Great Moments In Journalism: Local News Team Duped By “Walking On Water” Hoax

by Colby Hall | 12:06 pm, May 12th, 2010

» 21 comments

“Liquid Mountaineering” is a new term created by some European pranksters to describe a new technique they’ve pioneered for walking on water. Actually, they appear to be running on water, and they have the viral video to prove it. The well produced and vaguely believable YouTube clip that has since been revealed to be a “viral ad” for Hi-Tec, but that didn’t stop the news team at WUSA in Washington D.C., from reporting it to be true.

Sadly, the goofy and fun news clips that close each local news casts may be an endangered species. Or at least, they can no longer be taken at face value. First, take a look at how this was reported:

Turns out that the clip was actually a perfect example of “advertainment” – the faux-documentary style video funded by corporate ad dollars in hopes that some dupe would think its real.

Writing for Social Times, Megan O’Neill reveals that the video (which you can watch in its entirety below) is actually an advertisement:

A new viral video from Hi-Tec Sports has a lot of viewers scratching their heads and raising their eyebrows, asking, “Could it really be possible to walk on water?” The new viral from Hi-Tec is a documentary-style clip introducing a new sport called Liquid Mountaineering, in which athletes take a running start and run on top of water. Jesus would love this sport.

The great thing about ‘Walk On Water’ is that it is shot like a documentary and not like an advertisement. The name of the shoes isn’t even mentioned in the clip. The liquid mountaineers briefly mention that they came across some shoes “by mistake” that are totally water repellent. We see a quick money shot of water being poured on a pair of water repellent Hi-Tec shoes and go right back to the running on water. It’s just enough to get the brand name out there without being obvious about the promotional aspects of the video.

The actual viral video that started this is below:

Hi Tec, Liquid Mountaineering, Walking On Water, WUSA

ex political-media hack

seriously…what a bunch o dopes.

lord.
writer

Everyone knows only Criss Angel is capable of this.
TylerDurden

If they had used BHO in the ad , all the liberals would be nodding their heads and saying, “We knew all this time that he could do this.”
badr

Wow, all this time I thought some folks had too much time on their hands.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

Though slightly offtopic for this post, it reminded me of the “Yo-Yo Master” expose that ‘Cajun Boy’ Brett Michael Dykes highlighted on the Yahoo! News Blog, yesterday.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Laguna-Noseque-Otroapellido/536262230 Laguna Noseque Otroapellido

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45yabrnryXk so?
Sue

The media is hoaxed all the time, they try to hoax us, but it no longers works.
ripplerunner

This isn’t a hoax, I can assure you, bru. I do this every morning down my local lake. A friend made a video of me the other day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gKATT5hzw4

I suggest you get out there and give it a go yourselves, before passing judgement!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Ricardo-Bucholtz/1243064693 Ricardo Bucholtz

How’d you like to be that reporter!!! Ha ha…. too funny.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Danny-Isbell/735618466 Danny Isbell

The Tea Baggers swear that The Half Term Governor has done this since her High School basketball days.
ripplerunner

Hi-Tech have done a great disservice to the wonderful sport of LM (walking on water). This is indeed possible and in South Africa we do this most summers.

For the doubters and sceptics I’ve made a tutorial on how to run on water:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhorUMxxvfQ

peace, brus, and get running on those lakes!
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Stan Townsend

And then all the conservatives would claim Reagan did it first.
Stan Townsend

And then all the conservatives would claim Reagan did it first.
Robert Doby

This article is misleading. “Liquid Mountaineering” is in deed possible – it’s freaky as shit to watch and freakier to try, but the “hoax” here is that it’s a misleading ad. The viral ad claims that they can do it only with these special, unnamed shoes, and doesn’t even claim to be an ad – that’s the dupe. You can do these with most types of footwear, but light, water-repellent shoes are best (reduces water drag), as long as you can run fast enough in them.
Jameslive4him

Shut up already all of you, stop saying it’s fake or not i won’t believe it’s true until i’ll see these guys doing it for real.
Qtmounts

the “Jesus Christ Lizard” does exist and actually can walk on water.
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They did a great job of hiding who made the video. A viral video that was made to perfection ! We can all learn from it !!!! thanks for posting it, regards, video production san francisco