Pillow fight flash mob

Last updated

A pillow fight that took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, in front of the courthouse Polochons-Velvia-06.jpg
A pillow fight that took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, in front of the courthouse

A pillow fight flash mob is a social phenomenon of flash mobbing and shares many characteristics of a culture jam.

Contents

The flash mob version of massive pillow fights is distinguished by the fact that nearly all of the promotion is Internet-based. These events occur around the world, some taking the name Pillow Fight Club, a reference to Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk in which anyone could join and fight as long as they fought by the rules. [1] Both the London and Vancouver Pillow Fight Club's rules reflect that described in the book and feature film. [1]

The trend owes much to uses of modern communications technologies, including decentralised personal networking, known as smartmobbing.[ citation needed ] Word of the events spreads primarily via digital means, usually on the internet via email, chat rooms and text messaging which result in seemingly spontaneous mass gatherings. [1] [2] Pillows are sometimes hidden and at the exact pre-arranged time or the sound of a whistle, the pillow fighters pull out their pillows and commence pillow fighting. The pillow fights can last from a few minutes to several hours. [1]

Pillow Fight Day

The largest pillow fight flash mob was the Worldwide Pillow Fight Day (or International Pillow Fight Day [3] ) that took place on March 22, 2008. Over 25 cities around the globe participated in the first "international flash mob", which was the world's largest flash mob to date. [4] [1] According to The Wall Street Journal , more than 5,000 participated in New York City, overtaking London's 2006 Silent Disco gathering [5] [6] [7] as the largest recorded flash mob. [2] [8] Word spread via social networking sites, including Facebook, Myspace, private blogs, public forums, personal websites, as well as by word of mouth, text messaging, and email. Participating cities included Atlanta, Beirut, Boston, Budapest, Chicago, Copenhagen, Dublin, Houston, Huntsville, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, New York City, Paris, Pécs, San Francisco, [9] [10] Shanghai, Stockholm, Sydney, Székesfehérvár, Szombathely, Vancouver, Washington, D.C., and Zurich. [11] [12]

International Pillow Fight Day 2014

Origins

While ordinary pillow fights have existed for a long time, these events are massive in scale, occur in public and are promoted primarily via the internet. Many massive pillow fights have been organized in an effort to break Guinness World Records, but the current record is a pillow fight among 7,861 people achieved by MyPillow, Inc. (USA) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, on 18 May 2018. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Francisco</span> Consolidated city-county in California, United States

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous city in California, with 808,437 residents, and the 17th most populous city in the United States as of 2022. The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include Frisco, San Fran, The City, and SF.

<i>Homestar Runner</i> American Flash-animated comedy series

Homestar Runner is an American Flash animated comedy web series and website created by Mike and Matt Chapman, known collectively as The Brothers Chaps. The series centers on the adventures of a large and diverse cast of characters, headed by the titular character, Homestar Runner. It uses a blend of surreal humor, self-parody, satire, and references to popular culture, in particular video games, classic television, and popular music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Yang</span> Computer programmer and co-founder of Yahoo!

Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang is a Taiwanese-American billionaire computer programmer, internet entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc, which he started with classmate David Filo in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">420 (cannabis culture)</span> Number referring to cannabis

420, 4:20 or 4/20 is cannabis culture slang for marijuana and hashish consumption, especially smoking around the time 4:20 pm (16:20). It also refers to cannabis-oriented celebrations that take place annually on April 20.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flash mob</span> Form of assembling humans

A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform for a brief time, then quickly disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs may be organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart mob</span> Digital-communication coordinated group

A smart mob is a group whose coordination and communication abilities have been empowered by digital communication technologies. Smart mobs are particularly known for their ability to mobilize quickly.

The Cacophony Society is an American organization described on their website as "a randomly gathered network of free spirits united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society". It was started in 1986 by surviving members of the defunct Suicide Club of San Francisco.

A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system, on different computing systems via a local area network, or via a wide area network, most commonly the Internet. Multiplayer games usually require players to share a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance; players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, or supervise other players' activity. Due to multiplayer games allowing players to interact with other individuals, they provide an element of social communication absent from single-player games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pillow fight</span> Mock conflict using pillows as weapons

A pillow fight is a common game mostly played by young children in which they engage in mock physical conflict, using pillows as weapons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowball fight</span>

A snowball fight is a physical game in which balls of snow are thrown with the intention of hitting somebody else. The game is similar to dodgeball in its major factors, though typically less organized. This activity is primarily played during winter when there is sufficient snowfall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zombie walk</span> Public gathering

A zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Participants usually meet in an urban center and make their way around the city streets and public spaces in an orderly fashion. Zombie walks can be organized simply for entertainment or with a purpose, such as setting a world record or promoting a charitable cause. Originating in North America during the 2000s, zombie walks have occurred throughout the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Embarcadero Plaza</span>

Embarcadero Plaza, previously known as Justin Herman Plaza from its opening in 1972 until 2017, is a 1.23-acre (0.50 ha) plaza near the intersection of Market and Embarcadero in San Francisco's Financial District, in the U.S. state of California. It is owned by Boston Properties, who acquired the neighboring Embarcadero Center office, hotel, and retail complex in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craigslist</span> Classified advertisements website

Craigslist is a privately held American company operating a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.

<i>San Francisco Examiner</i> Newspaper in San Francisco, California

The San Francisco Examiner is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.

"Pillows and Blankets" is the fourteenth episode of the third season of the American television series Community. It originally aired on April 5, 2012, on NBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicken John</span>

"Chicken" John Joseph James Rinaldi is a musician, showman, activist, and author living in San Francisco, California. He is involved with the San Francisco arts community as well as the Burning Man community. In what he referred to as "an experiment", he was a candidate in the 2007 San Francisco mayoral election, during which he wore fake mustaches, debated a puppet, and arranged costumed flash mobs to occur at campaign events, in an effort to be as flippant a candidate as possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">My Pillow</span> Pillow-manufacturing company based in Minnesota, U.S.

My Pillow, Inc. is an American pillow-manufacturing company based in Chaska, Minnesota. The company was founded in 2009 by Mike Lindell, who invented and patented My Pillow, an open-cell, poly-foam pillow design. From 2004 to 2009, My Pillows were sold through Lindell's Night Moves Minnesota, LLC, and have been sold through My Pillow, Inc. since 2009. My Pillow has sold over 41 million pillows, due mostly to TV infomercials. The company started with five employees in 2004 and had 1,500 employees by 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batkid</span>

Batkid is the superhero name of Miles Scott, an American child and cancer survivor. His wish was to be "Batkid", a sidekick of the comic book superhero Batman, the subject of books, radio, television, and films. Once the request went out, thousands of volunteers, city officials, businesses and supporters rallied to turn San Francisco, California into "Gotham City" – the fictional home city of Batman – on November 15, 2013, for one of the largest and most elaborate Make-A-Wish projects ever staged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Madrid Pride</span> Annual LGBT event in Madrid, Spain

Madrid Pride, popularly known in Spanish as the Orgullo Gay de Madrid or La Noche de Patos and its acronym MADO, is the annual LGBT pride festival hosted at Chueca neighbourhood in the centre of Madrid, during the weekend immediately after June 28, International Day of LGBT Pride.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Fitzgerald, Sean D. (21 March 2008). "International Pillow Fight Day: Let the feathers fly!". National Post . Retrieved 19 May 2008.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. 1 2 Athavaley, Anjali (15 April 2008). "Students Unleash A Pillow Fight On Manhattan". Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 19 May 2008.
  3. "International Pillow Fight Day 2017 – April 1st in cities around the world". pillowfightday.com. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  4. Pastorino, Ellen E.; Doyle-Portillo, Susann M. (1 January 2011). What is Psychology?. Cengage Learning. ISBN   9781111343668 . Retrieved 1 April 2017 via Google Books.
  5. 7:24pm, 11 October 2006 www.mobile-clubbing.com
  6. "Mob rule: The phenomenon of flash mobbing" . independent.co.uk. 30 August 2008. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  7. Mitchell, James (11 October 2006). "Liverpool Street mobile-clubbing.com flashmob, October 11th". Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2017 via YouTube.
  8. Janet Montealvo, Flash Mobs and Smart Mobs; University of Texas at Dallas
  9. "Hundreds Pummel Each Other With Pillows In San Francisco". cbslocal.com. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  10. "Pillow Fight 2017 - San Francisco, CA at Justin Herman Plaza". sfstation.com. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  11. McMartin, Pete (12 July 2008). "Waterfight in Stanley Park, but are flash mobs starting to lose their edge?". Canwest Publishing Inc. Archived from the original on 14 July 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2008.
  12. "World Wide Pillow Fight Day". Newmindspace. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
  13. "Largest pillow fight". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 12 March 2021.