Bigfoot a Trend?

Ever wonder how things get popular and become trends? Trendhunter.com seems to think they do. Apparently Bigfoot is becoming a hot trend. The above video is one example of how Trendhunter aggregates different media to support a rising trend.

Below is a self description from the Trendhunter Website #1 in Trends - With 9+ million monthly views, TrendHunter.com is the world's largest, most popular trend community. Fueled by a global network of 28,000 members, Trend Hunter and Trend Hunter TV feature 52,000 micro-trends and cutting edge ideas.

Routinely sourced by the media, Trend Hunter is a source of inspiration for industry professionals, aspiring entrepreneurs and the insatiably curious. Trend Hunter has been featured or cited by: MTV, The Economist, CNN (2x), Time, CBC (3x), T3 (4x), Cosmopolitan, GQ, Glamour, Entrepreneur, The Globe and Mail (2x), Entertainment Tonight (3x), FOX News (3x), The Financial Times (40x) and even the personal blog of Kanye West.

TrendHunter.com was launched in 2005 by Jeremy Gutsche, an innovation expert and keynote speaker who wanted to build a home for new business ideas and creativity.

Go to trendhunter.com to see how bigfoot is becoming a trend.





An exerpt from Trendhunter.com

This week the internet was set ablaze with videos and proof of the Chupacabra ‘Vampire Dog’ in Texas and Bigfoot in Georgia. Could Chupacabra and Bigfoot both be captured in the same week? It seems unlikely… So why the coincidence?

If I had a little more time on my hands, I would fake both of them to create a big publicity stunt.

Accordingly, I am going to explain 5 Reasons to Fake Chupacabra and Bigfoot for Publicity:

1. Accuracy is Not Required for Viral - In March, one of the most viral posts on the net was the redesigning of the Eiffel Tower; the Serero Project. The news spread like wildfire, with people passionate, excited and upset. The kicker is that the project was a fake. Big deal, the Guardian and others still printed it…

2. Mythvertising Works - Last month, we saw UFOs crash land next to the London bridge… But wait, aliens don’t exist! Tell that to Vauxhaul. People were immediately intrigued by the idea that a myth had been made real. Days after getting media attention, the new Vauxhaul was revealed. Vroom vroom.

3. It’s Easy to Fake ‘NO EVIDENCE’ - In the case of Bigfoot, how difficult is it to list the features of Bigfoot and announce that DNA proof of Bigfoot will come later? By the way, did anyone else notice that Bigfoot was discovered in Georgia, but the press conference is in Palo Alto? That’s the heart of Silicon Valley, BTW…

4. It’s EASY to Fake a Weird Dog - Guess what? If you want to make a dog look like Chupacabra, you simply add something around his nose and take a blurry video from far away. But won’t ‘adding something’ to a dog’s head make the dog run funny? Exactly! What if people doubt the legitimacy of blurry Chupacabra footage? Easy, say that the footage is from a police car video and interview a small town police officer…

5. Brand Association - There are 450,000 Google results for “Trend Hunter”… But there are 10,000,000 results for the word Bigfoot. The bottom line is that Bigfoot is a big brand… But nobody owns him, and that means his brand is FREE! Well imagine that. In short, both Bigfoot and Chupacabra are well known brands that you can use to boost your product.

The only other note is that I would fake Bigfoot before faking Chupacabra. I say this because it’s taken me half an hour to write this article and most of that time was spent learning to spell Chupacabra / chupecabre / chupa-whatever. Having said that, maybe it’s just because in Canada we don’t have goat-sucking vampire dogs.

In short, when the Bigfoot Chupacabra hoax is revealed, I’d like say that Trend Hunter told you first… However, I’d be happier to say that Trend Hunter did it!

UPDATE: Orang Pendek

As promised we have an update on the Orang Pendek sighting.

you can read the article at the Sun
Loren Coleman has a great post on Cryptomundo.
Expedition leader Adam Davies has a journal
Some members of expedition are from the Center for Fortean Zoology (CFZ)

And Tonight Adam Davies will appear on the Mark Gary’s radio program tonight, October 1, 2009, from 9:00 PM to Midnight Eastern.




In a breaking news report from Cryptomundo, news of a Orang Pendek Sighting.

Orang Pendek (Indonesian for "short person") is the most common name given to a cryptid, or unconfirmed animal, that reportedly inhabits remote, mountainous forests on the island of Sumatra.

The animal has allegedly been seen and documented for at least one hundred years by forest tribes, local villagers, Dutch colonists, and Western scientists and travelers. Consensus among witnesses is that the animal is a ground-dwelling, bipedal primate that is covered in short fur and stands between 80 centimetres (31 in) and 150 centimetres (59 in) tall.

There seems to be quite a buzz in Sumatra right now. First a quote from Cryptomundo.

I’m on my way to Tyler…but I just received this…so I’ll post it quickly:

“Yeti sighted in Jungle !!!! Two team members have sighted the Yeti while we were in the jungle. I heard a large animal moving towards us. Subsequently the creature was then sighted by team member Dave Archer and Sahar Didmus, a forest ranger. I have a sworn affadavit from Sahar to that effect. It hid from us by a tree, before moving rapidly and bipedally through the jungle. Dave describes the OP [Orang Pendek] as looking almost chimpanzee-like. Sahar was so upset and disturbed he began sobbing, and I had to comfort him. We have taken hair samples found at the site, and bagged some rattan which it was eating. We will have these analysed by Todd Disotell. Numerous tracks also found……………!!!!!!!!” ~ Adam Davies (enroute out of Indonesia via Singapore)

And then the guys at Centre for Fortean Zoology started a trip to Sumatra and have some exciting news that will posted on their website tomorrow!

AN unknown species of Indonesian ape could shed light on how our human ancestors began to walk erect.

The orang-pendek of Sumatra is said to be a powerfully built ape that walks on two legs like a man. Both native people and western explorers, including two noted scientists, have reported the creature from the deep jungle.

This week four English scientists and explorers will brave the rainforest in search of the orang-pendek.

The team from the Woolsery-based Centre for Fortean Zoology, will spend two weeks in Sumatra working with the Kubu people, the island's original inhabitants, who will help them track the mysterious ape.

The expedition comes shortly after the announcement of the discovery of a fossil hominid in Georgia. The Dmansis hominids lived 1.8 million years ago and had legs like modern humans, but primitive arms. Their early occurrence has made scientists rethink how hominids moved out of Africa to colonise the rest of the world.

Richard Freeman, the team's zoologist, said: "It was once thought that our ancestors became bipedal when they descended from the trees and moved onto the grass lands of East Africa in order to exploit new food sources. However, now it seems that many apes and hominids were moving 'bipedally' while they were still rainforest dwellers.

"As well as being a major zoological discovery, the orang-pendek could give us some clues on how bipedalism developed."

The group's trip will be recorded on the Centre for Fortean Zoology's website at

www.cfz.org.uk

Bigfoot Goes Savage

Fangoria magazine has exclusive stills and footage of a new Bigfoot movie titled Savage.

“SAVAGE isn’t your sweet, friendly, cuddly Bigfoot film,” producer Christopher Cook tells Fango.