Good call. Not only was it a hoax, apparently it was part of a guerilla marketing scheme.
YouTube bride meltdown is a hoaxA video of a bride chopping her hair off during a meltdown an hour before her wedding -- seen by more than 2 million viewers worldwide on YouTube -- is a hoax.
Except that the 22-year-old aspiring actress, whose real name is Jodi Behan, really did cut her hair in the video filmed by Toronto-based Ryerson University grad Ingrid Hass.
Amid widespread debate about the clip's authenticity, titled Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out, the video even made it onto NBC's The Today Show on Wednesday.
And on Thursday, the girls in the video will make an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
"I cannot believe all this," Behan wrote in an email to the Toronto Star. "It's embarrassing and exciting and overwhelming."
In the six-minute clip, Behan enters a hotel room filled with bridesmaids and complains of her bad haircut.
Then, in a burst of anger, her character, also named Jodi, takes a pair of scissors and begins furiously cutting off her hair -- repeatedly telling the camera operator to stop filming.
Bridesmaid Jessie, also her actual name, is Jodi's real sister.
"They're characters, I'll give you that," the girls' mother told the Star.
"They're great girls. But I'm not going to say any more. This is their thing."
Haas, a local performance artist, came up with the idea as a way to gain notoriety on YouTube.
"I would love to tell you all about it. I will have to hold off," Haas told the Star, without elaborating.
When asked if he thought the video was real, Toronto film director Norman Jewison told the newspaper on Wednesday that he suspected the video was staged. But he said he'd give her a job in an instant.
"Wouldn't you hire her as an actress? I sure would," Jewison said. "If she's not one, then maybe she should become one. It's hysterical."
Actresses hope for career boost from YouTube clipThe Canadian women involved in the most talked about video on the Internet say they're stunned by all the attention they're getting but are hoping it will boost their acting careers.
The mini-movie called "Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out" was viewed more than 2 million times on the YouTube website. It featured a woman going berserk on her wedding day, cutting off her hair in a fit of rage and tears just minutes before the ceremony.
The video was pulled down late Thursday night "by the user," who it now appears was in fact a Canadian hair care company.
Sunsilk Canada revealed Thursday that the video clip was not a real amateur home video but part of an advertising "initiative."
"We understand very much that women have these moments with their hair, and some of them end up in what we're calling 'wig-outs,'" spokesperson Geoff Craig told CTV News.
The four women involved in the clip say they performed in the video to promote their acting skills.
"We're all actors so we're really excited for all the opportunities for everyone," Jessie Behan, who plays one of the bridesmaids, told Canada AM Friday.
One of those opportunities included an appearance on Good Morning America. They had also been due to make an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. But when the producers told the foursome that only two could appear on the show, they turned down the offer.
The video was the most watched over the last few days on YouTube and was mentioned and shown on a variety of high profile U.S. talk shows. As well, Toronto film director Norman Jewison has said he found the video "hilarious" and would give the actress involved a job in an instant.
Jodi Behan, who played the bride and is the real-life sister to Jessie, told Canada AM she really did cut off all her hair and doesn't regret it.
"I mean, there's going to be lots of different things you're going to have to do for acting parts so why hold out?"
In the six-minute clip, Behan enters a hotel room filled with bridesmaids and complains of her bad haircut. Then, in a burst of anger, her character, also named Jodi, takes a pair of scissors and begins furiously cutting off her hair -- repeatedly telling the camera operator to stop filming.
Haas, a local performance artist, came up with the idea as a way to gain notoriety on YouTube.
"I would love to tell you all about it. I will have to hold off," Haas told the Toronto Star, without elaborating.
In their interview with Canada, the actresses also refused to talk about Sunsilk's involvement in the video.
Advertising executive Christina Yu of Lowe Roche says the clip is a good example of a concept "viral marketing," in which excitement is built for an ad purely through email and Internet buzz.
"I think consumers are quite savvy, and usually, the companies do admit that they are actually producing it," she told Canada AM.
"You get it out there and everyone gets really quite excited -- is it real or is it not? I think a lot of people have been questioning about that one, the 'Bridezilla wigout,' if it is real or not? And it just creates a certain hype."
YouTube is kind of beginning to grate me in this regard. It's great for TV clips and old music videos and all that, but so many "real" videos end up having an air of suspicion, they are far, far less fun.
