Pseudo-events are publicity stunts organized to get people to talk about said organization or person. One of the more popular and larger based pseudo-events is a flash mob. Flash mobs are when a group of people get together and organize a large-scale event that will surprise other people who are not involved. Many flash mobs take place in a mall for promotion, ergo to impress mall-goers.
If you've been living in Canada for even nary a year, you'll have heard of the Christmas Food Court Flash Mob that took place in Ontario. The flash mob was created for promotion of Alphabet Photography (a store in The Welland Seaway Mall), as well as a video card to clients. The idea came from its owner Jennifer Blakeley. She contacted Chorus Niagara to help with her idea, and with support from Seaway mall president Mike Belcastro, set the mob in motion.
On November 13, 2010 Chorus Niagara broke out singing Hallelujah in the mall's food court to the surprise and wonderment of its shoppers. Alphabet Photography uploaded the video days later and it has become and instant YouTube success with close to 30 million views.
With millions of people viewing the video, I can guess that business for Seaway mall and Alphabet Photography has gone up. Having the video released for Christmas was a genius idea as that's when families get together and want to share sweet and interesting holiday videos with each other - a cluster of people singing Hallelujah in a mall filling that void. The video going viral was also helped by news stations like CBC or the BBC picking up the story, the video spreading like wildfire throughout Canada, the US, and some places in Europe.
Alphabet Photography successfully achieved great PR and created a pseudo-event that will be remembered through continuous viral footage and word of mouth.
For more flash mobs, check out Top 7 Flash Mobs Of All Time, where businesses like T-Mobile get on the bandwagon and flash dance to a compilation of songs.
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