One of  the most notorious showman in TV in Spain, going by the nickname, “El Gran Wyoming”, member of the TV channel, La Sexta, has proved to be an expert in spreading shocking-but-false information to increase the audience.  This week, the “El Gran Wyoming” has been in the eye of the hurricane after a video of him bullying a journalist trainee hit Youtube and stirred a huge controversy among his detractors.

Interestingly enough, a rival digital TV channel, renowned right wing biased broadcaster Intereconomia, featured that video live in one of the TV shows most critical with the cited comedian . Intereconomia presenter was ferocious in his criticism against the showman, accusing of being a bully and “lefty fascist”. Inevitably, many suspected that the video was a ploy but the gullible Intereconomia took the bait without verifying the facts. As expected, on Monday, in effect, “El Gran Wyoming” TV show “El Intermedio” confirmed that everything was a trap to mock and condemn the lack of journalistic ethics of his media rival.

The strategy certainly worked and “El Intermedio” got its best TV audience of the year with 1,549,000 viewers, a 7.9% ‘share’.  The program scored its best ratings, thanks to the false video, which  has sparked a debate about whether anything goes on television without getting the facts right. Additionally, the journalistic community has discussed if  certain ‘journalistic practices’ are just a way to settle personal grievances or to gain audiences.

Either way, the truth is that Viral video is one of the most effective practises in order to do what is being called “Guerrilla Marketing”. A very little investment can reap huge benefits and big media corporations like main TV channels are not alien to make use of this word of mouth tools in order to get great results.

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