A few years ago, there was a special fire with a little brother, Oobah Butler.
(Whole little brother Uba Butler)
In 2017, he registered a restaurant in his backyard that didn't really exist, and then launched it on a British food review site.
He used shaving foam + bleach to pose for exquisite "dishes" like Michelin restaurants, and declared that the restaurant only accepted reservations, and would force Gra Man.
(His beautiful "dishes")
Next, he asked a friend to help him "brush the order" on the website and leave a delicate essay.
His ranking on the site jumped quickly, and then someone actually called him for an appointment.
He replied unhurriedly: "Sorry, we are already fully booked, and there will be a vacancy in three months." ”
Overnight, a fine restaurant suddenly appeared in London that was only passed down by word of mouth among "niche high-end people", and everyone wanted to go, but everyone could not get a seat.
Follow the address on the website to find it, but you can only see the backyard of an unknown house, which is simply too mysterious.......
Butler's phone kept ringing, and the restaurant's ranking on the rating site jumped rocketing.
On November 4, 2017, seven months after the "opening", something ironic happened:
His non-existent restaurant defeated more than 18,000 rivals in London and took the first throne.
(The restaurant rushed to the top of the review list)
Soon, his story was widely reported by many media around the world, and interview invitations poured in like snowflakes.
He participated in several times, but found that these interviews were surprisingly boring, because any TV station asked the same questions, he simply hired several different stand-ins to replace him on TV...
It turns out that his grasp of human nature is extremely accurate, and one of his stand-ins not only does not look like him,
And also Norwegian, speaking with a thick Norwegian accent.
However, it was such a rough stand-in who stood on the podium for him, and gave a thumbs up to the camera, and now YouTube can still search for the interview screen at that time.......
(Butler's Norwegian stand-in)
Within a year, he easily taunted the world, twice.
After 2018, Butler's pace slowed down, until this year, he returned with a big job.
His target this time is one of the world's largest technology giants, Amazon.
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His source of inspiration was simple: one day walking near an Amazon warehouse, he was shook by a bottle of yellow liquid on the side of the road, looked closer, and then unscrewed the cap and smelled.......
A little disgusting, it's urine.
And this is not the only bottle, in one minute, he collected 7 bottles of yellow clear liquid with different contrasts. With the spirit of seeking truth and pragmatism, he opened every bottle and sniffed...
Where do these urine bottles come from? He probably knew the answer in his heart.
Back in 2018, Bunsiness Insider wrote a meticulous article about the poor living conditions of Amazon delivery drivers.
(Reported at the time)
In short, Amazon has strict rules on the rest time of drivers, using technology to track how many times they park each day, how fast they go, what route they take... Failure to comply is punishable by fines.
In other words, even if the driver temporarily deviates from the route to go to the toilet, he is likely to be fined.
The vast majority of men in this industry are men, and they really can't hold back and can solve it in the bottle; Women's words are miserable, menstrual holidays, toilet visits, endless trouble.
It is not difficult to imagine that Amazon first denied that the driver urinated into the bottle, but was slapped in the face by massive evidence, and was finally forced to apologize twice:
Once because of the driver's affair itself, and once because of denying the facts.
(Amazon forced to apologize for denying the facts)
Now that five years have passed since Business Insider, have Amazon drivers gotten better?
Butler personally investigated and received only one negative answer.
He caught a strange driver brother on the side of the road and wanted to interview him, but unfortunately the other party was afraid of overtime delivery,
While chatting, he kept taking out his mobile phone to look, Butler didn't want to delay him any longer, so he had to ask:
"Do you have a urine bottle in the car?"
The little brother immediately turned out a bottle.......
(The driver's brother turned out the urine bottle)
Butler let him go, and then he stopped more drivers, all with similar replies.
At this time, Butler was making a documentary about Amazon, so he got the opportunity to visit Amazon warehouses in Europe and the United States.
As he expected, in fact, in Italy, Spain, England, the United States....... Drivers are facing the same awkward situation.
He felt very unfair and wanted to do something, but what could he do?
In a flash of light, he thought, "Obviously, Amazon doesn't care about employees' bladders, but do you know what they care about?" ”
"Products, and their platform."
"If I somehow made these bottles into a product, sold them on Amazon (pretended), and pushed them to the top of the list as best I could, I would probably get Amazon's attention, right?"
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After returning to the UK, he went to the door of an Amazon warehouse and crouched at the door, holding a sign that said "Urine Bottle Collection"...
(Butler stands outside Amazon's warehouse)
Given that Amazon "in principle, it doesn't allow" drivers to store urine bottles in their cars, this step went well.
After half a day, he collected enough bottles...
(Collected bottles)
The question is, what can urine be made of? Is there anything that doesn't require much scrutiny to get on Amazon?
The best product he can think of is energy drinks.
Because there are indeed many big anchors/YouTubers who endorse energy drinks, and some even set up energy drink brands themselves, it feels like there is no threshold:
(Prime Energy Drink, founded by Youtuber Logan Paul and KSI)
Just do it, Butler found a designer friend and began to discuss the name. What's the best thing to start with?
"Drive"? Already registered.
“#1”？ It seems a little arrogant...
Eventually, they came up with the name "Release"........
People who don't understand the background will probably think that it means "release energy", and those who understand will understand what exactly is "released"...
Next, I have to think of a slogan, this is simple:
"The world's first fully reusable energy drink"!
"Once you're done, just fill it up again"!
"Unlimited refills"...
Finally, there was the design, and Butler was full of praise for his designer friend, who quickly sent him the blueprints:
("Released" bottle)
Bright colors, eye-catching logo, amazing.
But if we open the official website of the aforementioned Prime energy drinks, it is not difficult to find some... Traces of borrowing:
(Prime Drink)
Anyway, it's a whole thing, it's not really sold, it's harmless...
The product is almost there, and then it will be officially launched on Amazon.
At this time, he thought that Amazon must have some kind of intelligent identification mechanism to prevent people from listing dangerous products and the like with bad intentions, so he played a clever trick and chose the "category" column as "press pump bottle".
But he also wants others to understand that the "release" drink is actually urine, so he did not hide it in the ingredient list,
Very clearly written the words "uric acid", "urea", etc.
("Release" ingredient list)
In addition, although the product description is trying to pile up words, describing how tall the "release" is,
But if you look closely, you will see that he has never hidden the essence of the "release" .......
(Originally, "Each bottle release is made from their urine")
To his surprise, Amazon automatically identified the keyword and moved "release" below the energy drink category, completely ignoring the platform's safety requirements for food and beverages...
Smart, but not at all.
Through this, Butler smelled an opportunity - if he somehow moved "release" to the less competitive "bitter lemon drink" category, he would have a much higher chance of reaching the number one seller!
Butler tried to switch categories, but Amazon's algorithm always blocked him strongly.
He sent emails to different departments of Amazon for several months, but everyone seemed to agree that "release" must be "energy drinks", and did not change it for him.......
With a final hope, he posed as a disgruntled British small business owner and sent an angry email to Amazon's UK executive team.
It turns out that this trick really works...
("Release", energy fermented drink, bitter lemon flavor)
The drink is officially launched on Amazon, and it is time to play traditional arts and brush it to the first place in sales.
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Butler texted all his friends in groups to buy a bottle of "release," which, of course, wouldn't actually ship.
My friends were really interesting, not only spending money, but also helping him write a lot of strange reviews:
Title: I'll Go!
"Just ordered a few bottles because I've heard people praise this brand before! The design caught my eye and loved it! Can't wait to get this golden drink down your throat! ”
(Whole reviews written by friends)
Title: Buy and earn! (Also played a homophonic terrier, Ur in homophonic urine, urine)
"The moment I saw it, I felt a warm, sudden release — and after that I lost three pounds! The product is amazing! ”
(Whole reviews written by friends)
Title: Excited to pee pants
"It's not there yet, but the gold color has filled me with anticipation. The design is great and it fits well as a bidet (birthday) gift. ”
(There is also a homophonic meme here, Bidet homophonic Birthday, which means bidet)
(Whole reviews written by friends)
To get back to business, with the brushing of friends, the sales of "release" quickly went up, and Amazon began to automatically recommend, so there were really strangers who did not understand the situation to place orders...
Butler couldn't really send people pee, and cut the order on his side.
It is very funny that Amazon noticed the increase in sales of "release" at this time, called him, and asked him if he wanted to participate in the FBA program.......
Isn't this just letting the driver transport his own urine........ Butler decisively refused.
Soon after, Amazon finally noticed the anomaly of the "release" review and sent him a red notice, saying that only verified purchase reviews could be displayed in the future:
(Red notice from Amazon)
Until this time, they still did not remove the drink from the shelves, in other words, they still did not realize the essence of "release", and still considered it to be a real drink.......
Around the same time as the red notice was received, "Release" also climbed to the first place in the "bitter lemon" category.
("Release" tops the sales chart)
An extremely ironic scene happened: the urine of the Amazon driver appeared at the top of the sales list of Amazon's "bitter lemon" category, and the parties were unaware of it.......
Perhaps it was the first place "preferential treatment", after which Amazon finally figured out the "released" raw materials and removed them from the shelves.
In a statement, they said:
"Safety is Amazon's top priority, and we require that all products offered in our stores comply with relevant laws and regulations."
"We have industry-leading tools to prevent truly dangerous products from hitting shelves and monitor for possible security issues."
Looking back at Butler's whole life this time, this statement can be said to be quite weak.
Will Amazon converge in the future? I'm afraid it's hard.
Long after the 2018 revelations, in May, three more drivers took Amazon to court for often being forced to pee into bottles.
(Colorado driver sues Amazon)
Because of this, Amazon was scolded countless times, but after that, it still went its own way.
So Butler wants to change them with a whole thing, difficulty... It's a bit big.
But his approach is not meaningless.
Because even if it makes many people breathe, it is meaningful.