Donald Trump iceberg project from Finland belongs firmly in the realm of media hype and 'silly season' fun, but it aint gonna happen and the media went overboard, pardon the pun...

PHOTO HERE: The group says they will install a live stream to show how quickly the sculpture melts ( Project Trumpmore )

Donald Trump iceberg project from Finland belongs firmly in the realm of media hype and 'silly season' fun, but it aint gonna happen and the media went overboard, pardon the pun...

Donald Trump iceberg project from Finland belongs firmly in the realm of media hype and 'silly season' fun, but it aint gonna happen and here's why: the dumb media went 'overboard', pardon the pun...

Even if it were possible to create a life-size image of Donald Trump on an iceberg in the Arctic as three Finnish art students suggested in a media press release that not one media outlet vetted or fact-chacked, the entire media over-reaction suggests a serious lack of vetting, writes Samuel Marchanks in Canada

According to Wikipedia, the English term “silly season” is “the period lasting for a few summer months typified by the emergence of frivolous news stories in the media.” The entire media world might now be able to stake a claim to its own “silly season.”

A few months ago there was widespread coverage of "The Finnish Donald Trump Carved on the Face of an Arctic Iceberg Project", a plan set in motion by Finnish art student and PR entrepreneur Nicolas Prieto in Helskini, with the assistance of over 1000 media outlets worldwide, who all took the PR hype and went with it without once checking to see if it as possible or prank PR event.

The scheme first surfaced in earlier this year – again in the summer – prompting a response from The Arctic Association of Media Pranksters: “As the authority in charge of iceberg affairs, we would like to confirm that such news is just a rumour.” It went on, according to reports, to urge the public to "shun" such media running with the pack hype.

Undeterred, the scheme’s promoters, the three Finnish guys,  went public with their plans and gave interviews to media worldwide. Not one reporter asked the important question: ''Are you guys pranking the worldwide media?"

Perhaps the Arctic Government has quietly advised the Finnish pranksters to leave its waters, and its icebergs, alone. As for Donald Trump, well, he asked for it, didn't he?

I’m all in favour of innovative ideas. Some will work, some won’t. Any such ideas, however, should always be greeted with a healthy dose of scepticism and cynicism. Let me offer, therefore, a few thoughts on this scheme.

Its promoters, we hear, are well-known Finnish pranksters and  they have struck again, with a well produced website that looked like the planned event was a real thing. In fact, it was from the beginning to the end, a prank. They pranked the global media.

In the meantime, I'm starting work on the outline of a film proposal, convinced that there is scope here for a blockbuster Donald Trump iceberg disaster movie. That, in my cynical view, is where this idea currently belongs – firmly in the realm of Hollywood fiction.

[Samuel Marchbanks is a Canadian Arctic consultant specialising in the Finland's history and culture.]

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