Hocus focus: how magicians made a fortune on Facebook
source link: https://www.economist.com/1843/2022/07/28/hocus-focus-how-magicians-made-a-fortune-on-facebook
Go to the source link to view the article. You can view the picture content, updated content and better typesetting reading experience. If the link is broken, please click the button below to view the snapshot at that time.
Hocus focus: how magicians made a fortune on Facebook
A group of illusionists got rich making addictive videos for social media. Did it cost them their souls?
By Ashley Mears
If you were online at some point last spring, there’s a good chance you’ll have scrolled past a video in which a woman squirts whipped cream and chocolate syrup into a toilet bowl. In the video, which was posted on Facebook and TikTok and picked up by various news sites, the woman garlands the mixture with maraschino cherries and rainbow sprinkles, prompting a man behind the camera to gush: “Oh my goodness, that is so extra!” Then she picks up a straw.
The woman later posted a photo of herself with a friend, both apparently sipping merrily from the bowl. “You’re going to get dysentery,” warned one disgusted comment. Of course, she isn’t really drinking a toilet milkshake: the unnerving enthusiasm with which she swirls the whipped cream beneath the rim stops you realising that, unless you suck it, putting a straw in your mouth doesn’t actually bring you into contact with what’s at the other end.
Already have an account? Log in
Get to the end of the story
Subscribe today for just ¥3,864 ¥2,100/first month. Cancel at any time
View subscription options- Distinctive global analysis with more than 100 articles a week on The Economist app and economist.com
- An immersive world with podcasts and digital newsletters
- Intelligent debate with a global community in subscriber-only digital events
Recommend
About Joyk
Aggregate valuable and interesting links.
Joyk means Joy of geeK