DOCUMENTATION FROM A SHOW

The images of a Google car that allegedly had an accident in the Indian pampas went around the world. Now they turn out to be a viral marketing campaign by a Zurich bookstore.

At the beginning of August, the images spooked the world's tech blogs: an accident-ridden Google Street View car - clearly recognizable as such thanks to the large camera attachment on the roof - somewhere in the Indian pampas. The images were posted online on July 23 by a Flickr user, the supposed tourist who spotted the wreck. Actually, it should have been clear very soon that this was a hoax, i.e. a fake. Because on the T-shirt that the tourist is wearing in the photos is the logo of the "Travel Book Shop", a bookshop for travel literature in Zurich. A certain Gisela Treichler from said Travel Book Shop was the first to comment on the Flickr photos. "The photo proves my thesis: Real travel begins where the Internet ends," says one of her comments.

Viral Marketing

So it's not surprising that the photos are actually a viral marketing campaign for the Zurich bookstore. As 20 minutes writes, the 69-year-old owner Gisela Treichler and the Wirz advertising agency are behind it. The pictures were taken on the computer - the supposed Google car wreck does not exist, of course. In addition to the images, a YouTube video was posted online as part of the campaign, showing a man throwing stones at the Street View car. The video already has over 90,000 clicks. According to the PR agency, thousands of websites and blogs have reported on the “Google Car Fail”. Including well-known tech blogs such as Gizmodo.

The adventure starts where the internet ends. Get an expert advice from the travel experts that travel the world themselves. travelbookshop.ch

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