Millions fall for Rick Astley viral video prank

by Paul McNally, Brand Republic 28-Mar-08, 12:05

LONDON - Eighties pop icon Rick Astley has described being at the centre of a viral internet phenomenon as 'spooky', after more than 8m web users were tricked into clicking through to a YouTube video of his biggest hit.

The singer has unexpectedly become the subject of a "meme" campaign which has picked up speed over the past 10 months and received worldwide press coverage this week.

Thousands of items have popped up on blogs, social networking sites and user-generated sites such as Wikipedia and IMDB, claiming to be genuine links to other web pages and news stories.

But when visitors click on the links, they are instead directed to the YouTube video for Astley's 1987 number one smash hit, 'Never Gonna Give You Up'.

A number of mainstream websites have jumped on the bandwagon, with The Guardian, the LA Times, and the widely-read US celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton all burying fake links on their site.

The joke campaign, which was launched by an online anti-Scientology group last May and has since spread across the web, has driven millions of users to the YouTube video. At the time of publication, it had been viewed more than 8.3m times.

In an interview with the LA Times blog, Web Scout, Astley said YouTube had contacted his manager to bring the phenomenon -- called "Rickrolling" -- to his attention.

"It's a bit strange to have videos of when you were a young guy out on the internet," said Astley, who is now 42. "It makes me laugh -- I'm sure it annoys a lot of other people.

"It's a bit spooky. It's just one of those odd things when something gets picked up and people run with it. That's what's brilliant about the internet."

The internet "meme" first took off in the late Nineties, when web users across the globe began forwarding links to the Hamster Dance -- a basic web page featuring rows of animated hamsters and rabbits dancing to a high-pitched song.