If you’re driving down Hollywood Blvd and Gramercy and pass Rodded Thai, you’ll see a set of eyes behind specs staring down at you, but who is that?
Former Vine and Buzzfeed superstar Ben Cahn’s face, specifically just his eyes and nose, is currently looking down on Hollywood, in a somewhat successful attempt to go viral on the internet. According to Ben Cahn and his Reddit thread, Ben initially led us to believe that the final billboard of just a closeup of his face was totally on accident with the billboard company to blame but Cahn finally fessed up to his ruse, admitting it was solely for more social media followers.
Check out the timeline of his tweets below.
This is so unprofessional!! pic.twitter.com/poILIjcFyR
— ??? ℭ??? (@Buncahn) July 25, 2019
First, Ben led tells the tale of how he cheekily wants to put a Billboard of himself asking for more Twitter followers online. The billboard company "accidentally" crops out his Twitter handle so he "asks for a redo."
That supposedly backfires when the redo doesn't zoom out but zooms in, instead. We're led to believe that it was all the billboard company's fault, that is until Reddit users, the natural skeptics that they are, questioned the legitimacy of it all.
Although the original Reddit post's technically removed, it's still up for you to peruse.
The post did get quite viral. A submitted post with 106,000+ upvotes is no small accomplishment.
And here's the comment where Ben admits to his bamboozlery. Cahn later deletes his comment but, as with all things on the internet, nothing really ever disappears.
Getting -1471 downvotes on a comment is another accomplishment altogether.
So, if you're wondering whose face is/was on Hollywood Blvd, there you go.
No clue how long the billboard will be up.
If you're wondering if his plan worked, well, according to Social Blade, @BunCahn grew by a whopping +5,007 followers, most of those on the 22nd, long before his Reddit thread.
And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Ben Cahn's billboard didn't remind me of the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleberg of "The Great Gatsby." Doesn't it?
Do you think this billboard campaign was kind of a success? Let me know your .02 in the comments below.
