(PCM) It appears that “Mr. International” is literally going to play anywhere. And by anywhere, I mean a backwoods Walmart in the obscure town of Kodiak, Alaska.
In what began as marketing scheme, Sheet energy strips and Walmart teamed up to send the “Give Me Anything” performer to any Walmart around the country. To do so, the campaign encouraged fans to go onto social media sites such as their local store’s Facebook page and vote for Pitbull to play there. The store with the most votes will receive a visit and performance with the Performer. But when something like this is on the internet, its bound to get interesting, and that’s exactly what happened.
David Thorpe, a writer for the Boston Phoenix, thought it would be hysterical to exile the rapper to the most isolated Walmart in the country, and encouraged followers to vote for Kodiak, Alaska. Website somethingawful also got into the fun, encouraging it’s user to do the same. The Alaskan store, located in a city which has a whopping population of 6,100, ended up with more than 70,000 Facebook likes. So it appears as if Thorpe and the #exilepitbull mission worked to perfect right?
Wrong!
The Rapper took to YouTube yesterday to congratulate Kodiak for winning, but to also respond to Thorpe, and the joke. The video is below, and it’s not exactly what one would expect him to say. I mean, how would you respond if you usually played at places such as Rio, and Miami, and suddenly find yourself stuck performing in a cold, outlandish location such as Kodiak Alaska?!
I’ll be honest, I am not a huge fan of Pitbull, and I might of have participated in the joke if I had known, but he responded in the definition of class. Instead of complaining and letting the Internet win, he took the joke and threw it back on Thorpe and others. It is extremely professional and laid back.
To make it better, he even wants to confront Thorpe, inviting him to Alaska with him. And Thorpe responded to the video, emailing the Associated Press. “Very likely,” Thorpe said, in going to Alaska to see the performance. But added, “I’ll raise the funds to get to Kodiak on my own, since Pitbull’s invitation doesn’t include actually getting me there.” He then tried to cover himself, stating he has nothing against the rapper, and thought it would be fun “to disrupt a corporate social media campaign, since they really set themselves up for it.”
Although he had nothing against Pitbull, he wanted to poke fun at him, “for having to act enthusiastic about being sent to a random Walmart, so I wanted to make sure he went somewhere interesting.” But ends with, “I guess my one regret is that everyone on the corporate side will probably spin this as a Big Social Media Win, which is kind of gross.”
At this point, I am more interested in seeing the confrontation between the two, then the actual performance.