Miami rapper Pitbull appears to be just fine with visiting a Wal-Mart in Alaska. (Edmond Louis, TVT Records)
The Internet has spoken: Pitbull shall perform in Alaska.
In a product-promo move, the “International Love” rapper, real name Armando Christian Perez, agreed to visit the Wal-Mart that generated the most Facebook likes.
Sounds fun, right? How could social-media democracy possibly go awry?
Enter Boston Phoenix writer David Thorpe, a man so put off by celebrity marketing stunts that he rallied Web troops to“Help us help Wal-Mart exile Pitbull to Alaska.”
“As of now, the Kodiak Walmart has over 22,000 new ‘likes’ on Facebook, putting it far ahead of any other Walmart in the nation — far ahead of Kodiak’s actual population, in fact,” Thorpe wrote.
By Pitbull’s deadline, more than 70,000 users had liked the store, located on a southern isle of the Frontier State with a population of about 6,200.
The Miami-based artist responded to Thorpe’s prank in aYouTube video posted on his Facebook page: “I heard that Kodiak, Alaska has the most likes due to someone that thinks he was playing a prank. I said, ‘Okay, great, this sounds pretty good.’ You got to understand I will go anywhere in the world for my fans,” adding that Thorpe too is invited. Read More
