Update: Andraluvs2sing Has Balls

In my last post, I laid out the evidence that andraluvs2sing (aka Andra Hoelsted) was fictional viral marketing for something. And it was.

After Andra resolved in the last week to do something about this alleged teacher taking advantage of her friend, she dropped the bomb yesterday captured above: "We accidentially cut off our teachers nuts."

Whoa! You gotta laugh at that. Also up is Andra's latest youtube video, a trailer for the movie "On The Doll", which deals with amazing things such as detached nuts, apparently.



In fact, the deballing clip is online, if you dare to learn that testicles can indeed be removed "accidentally":



The movie has a YouTube Channel, with trailers posted. (Some have inflated view counts using the same techniques that Andra used.) According to the wikipedia page for the movie, a surely unbiased article written by the director, On the Doll is:

a very dark and intense dramatic feature film directed and written by acclaimed music video director Thomas Mignone [who has directed a huge ass number of heavy metal type band's videos.] .... The film's title comes from the phrase "Show me on the doll where you were touched" often asked of young children who have been the victims of sexual abuse. "On The Doll" has a limited theatrical release in the United States, as well as a continuously growing popularity upon its DVD and online release due to several unexpected and highly graphic scenes.

Oh, and it was released on DVD yesterday. (Handy link to amazon, only $26.99). What a coincidence!

Presumably facebook, kari sweets, and illumistream were recruited to help promote the movie. Maybe the gal who plays andra is in the movie? I don't know.

So, some kudos are due to Thomas Mignone and his crew for a well-planned hoax. Uh ... I mean viral marketing campaign. It didn't go super-viral like the Wii Fit Girl (which wasn't planned viral marketing anyway), but most of these attempts to go viral don't spread that far anyway, or at least its hard to measure their effect.

Andraluvs2hoax: Another fake viral video thingie

So, I stumbled across Andraluvs2sing today, aka Andra Hoelsted, aka the latest youtube fictional / fake / hoax floating around the internet. Not that I really get riled up about these faux 'next big things.' In fact, I find them fascinating. But I wonder what the purpose of this one is.

Andraluvs2sing started her youtube channel on April 23, 2008. She posted, that same day, a video of her purportedly singing as a youngster. It has 23,000 views and 1 comment, and the functionality to see where external links to youtube are coming from is disabled. Hmmm ....

Andra's next three vids show that she's a very poor guitar player, but a very attractive young woman. Practicing A New Song has already racked up an impressive 292,743 views, but only 26 comments (and again, any external links data is disabled.) But one commenter explains the high view count: "this video is showing automatically on facebook, that's why!"

Although Andra is hawtt, surely this video wasn't featured by facebook on its merit.

Then, a la lonelygirl15, Andra starts some drama. On May 16, she posted a 21 second clip "does your teacher act like this with students?!!". This purports to show some questionable behavior of one of her teachers in a car with a fellow female student. Of course, she wants youtubers advice on what to do. This vid currently has 695,814 views & 121 comments, a suspicious ratio. In the comments, a few people do smell a fake, though most of the others are trying to give Andra advice.

Um, tell the principal? Have a threesome? Which one will get more youtube views?

So, about a week later, Andra posted a vid of advice she received from another young beauty, a Kari Sweets. "Kari Sweets Advice LEAVE COMMENT!". Whaaa? apparently Sweets is a "minor internet porn starlet" of the Maxim type (i.e., not 100% nude). And while its not only odd that some Internet-famous chick would post a video response to this girl's car stalking video, its also very odd that Andra posted it on her own channel, instead of this appearing on some channel claiming to be Kari Sweets' youtube channel (if she has one). (There's also another video of Kari talking about the situation on some other youtube channel.)

Then, yesterday (june 5), youtube channel illumistream, which is a commercially done production that has been having great youtube success lately by posting short videos of "sex advice" with hawtt thumbnails, also posted the same kari sweets video that Andra did, calling it "Not Your Average Sex Celebrity Tape" (except with a lurid thumbnail added).

Illumistream's Video Description: The Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian sex tapes became Internet sensations -- but this isn't THAT kind of sex tape. Kari Sweets takes a break from her on-line modeling career to give some advice to Andra Hoelsted on her unfortunate situation.
The whole story broke when Andra told everything on her blog, http://andraluvs2sing.wordpress.com. Watch the video to get Kari's perspective - and support Andra's friend by visiting the blog:
http://andraluvs2sing.wordpress.com

Surely that's enough for anyone to realize its a hoax.

But, like any good fictive viral story, Andra's faux existence is not confined to youtube. She also has a wordpress blog, which is telling the story of her attempt to become a successful musician. This involves her realizing she can't play guitar for shit, but luckily she has met up with some guitarist ... do i smell a band forming?

And, of course she has a facebook, and a myspace, and even a digg account, where her only submission has been to digg this Amazing New Female Artist ... well, golly gee, its digging herself!

The backstory among these sites gives her full name as Andra Hoelsted, of Charlotte, North Carolina. The pictures you can find on her myspace / blog / digg are all very professional looking (and never have anyone else in them other then her).

So, its another another fictional viral thingie. But why? And who's the girl?

UPDATE - June 18, 2008: See new post, its marketing for a movie called "On the Doll."