LG Electronics Terror Elevator Ad Goes Viral
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Denis Doyle/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) — It’s a prank that seems destined for YouTube greatness and one that seems appropriate for April Fool’s Day: A grid of IPS monitors are installed on the floor of an elevator to create an optical illusion that the elevator is plummeting to its demise as a hidden camera captures the reactions of riders who believe that the end is near.
The prank is not the work of Internet amateurs. Instead, it’s a new ad campaign from the Netherlands branch of Seoul, South Korea-based LG electronics to promote their new IPS monitors.
With the tagline, “So Real, It’s Scary,” the nearly two-minute YouTube video shows riders’ reactions as the IPS monitors display what appears to be the bottom of the elevator floor dropping out beneath them.
A spokeswoman for LG Electronics in the U.S. told ABC News the video was created and posted to YouTube by the company’s colleagues in the Netherlands. A request for comment placed to the company’s Netherlands office has not been returned.
The YouTube link has been viewed nearly 700,000 times since its posting late last week. The majority of the comments have focused not on the monitors’ quality but on whether the people in the video are real or actors hired to portray pure terror.
The IPS (in-place switching) monitor is described on the LG website as allowing viewers to, “discover a richer, brighter more detailed online experience” and to “experience stunning images from any angle.”
The monitor retails for around $200.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio