Sunday, September 2, 2007

When nobody becomes Somebody

I consider giL my mentor in my new blogging hobby and what a good mentor he has been!

Yesterday giL published a post about the second most popular clip on YouTube this week showing the incomprehensible answer Miss Teen USA South Carolina 2007 gives in a beauty contest to one of those questions which normally should have an answer like "I would like to save the Earth" or something similar.
Since my opinion of the clip was quite different from giL's, I even commented the post in his blog. Another comment from cooper suggests that the girl probably will be famous because of it.

I very much agree with cooper on that and I have an example here from Finland. Our country is very small, but because of the internet, even a Finnish person can get famous by doing something so funny that the video starts to get more and more watchers.

Olli Hokkanen made himself famous or like Wikipedia describes it: became an internet phenomenon in Finland after failing his attempt to drink 1.5 litres of Coca-Cola on the television show Ennätystehdas ("Record Factory").

On the television broadcast Hokkanen attempted to drink 1.5 litres of Coca-Cola that was poured into seven regular-sized glasses. No specific time limit was set, since there was no knowledge of an existing record for drinking 1.5 litres of Coke in Finland. Hokkanen abandoned his effort after drinking three glasses. After the third glass of Coke, Hokkanen commented on the high carbonic acid level of the drink, by saying the now famous words, "Ei pysty, on niin hapokasta" ("Can't do it. Too acidic"). The host asked him whether or not he was surprised at the fact that Coca-Cola contains carbonic acid. Hokkanen then explained that at home he usually keeps his bottles open for some time so that the drink becomes less 'acidic' and thus easier to drink. Prior to the attempt Hokkanen had said that he was an experienced Coke drinker since early childhood.

I happened to see the actual show on TV and had a good laugh but I would never have imagined where it would lead.

After the broadcast of the seventh episode of Ennätystehdas, the Internet phenomenon started to emerge. The YouTube video-sharing service was the most important distribution channel for the video, which has been watched over one million times (as of July 2007). In addition to the video, new edited video clips, edited images and pieces of music related to the event appeared. T-shirts with a text "Can't do it – too acidic" in Finnish have been sold. Hokkanen also claims that rubber masks resembling him have been made.


The story of Olli Hokkanen continues at the moment and Wikipedia seems to get updated regularly. Even though Olli Hokkanen was laughed at by everybody, he thinks that publicity has more benefits than disadvantages and that this was like winning in the Lottery.

here is the video with English Subtitles, judge for yourself :)



3 comments:

Gil said...

Thank you for your kind words Leena. Though I really don't feel much of a mentor for anything its always good to hear other people appreciate your efforts. This Olli Hokkanen story is very cool indeed. I think it shows how mass media is replacing the ancient wars in formulating our new heroes.

Leena Helttula said...

You are too modest giL! You are an excellent mentor for me and that's the main thing. You answer patiently to my questions but also give me a chance to develop on my own. Both of these qualities are very important to me. Besides, remember that you convinced me to start this in the first place.

Tanny said...

Leena, your blog looks great!!!