Travel and culture 139
1962
There was only one TV channel in
Sweden in 1962 and it broadcast in black
and white. Kjell Stensson, a technical expert,
appeared on the news and told the viewers
that thanks to new technology, they could now
change their black and white televisions into
colour sets. All they had to do was pull a nylon
stocking over their TV screen. Stensson showed
how this was done. Thousands of people were fooled.
1998
Burger King published a full-page advertisement
in USA Today introducing a new item on their menu:
a “Left-Handed Whopper’ specially designed for
left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement,
the new Whopper included the same ingredients as the
original Whopper, but everything had been rotated 180
degrees for the benefit of left-handed customers. The
following day, Burger King told the truth, but thousands
of customers had already gone to restaurants to order the
new sandwich. At the same time, many others had come
to Burger King asking for their right-handed version.
2008
The BBC told its viewers that cameras had
spotted flying penguins. They even posted a fake video
on the Internet that became one of the most viewed
videos. Later BBC posted another video explaining how
they used special effects to make people believe that the
penguins were flying.
1 April
hoax
: brella eða gabb
prank
: hrekkur
threshold
: þröskuldur
media
: fjölmiðlar
audience
: áhorfendur/
áheyrendur
broadcast
: sjónvarpa
nylon stocking
: nælon
sokkur
rotate
: snúa
degree
: gráða
