I am having the chance to be one of the people sitting at the front row, assisting to the birth of a new “positive” online trend that has got viral among radio deejays in Italy – I’ve also spent a couple of seconds in the backstage, which is even better, I must admit.
The Origin: #neknominate
Neknominate, also known as neck and nominate, neknomination or neck nomination, is an online drinking game. The original parameters of the game require the participant to film themselves drinking a pint of an alcoholic beverage, usually beer, in one gulp and upload the footage to the web. The participant then nominates two others to do the same, although a third nomination has become commonplace. The nominated person has to complete the task within 24 hours. (Source: Wikipedia)
According to the British tabloid The Tab, the “neck and nominate” game existed in Cambridge, England as far back as 2008. On November 29th, 2012, YouTuber Will Green uploaded a video titled “Neck and Nominate,” in which a young man drinks a beer in front of a woman’s townhouse door before looking at the camera and calling out a nomination.
On January 2nd, 2014, a Facebook[page titled “Neknominate” was launched to highlight various instances of “neck and nominate” challenges, garnering upwards of 19,000 likes within the first month. On January 5th, the @NekNominate Twitterfeed was created with the same purpose. On January 7th, another Facebook page titled “The Best Neknominate Videos” was launched, which soon became the unofficial hub page for Neknominations after accumulating nearly 200,000 likes in the next three weeks. On the same day, YouTuber ProblemedGamer uploaded a segment from the Australian television news program A Current Affair reporting on the neknominate drinking game. (Source: Knowyourmeme)
This viral crazy game hit Italy too on February 2014 and as you can imagine it took only a little while to become widespread among teens and twentysomethings. I do not want to add further comments about this stupid trend, not willing to give to it and to the people who think that that is “cool” too much of attention.
The Italian Evolution: #Neknominate
Let’s talk about what has happened in Italy during the first ten days of March, 2014
March 1st: A guy called Enrico Stradi was #neknominated. Instead of getting drunk in front of a videocamera – thing that Enrico described as “Not that embarassing”– he decided to do something he did not like at all: to sing a song by the Italian singer Nek. Enrico did not #Neknominate anybody
March 3rd: A friend of Enrico’s, Giacomo Iotti, who works as a deejay in a radio station, decided to follow Enrico’s way when receiving a #neknomination. Giacomo video-recorded himself while singing a song from Nek, #Neknominating other friends and a collegue from another radio station. The video and “Italian” #Neknominate started to become viral, especially among radio deejays.
March 6th: #Neknomination “Italian version” hit the the top radio Deejays in Italy, Radio Deejay’s Trio Medusa and Asganaway first.
While radio deejays were having a lot of fun sending #Neknominations to collegues, a friend of Giacomo “dared” to #Neknominate….Filippo Neviani aka Nek!
Filippo accepted the nomination and published the linked video on his Facebook page , #Neknominating RadioDeejay’s “big boss” Linus and the Italian singer Biagio Antonacci.
March 10th: Linus performed Nek‘s “Lascia che io sia” during his morning “DJ Chiama Italia” show. It was a “thrilling” performance – I will update this post as soon as the YouTube video becomes available. Linus #Neknominated two radio deejays, thus keeping this online viral game alive.
What’s Next?
While waiting for Biagio Antonacci‘s reply, I am wondering how to “export” this safe viral so that to lower the media impact – and virality – of the original version of #neknominate.
It would be really interesting to study its propagation abroad. Spreading this viral worldwide might take a little longer, but in my opinion there are good chances for a pretty sound migration towards Spanish-speaking countries – Spain and Mexico first where Nek is very popular.
