Did Zug punk the entirety of the Super Bowl-watching population this year, an estimated 90 million people? Or is their chronicle of "the most ambitious prank in history" a prank in and of itself? We don't know the answer -- for the record, we're leaning towards hoax -- but Zug claims that with some social networking and 2,350 Prince-themed pendants (ordered from Chinese manufacturer Ok Fun Times Electronics Co.), they were able to get the audience to light up and spell out ZUG.COM during the halftime show, thinking they'd instead be spelling out PRINCE. Ok, makes sense, but you'd think everyone would have heard about this by now, right? Well, Zug claims the media's been trying to cover it up; they expect us to imagine how few would really want to admit that five unauthorized people could transport a quarter ton of boxes on pallets -- contents unknown -- into the most televised sporting event of the year. For the record, what was the cost on this supposed stunt? $40,000 in equipment and legal fees, as well as a 2nd mortgage on lead prankster John Hargrave's home.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
o rlly @ Mar 17th 2007 5:54PM
And they copied the prank done on Harvard. http://www.harvardsucks.org/
Real original.
Rjay @ Mar 17th 2007 6:14PM
Original??
Yale copied this prank from MIT in 1982 during the Yale-Harvard game. Do your homework.
Sandeep @ Mar 17th 2007 6:06PM
It seems plausible but at the same time the media would've run away with this, with the unabated bashing of our current president and his policies, rather than covering it up.
If they could blow this up into an example of how much homeland security sucks, it would be bona fide promotion material for the reporter.
Then again, the rest of zug's pranks seem to have been legit, so I don't really know what to make of this.
Zadillo @ Mar 17th 2007 6:51PM
Yeah, how dare the media report on our glorious leader's policies in anything other than glowing praise. The bashing continues, unabated!
Dan @ Mar 17th 2007 6:30PM
By the fact I never heard of this prank till now, or even witnessed it) even though I watched the whole halftime show), I'd have to say this stunt tanked, as I haven't heard anything about it till now. The media would eat a story like this alive, we all would have known about this prank had it really been done. No way would the media cover this up. I don't believe it.
crescentdavid @ Mar 17th 2007 6:32PM
If it's true it's a completely different order of magnitude than the harvard one. The scope and logistics are what would define the greatness of the zug prank.
Original in scope and execution. Original in capability- imagine- at one of the most tightly (!) guarded, level 1 security, mass audience events (can you say homeland in-security), it goes beyond surprising, into the realms of frightening. A quarter ton of merchandise was smuggled into the stadium and dispensed- all while being surrounded by over 3000 security guards, roving bomb squads and dog patrols.
My only objection is the title- it should read: Bush & US Homeland Security Punked. Bigtime.
Kirk @ Mar 17th 2007 6:33PM
consider the "If you enjoyed the Super Stunt, e-mail the video to a friend, customized with your OWN secret message!" on the last page.
The "zug.com" is imposed on the video
I have to admit that one of my friends asked "did that say 'penis'?" when they showed a shot of letters in the crowd during the game.
Jason Stewart @ Mar 17th 2007 6:33PM
Big doubts here. I have an HD copy of the performance and didn't see anything like that (even from the same angle). Do these guys say exactly when the prank happened?
dougfeig @ Mar 17th 2007 6:42PM
I read this article and really wanted to believe it, but look:
http://alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=zug.com
Click the Page Views tab on the graph. The super bowl was on february 4th. I find it hard to believe there was so little impact on pageviews if this were true. Looks like Zug really pranked us.
shifzr @ Mar 17th 2007 6:54PM
made it to the visdeo at the end of the story?
"If you enjoyed the Super Stunt, e-mail the video to a friend, customized with your OWN secret message!"
walk2k @ Mar 17th 2007 7:02PM
photoshop
droopy1592 @ Mar 17th 2007 7:06PM
I have it Tivo-ed in hi-def and I just watched it over again. I didn't see it at first, but if you watch when they start singing proud mary (rolling on the river) you can definitely make it out, althought it isn't as clearly spelled out as the picture would indicate.
droopy1592 @ Mar 17th 2007 7:08PM
Yeah I watched their video on there site right at the end it looks exactly like my tivo-ed version and they just gradually improve the contrast on the letters w/ photoshop in the video
David Li @ Mar 17th 2007 7:10PM
This was on digg awhile ago:
http://digg.com/mods/Hacking_the_Superbowl_An_Expensive_Dud_Video
As you can see, this was posted pretty much right after it happened. If you search on digg, you will also find:
27 days ago: http://digg.com/television/Biggest_Superbowl_Prank_Ever
19 days ago: http://digg.com/offbeat_news/World_s_Cheapest_Super_Bowl_Ad
8 days ago: digg.com/security/Secret_Terrorist_Messages_in_Superbowl_Halftime_Show
1 day ago:
digg.com/offbeat_news/Zug_hacks_the_Super_Bowl
1 hour ago:
digg.com/offbeat_news/Hoax_or_prank_did_Zug_really_punk_the_whole_Super_Bowl
(lol, there's a 3 url limit)
So, um, looks like engadget editors are just totally out of the blogosphere?
Sam @ Mar 17th 2007 7:34PM
Basically they wanted publicity, but they didn't get it, and now they are extremely pissed off and attempting to get someone to actually believe their stupid prank. I watched the game, in Hi-Def, and saw nothing even resembling the words that were supposedly spelled out. Honestly I don't believe you could get that much merchandise snuck into a highly guarded event such as the super bowl, much less do I believe that 1 or 2 people could have done it, and it's further unbelievable because if I remember right, everyone in the audience had a glow-stick during this years half-time performance. You couldn't have spotted the necklaces that everyone was supposedly wearing anyway.
I hope absolutely no media outlets pick up this story (or lack thereof) or if they do, it leads to the arrest of the zug idiots for (allegedly) smuggling in items to the superbowl. They should have thought this prank through; the prank being pranking everyone into thinking that they actually did it (which they obviously didn't). It's either going to get them in deep shit (if they really did it) or flamed off the face of the earth.
Dark Eagle @ Mar 17th 2007 7:35PM
Rob Cockerham http://www.cockeyed.com was apart of this. He's been slowly putting up a 'blow by blow' account of doing the prank.
http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/hargrave/superbowl01.shtml
He starts off with a bit of history behind the prank concept citing the 1961 Rosebowl Game and the 2004 Harvard/Yale football game.
Mr. Cockerham is
Chris @ Mar 17th 2007 8:03PM
if you are going to call the prank a ripoff at least get the origin right. it was first done by caltech during the 1961 rose bowl. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/pranks/rosebowl.html
Dave @ Mar 17th 2007 8:39PM
Well, it's pretty obviously fishy. Click on the link that says send the video to a friend- it lets you customize the message shown at the end of the video at the super bowl. Also this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phv2MGc_vV0 shows a different Super Bowl prank how do they explain that supposed one?
Dave @ Mar 17th 2007 8:42PM
Not saying that I believe it wasn't a hoax, but those are different points during the show- one has the red prince sign, the other white.
corgilabsG @ Mar 17th 2007 8:43PM
how did the blue light travel better than the red light? ah, yes. they created a worm hole above the audience.
JD @ Mar 17th 2007 8:49PM
First done by Caltech? This was way old news in 1961. There are many previous examples of this particular prank, with the earliest I can think of dating back to Book XII of the Iliad, where the Greeks during one of the libation games on the beach unknowingly spelled out (in greek, of course) TROY instead of ZEUS, followed by a picture of the Trojan mascot, a horse (which later served as inspiration for the Greek's more well-known counter-prank). This actually predates a similar episode found in Ecclesiastes 3:9, which although set during the reign of David, prior to the events in the Iliad, was written after Homer's work and is generally assumed to have been a ripoff of the Trojans' original prank.
droopy1592 @ Mar 17th 2007 8:55PM
SooperGooman, you are taking snap shots at the beginning and end, where the prince sign was blue/purple. It was only red during proud mary, closer toward to middle. Watch the whole proud mary song.
My timing isn't good enough to pause exactly where it's most clear, but I did take a snapshot and u can see a few of the letters.
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j124/droopy1592/vlcsnap-2152553.jpg
Anonymous @ Mar 17th 2007 9:37PM
Droopy's screenshot sorta almost confirms that lights might have been passed out at the game, but I've run the image through multiple filters and I can't pick out a single letter of "Zug . com" so at this point we can come to 2 possible conclusions; 1: The pendents were passed out, but there was so much light, combined with not everyone having turned them on, so you couldn't see the letters and thus it was a failure or 2:They were never passed out, and the idiots at zug saw some lights in the crowd and decided to claim they had done it (for publicity)
Either way, it's more or less a non-story
NeoK182 @ Mar 17th 2007 10:13PM
I can say right now this is bullshit. This 'prank' is the prank. trying to get us to believe it. I worked staff at the Super Bowl setting up for 4 days before the game. And every person who went got one of these lights, not just people in certain areas. Everyone got the light necklace and the small LED flashlight it was part of the half time package that was given out. These necklaces were given out as you walked into the stadium. I got to see the boxes of these while my group was given more seat cushions to put on the seats.
And i know someone will call bullshit on this but i did work there. I worked for 4 days before the game as part of the South Florida Council Boy Scouts who went there to help set up. We were given the staff white XLI shirt (without the staff on the back) the entire seat cushion and pepsi half time show gift pack and a special SFC Super Bowl XLI patch for each day that we worked. Only thing we didn't get were those necklaces because they were from prince not the pepsi show.
Aroon Saini @ Mar 17th 2007 10:31PM
^^^ thats what i thot too, the prank was them getting us to believe they did this...
buh then i read the entire thing on ZUG, and watched the video, and it looks legit.. but i styll think the prank is the prank like u stated
Dave P @ Mar 17th 2007 10:51PM
seriously I HOPE this is real. On their web site they claim "The cheapest super bowl commercial". But if it's real...it's actually the biggest waste of $20,000 I can think of. There WAS NO commercial. NOBODY saw it. NOBODY covered it. NOBODY cared!
Again - pretend it's real - it's $20,000 to have ZUG.COM be totally unreadable to people who are actually TRYING to read it. People TRYING to verify this using photoshop, HD tapes, multiple angles, etc...can't do it! Ha! what a brilliant use of cash.
please be real. friggin morons. haha.
NeoK182 @ Mar 18th 2007 12:10AM
Also security there was tighter than at the white house. Granted half the people working security were stupid because no one knew what was going on but you were not getting let in without permission. First day i worked we had to wait outside for over a half an hour because the guys at the gate didn't have permission to let us through. And ontop of that, there were cops checking badges at every single lower level entrance. So even if these guys got in. Press weren't allowed anywhere except in the stadium seats before the game so theres no way they got into the storage areas.
And Dolphin Stadium was, and still is, under construction. And because of that security was twice as much as it would of been normally to make sure nothing got in the way of the construction supplies.
So this is very much a hoax, theres no way this could of been done. aside from the fact that every person who went to the super bowl got one of those necklaces. not just these few.
willy booj @ Mar 18th 2007 1:24AM
well i have to say i noticed something during the halftime show and couldnt figure out what it was. i did see "something" similar to the display shown however, i cannot remember what it said, only that i had no idea at all what it was. a friend of mine saw it too and remembers my comment about it when we first saw it. it seems pretty real to me. someone has to have original copy of the aired half time and see what it was for real
Jay @ Mar 18th 2007 4:25AM
While I do believe they may have been able to get the lights in as they claim, if you look at the video footage of the event... they wasted their freaking time.
I don't think there's any "media coverup" here at all, I think Zug.com simply failed at a horrible prank and has sour grapes about it. So yeah, blame the media because of your shoddy work there Zug, too bad, your site has some funny stuff on it.
dboobis @ Mar 18th 2007 11:59AM
Did any of you actually watch the video on Zug.com? Or is it that your grasp of the English language isn't good enough to understand that the image attached to this post, the image at the end of the video, is not the "secret message" that they were trying to send out? The fact that one person has already posted an image from their Tivo to show that there WERE lights, shows that the guys from Zug did manage to get their pendants in. I don't know what the secret message was, in fact I don't really care, but next time something like this comes up (i.e. Steorn Orbo for example) don't be so quick to judge until you've looked at all the available info. Oh, and BTW, good homeland security America!
Adam @ Mar 18th 2007 12:28PM
I checked it on my hd recording that is skiptastic, while you can't see "zug.com", you can see a section with blue lights. There arent enough of them to see what they spell, but you can see them easiest during "purple rain".
guerro @ Mar 18th 2007 1:36PM
dboobis: If you think they actually got these lights into the super bowl then I have a bridge I want to sell you. I think the most compelling piece of evidence that this is total b.s. is the fact there are exactly ZERO of these so-called lights on eBay. Even before the cartoon network's guerilla marketing fiasco hit the news there were black light up boxes for sale on ebay. Where are the prince lights ? That's what I thought. Sucker!!!
Grant @ Mar 18th 2007 2:44PM
@ guerro: Not sure if this is part of the alleged hoax but http://cgi.ebay.com/Superbowl-XLI-Halftime-PRINCE-light_W0QQitemZ190081164356QQihZ009QQcategoryZ37752QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Anonymous @ Mar 18th 2007 1:55PM
There was no hoax. Some guy already told us that prince passed one of these pendents out to everyone at the game. Zug needs to get a life and come up with their own pranks. Losers
Chris @ Mar 18th 2007 2:01PM
google has nothing when you search for "OK FUN TIMES ELECTRONICS COMPANY" and the scene in the toilets quoted on BoingBoing is just a little too reminscent of Reservoir Dogs
Kyle @ Mar 18th 2007 5:19PM
they did this whole prank to mispell eNGADGET!
http://www.zug.com/pranks/super/video.html?65474144474554
(wait for it to fully load and go to the end of it if you dont want to watch the whole thing)
actually, it seems its a huge prank to give them crediblity and then you get to prank your friends...
http://www.zug.com/pranks/super/email.html
HOAX!
some person @ Mar 18th 2007 6:40PM
How is this a prank?
joshua @ Mar 18th 2007 6:50PM
Actually, Rob Cockerham started blogging about the prank - he helped Hargrave carry it out - just the day after the Superbowl ... And there are plenty of pictures, too. Look here:
http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/hargrave/superbowl01.shtml
After reading that, I think you'll find it's a prank, not a hoax
Michael! @ Mar 18th 2007 7:21PM
Hoax.
Great story and great fun, but definitely hoax.
Generally, hoaxes fall apart in the details. These guys are pros, however, so they did a good job of writing a good story. First, there's all the circumstantial evidence:
-no media coverage, though they'd ordinarily be all over it.
-noone seems to have actually seen the display though there were over 90 million viewers.
-Though the event has sooo many easily identifiable locations, none of the pictures was taken is recognizable as superbowl.
-They gave out 2530 of these lights, yet not one of them is circulating. (Recall the light bright boston scare? there were only a hundred of 'em, and they are all over ebay)
-the guy talks about how he was in a suit the entire time, yet in the video he's wearing a polo shirt.
-He says that he spend $800 on uniforms embossed with the dolphin stadium logo, yet he doesn't include a single picture.
-no Attorney, (especially one you just cold called from another state) is going to give you legal advice of "go for it".
Then there's the dead give-away. The numbers don't add up.
These things usually fall apart with the numbers, let's see:
Weight: He said the total weight was a quarter ton. 500lb/2350 lights = 3.4 oz per light... Check, that adds up.
Hmmm, how about volume?
The lights look to be roughly 3 or 4 inches in diameter, probably an inch thick. From the pictures, it looks as if there are roughly 80 boxes, and he says there are 90. so, taking his word for it, 2350lights/90boxes = 26 lights per box. Huh? that doesn't sound like very many. I've recently moved, so I have a bunch of moving boxes around (look to be roughly the same size as their boxes). I glanced in a not-yet-unpacked box of glasses (each larger than one of the zug lights). I have more than 26 glasses in there, and the box isn't even full.
And the boxes would weigh 5lb each. pretty light boxes, and only 1/3 full of lights.
My guess is that they started planning this thing, figured out how much it would cost and the odds of it not working, and changed it to a hoax instead. Great story, well thought out, and lots of attention to detail, but it's definitely a hoax.
Brian111 @ Mar 18th 2007 7:59PM
Okay, this is pretty weird. I read the link for the prank and it is different than the first time I read it. The first time I read it, when it was first posted had a different story at the end. They said that they had managed to pull the entire thing off but the message didn't turn out. It was scattered blue lights rather than a message, but the point was still there. Now they have a video and that wasn't there before and they are saying that they actually spelled out the message... Well they didn't, their story has changed and they are trying to prank us now. That's why the media never picked up on it, it was just scattered lights.
J @ Mar 19th 2007 1:47AM
FWIW, I read the whole story on zug.com with amusement (John Hargrave is a good writer), and I watched the video at the end of the story, too. Then I found the articles pictured in the video and read those. In one of them, Hargrave says that he really wants people to talk about this so that they can figure out what the secret message was.
I can't stand not knowing silly secrets, and I'm procrastinating on a good deal of work, so I went back to the video and typed in the URL shown towards the end (roughly 4:15). I got this site:
http://www.zug.com/pranks/super/MMMCMXCIX/
I can't interpret the code under the pic there, but immediately after showing that web page, the video shows some tinkering in Photoshop (?). I don't have Photoshop so I can't mimic it. Anyone wanna pick up the ball and run with it?
moe613 @ Mar 19th 2007 2:25AM
re: http://www.zug.com/pranks/super/MMMCMXCIX/
Well going by the code, it is pretty clear that it refers to a web-link ("3 code letters" . "8 coded letters" . "3 more letters" / "6 more letters" / "5 more letters"
This looks pretty familiar (www.whatever.com/??????/?????)
Im willing to bet the code is almost definitaly references from his book (red dragon anyone?) the first line p|l|c refers to paragraph|letter|chapter (not sure on that, as some of the paragraphs are in the 200's.. mabey its letter|paragraph|chapter or some variation.) Going by this scheme, there shouldnt be more than 13 chapters in his book (im not gonna buy it just to crack some dudes lame code).
My bet is that the URL you find will most likely be a PSD file, which will have our hidden layers in photoshop, which will then have the secret message. Unless the message is woth 1000$ or has some real philosophical meaning, Im not going to dig for it, because im sure its just "zug.com"...
J @ Mar 19th 2007 3:35AM
Even if I were buying the book, I don't think I'd be up for the challenge of decoding the code (read: I'm lazy). That's why I want someone else to do it for me. Which is why I'm still posting here.
Anyway, you're absolutely right about it spelling out a URL. I didn't pay much attention to the dots and slashes before. Nice one. And my bet on p|l|c, now that you've got me thinking that way, is page|line|character.
tresser @ Mar 19th 2007 2:30PM
P|L|C
page | line | character.
Aaron T. @ Mar 19th 2007 4:08AM
The code referenced above refers to pages|lines|characters within his book, and has been deciphered to point to http://www.cockeyed.com/pranks/super/ . There, you can download a zip file containing a PhotoShop image and an action file, which when executed supposedly reveal the intended message. What I'm curious about is what one reaches when they follow the instructions on this page and dial the resulting phone number.
J @ Mar 19th 2007 4:31AM
Only one way to find out... ;)
Or two ways, if you're like me and are just gonna keep reloading this page until someone calls the number and posts what they get.
MethylONE @ Mar 19th 2007 11:42PM
HOAX!!!
I recorded the entire Super Bowl in HD. I have 1080p HDTV and watched the entire halftime show many times BEFORE I ever heard of this hoax - just becuase I thought Prince was awesome.
I read the whole story and wanted to believe it - so I busted out my HD copy of the halftime show and studied it in great detail.
No question many lights where on during the show - but not once could I make out any pattern at all. I even timed my video with the one on the zug site. Super slow mo, zoomed, un-zoomed, hi contrast, low, shapen you name it. HOAX!!
Sam @ Mar 20th 2007 8:22PM
They did the prank but failed it getting the lights to spell out anything meaningful. The picture on this post is a photoshop, the actual picture just shows scattered blue lights and you can't tell what they say at all.
The pranks was pulled off, but failed. But for $40k, I'd still be trying to convince people too.
Marc @ Mar 21st 2007 5:24PM
The photoshop file says, just, ZUG . COM when you open it and perform the actions. Here is a screengrab of the psd file before running the actions:
http://flickr.com/photos/marcgelfo/429669827/
and after:
http://flickr.com/photos/marcgelfo/429669829/
Not very interesting, unfortunately..
Klippoth @ Mar 28th 2007 1:53AM
I have it captured live in HD from the day of the show. I went back & forth through the whole thing, especially over the song "Proud Mary", trying to give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe I just didn't notice it when it aired. But this simply doesn't exist. There are lights all right, but they are everywhere, randomly placed, like a starfield of white lights across the field, and a few speckles of blue lights in the bleachers. They don't form letters, shapes, nor even a single distinguishable line. This total BS...
I went ahead and took a screenshot of that moment of the song, in HD and posted it on Imagshack for all to see. You be the judge...
http://img386.imageshack.us/my.php?image=halftimeey9.jpg