Yahoo! Eclipse: False but creative

Yesterday I was talking with a friend from my university, when suddenly he did the question:

– Did you see the  Yahoo Eclipse?
– Hummmm… no… – I began thinking about Eclipse, the development software, but in a few seconds I dropped the idea – What is it?
– This saturday, Yahoo will make a Lunar Eclipse on Earth that could be seen from Brazil.
– What?! They will make an artificial lunar eclipse?
– That’s it.

I went to Google and began searching about the subject. I found Yahoo!’s site speaking about that, and I really say that they were saying that Yahoo! Brasil, together with a company called Celestial Marketing, will move the whole world to create a Lunar Eclipse that could be seen from Brazil. I was still thinking: “What is this shit? You can’t simply doing that, what the hell are they talking about?”

In little time I began to discover that it was false, searching about the subject and reading more about the event which will occour this saturday. I confess that after I found out about this, I though that those marketing people were very smart.

Yes, this saturday, August 16, 2008, a lunar eclipse will occour and it can be seen from Brazil. What Yahoo! Brasil hidden in their campaign is that the lunar eclipse is natural and not artificial as many people are thinking that it is. You can confirm that going to this NASA’s page. Many people that are desinformed, and who does not interpret the situation well, really think that Yahoo! Brasil will create a lunar eclipse.

That’s it: Yahoo! Brasil wants to remodel their brand in Brazil to compete heavily with Google and other brands. Part of this effort is to reforce the idea of a solid coporation, one of the reasons are that in the last months, Microsoft is trying to buy the company. To do this remodel, the guys at Yahoo! Brasil are changing their site to a new, purple model (“Don’t subestimate the purple!, as the slogan says), which they are working for a couple of weeks, and they’ll do the transition exactly at the time of the lunar eclipse.

In other words, they are claiming the eclipse to them, to serve as a bridge to the site’s whole change: people will see and enjoy the eclipse, and after that they’ll go to the site and see all the transformations and many new resources.

Move the world would be inspire people to watch the eclipse, which was going to happen anyway. It was a great idea from the marketing people to promove the brand. I just think that people that does not get the situation are plain stupid thinking that the company will really create an artificial lunar eclipse 😛