Turns Out That Hawk/Snake Viral Vid Was A Bloody Gee-Up By Hawthorn FC

So that video of a hawk throwing a snake at a picnicking family on the banks of the Yarra River. We’ve all seen it by now; it racked up a ridiculous amount of views in a very short amount of time.

From the moment it arrived on our desks, eyebrows were raised. It’s a dang hawk lobbing a snake? That… that doesn’t seriously happen, right?
Hell, scepticism was literally the first thing we wrote about it:
The point is, real or fake, everyone had a bunch of dumb fun with it, which is kinda the point.
But as it turns out, not only is it fake, it’s a marketing campaign.
For a football club.
The Hawthorn Football Club.

The Hawks owned up to the stunt, revealed they’d partnered with The Woolshed (who’d previously made just about every other similar-lookin’ viral vid in the past, leading me to believe they’re sprinting headlong into a “boy who cried wolf” situation very soon) to create the vid in order to launch their AFL Finals marketing campaign, “#EmbraceTheHunt.”

A statement posted on the Hawks’ website a short while ago owns up to the stunt, and trumpets whatever success they feel they got from it.

“Hawthorn’s media team partnered with Melbourne production company, The Woolshed, in an attempt to create a video that would encapsulate the club’s finals theme and generate widespread media coverage.

Embrace the Hunt launched on Wednesday afternoon as the Hawks begin their quest for a fourth straight premiership.”

Quotes attributed to a “Hawthorn spokesperson” went further:
“It was quite incredible. We wanted everyone to know that it’s September and the Hawks are on the attack and hopefully we’ve succeeded.

Our aim was to create a real buzz around the launch of our seventh consecutive finals campaign and really get people talking.

The debate over its authenticity has been had by various media outlets across both Australia and the globe.”

The statement concludes by championing the sheer amount of views the video was able to accumulate.


“The fake video generated over 5 million views in 48-hours and has been published by multiple media outlets around the world.”


And fair play to you, the vid certainly got us, and a big heap of the public as well.

But, uh… Guys.
What, uh… What did it actually achieve?
Seriously.
What did the Hawthorn Football Club get out of this? 5 million views is all well and good, but nothing about it really points back to club in any way? Even in retrospect? Hell, the esky in the video has a Geelong Cats sticker on it, which the club claims is a “cheeky move” nodding towards the Hawks’ upcoming Qualifying Final against their arch rival. But, uh… That’s still not really that much of a link to Hawthorn, is it.
It was fun and all. But it’s kinda like a baker coming out of a kitchen to claim responsibility for a cake after everyone’s already finished eating it.
Good for you, sure. But no one’s gonna give you a medal.
Source: Hawthorn FC.

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