Red Paperclip Story Lost In Translation
from the all-about-the-profits dept
Last year, there was a ton of hype about the "feel good" story of the guy who traded one red paperclip up to a house through a series of barters. It was a nice, fun story and the press ate it up. Of course, as with any internet hit, it wasn't long before there were a number of copycats. However, over in China, it appears that something got a little lost in the translation. A guy in China who still insists that the original story couldn't possibly have been true, figured he could make up the same thing and created a copycat, except the whole thing was pretty much made up by the guy. He got some woman who wanted to be a rock star, changed her name, and then set up a similar site, as the woman, pretending that she wanted to trade a red paperclip (he didn't even change the color) for a house. He then kicked off a whole media blitz (which the media fell for) and made himself $37,000 over a few months as the media went nuts over this woman. The woman got a recording contract... and then dropped the whole "trading" thing and lots of folks got angry at the guy who set it up. However, he still insists that he's no different than Kyle MacDonald, the original red paperclip guy -- other than the fact that Kyle wasn't as good (so the Chinese guy says) at monetizing his scam. He also says that it's been good for business, as lots of others who want to become famous on the internet are now coming to him for help. So, apparently, we can start to expect cheap Chinese knockoffs of other internet hype campaigns as well.
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Still, the game MacDonald played to get a house was pretty freakin' cool. I wonder if anyone can do it just as easily? I could use the cash.
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The MacDonald story wasn't exactly true. Dude was a blogger and Ted Talker who just made it up/manufactured it.
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I want to trade a hook
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You seem sceptical about whether the Chinese guy is better at monetizing the scheme - well he's only Chinese !
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troll bait
Paranoid, way too paranoid. This is a human interest story, not a racial statement. Your little rant comes across as flame-bait. Get off your soapbox and chill...
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Re: troll bait
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Anyone is capable but it will not be easy to do. He had time to dedicate to publicity and bartering, slightly more than most working people I know. If you want to get into the alternative advertising arena then this is the task for you.
On the other hand, I have a display sword for trade...
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AWSOME
thanks for the idea!!!!!! lol
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