Brandt Andersen is a regular P.T. Barnum. What’s the word for “better than a genius?” Because that’s the one I’d use to describe the owner of the NBDL’s Utah Flash.
You see, Andersen is the marketing visionary who promised to bankroll the $100,000 charity basketball match between Michael Jordan and Bryon Russell. Conveniently, he’d scheduled the 1-on-1 for halftime of one of his team’s home games. At some point, I guess he set the date for December 7th. Clearly, the fans of the Flash and local Michael Jordan fans were in for a treat. The buzz for the matchup grew when Michael Jordan was spotted at Mimi’s Cafe in Orem. Here’s a frame from the hilariously fake video with very few views:
MJ likes to stay low profile with two uniformed security guards. And you can always believe any video whenever the person says, “Dude, that’s (insert celebrity name)!” But you can clearly understand why buzz was building surrounding the potential appearance of Michael Jordan.
I guess nobody considered that MJ probably doesn’t get out of bet for less than $500,000. And to give the measly $100,000 to charity? That’s sure as hell not worth the trip to Orem, Utah. But fans were still disappointed when Jordan “no showed.” You can see it in this fan video. It’s actually amazing how they spend five minutes with the lights off making fans think Jordan is going to appear. At about 5:30, they finally say that Jordan isn’t going to show and label him a coward. Surprise! The fans continue to hope that MJ will show up until the 8:30 mark when they start booing again. Even at the very end, they’re still hoping the MJ hoax is really a double reverse MJ hoax where MJ actually appears. But it’s not.
The Utah Flash owner and hype man Brandt Andersen addressed the incident today. He claimed he wanted to test the effectiveness of “viral marketing.” Well, he didn’t succeed with his crappy YouTube seeding plan. But he’s now known nationally as a jackass of epic proportions. Let the record show that the stupid MJ in the diner video had less than 1000 views this morning. Here’s what Anderson had to say:
“We wanted to test the strength and effectiveness of viral media by putting him out in Provo with bodyguards, and some hype,” Anderson wrote. “I always assumed it would be uncovered very quickly that it was a hoax. In reality, the lookalike is only [6-foot-1-inch] so it was not hard to disprove.”
Maybe Andersen should have booked this guy. He’s “same height as the Real Michael Jordon from the Chicago Bulls fame and also Washington Wizzards.” Damn, this viral marketing is harder than I thought.
