket troll may have come not from a teen but from an Iowa woman. The politics site Iowa Starting Line found that a TikTok video posted on June 11 by Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old grandmother from Fort Dodge, Iowa, suggesting that people book free tickets to “make sure there are empty seats.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/did-tiktok-teens-k-pop-fans-punk-trumps-comeback-rally/2020/06/21/f8c11758-b3f9-11ea-9a1d-d3db1cbe07ce_story.html

[scott h]

1 hour ago, Joey G said:

hope they are "brilliant" enough later in life to do something worthwhile with their time.

 

1 hour ago, Old55 said:

Prank or  sabotage?

 

2 hours ago, JJReyes said:

The message is, "Never underestimate teenagers.

So is registering and voting by mail still a good idea............never underestimate,,,,,,,,,,,,"teenagers"  

[Old55]

1 minute ago, scott h said:

 

 

So is registering and voting by mail still a good idea............never underestimate,,,,,,,,,,,,"teenagers"  

What could possibly go wrong with that? 

[scott h]

4 minutes ago, Old55 said:

What could possibly go wrong with that?

And again you brought the first smile of the day to my mug lolol