Social Media wRap: #PHvote and Harlem Shake

MANILA, Philippines – A deluge of crazy advertisements for the 2013 elections, the Super Bowl XLVII, the Harlem Shake, and Valentine’s Day “holiday” dominated social media in the first half of February. 

#PHvote: The ad deluge begins

As the campaign season draws near, more and more gimmicks made by politicians are sprouting left and right, online and offline. Mood meter: Annoyed.

Some of the more prominent political ads, particularly by the United Nationalist Alliance and Team PNoy of the Liberal Party, have found their way online.

But what caught our eyes and ears this early is the campaign ad of senatorial bet Jamby Madrigal: It will likely be your next earworm, as it heralds the return of… JaJaJaJamby! Mood meter: Amused.

Harlem Shake

After Gangnam Style, here comes Harlem Shake. 

Not to be confused with the 80s dance with a similar name, the 2013 online video meme has a basic format. One person first dances to the tune, quickly followed by a scene where a crowd also dances right in the same place. Costumes and masks complete the video, which lasts around 30 seconds.

The group “Sunny Cast Skate” (above) is being credited for starting the craze. Some notable “shaes” include video by the staff of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon; staff of the National Geographic Channel; and the anchors and crew of the Today show. Below is one of the most-viewed versions:

Mood meter: Amused and Afraid… Afraid that everyone will soon do the Harlem Shake at every event, TV show, or party.

Doppelgänger Week

Notice how your Facebook timeline suddely became filled with, um, “celebrities”? It’s doppelgänger week (which has apparently stretched longer), with people replacing their Facebook profile images with pictures of who they think are their look-alike celebrities. Some are really spot-on, but let’s just say many are way off mark with their comparisons. Mood meter: Toss-up between Amused and Don’t Care

#SB47

It is one of America’s biggest and grandest sports and entertainment spectacles: Super Bowl XLVII. There were two things that really caught the Internet by storm: Beyonce’s breathtaking halftime performance, and the ridiculous 35-minute blackout that followed almost immediately after.

Coming from a controversial lip-synch at the inauguration of US President Barack Obama, Queen Bey did not just sing live, she almost literally set the SuperDome on fire with her nearly 15-minute performance, which included a much-awaited Destiny’s Child reunion. Many people even said it was actually a Beyonce concert, disguised as a football game.

Out of the 24 million or so tweets about the event, more than 5 million were about the halftime show. Mood meter: Happy, but we’d like to say we’re really Crazy In Love.

Minutes after her electrifying performance, as the second half of the game started, half of the stadium went dark for 35 minutes, triggering a chaos. It was, however, an Internet gem, as almost immediately people made memes, tailored ad campaigns, and circulated funny posts online. 

Some notables were the tweets of rival TV shows, such as Downton Abbey; the Oreo ad about “dunking in the dark”; and the continuous stream of “conspiracy theories” about the blackout (not a few blamed it on Queen Bey).

And let us not forget the ads: What would Super Bowl be without them? Here’s an earlier report on the million-dollar ads. Mood meter: Annoyed at the blackout, Amused at the social media reaction!

#PontifExit

News of Pope Benedict XVI stepping down from the papacy literally shocked the world, but netizens were quick to recover and poke fun on the historic development. As news spread, various hashtags tried to capture the public sentiment, ranging from #PopeResigns to #ExBenedict, even #popejoke, used by netizens creating Pope-related jokes. But the best hashtag so far: #PontifExit, a play on the Holy Father’s official Twitter handle, @pontifex, which he just launched a few months back.

Via @aneeman: Best Pope tweet: CARDINALS MANAGER RESIGNS. #pontifexit

— Steve Silberman (@stevesilberman) February 11, 2013

Mood meter: Sad, Inspired, Amused

Valentine’s Day

It’s the Love Month, and, many are trying to jump the romance and kilig bandwagon wherever they go, even online. Despite the big “opposition” to the “holiday” (mainly by those who have no V-Day plans), love is in the air.

In the spirit of the season, the “It’s More Fun in the Philippines” campaign found a gem in this video currently going viral.

Gets you in a romantic mode, doesn’t it? Mood meter: Inspired.

Now that’s the social media wRap for the past weeks. Think we missed something? Tweet us at @rapplerdotcom! – Rappler.com