Online Trick by University Students Goes Viral

A prank carried out by two Asian students in a McDonald’s branch has recently gone viral. Jevh Maravilla and Christian Toledo, who are Filipino-American students from the University of Houston, successfully sneaked a fake poster of themselves at a McDonald’s branch in Texas. The students pulled the prank upon noticing that the posters in the store featured different ethnicities, which did not include Asians. The fake poster remained unnoticed for more than a month until Maravilla posted about it on Twitter. Maravilla’s post earned more than a million likes and over 200,000 shares. In an interview with CNN, Maravilla shared that he and Toledo felt positively overwhelmed with the public’s reaction to the prank. He hopes that the action will be an eye-opener for other companies through the promotion of ethnic diversity. The viral post also earned Maravilla and Toledo an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, a famous American TV show. On the show, the students explained how they executed the prank. According to Maravilla, they first took a seemingly candid photo of themselves eating McDonald’s products. They then edited the photo and made it look like the real posters in the store. Afterward, Maravilla disguised himself as a McDonald’s staff member and sneakily hung the poster on the wall with the help of some friends. During the show, host Ellen DeGeneres announced that each student will receive $25,000 from McDonald’s. The multinational fast food chain also offered to include the two in the company’s next marketing campaign. McDonald’s also issued a statement, saying that it prides itself on promoting diversity in its restaurants, and expressed admiration for the students’ creativity.