The most beautiful flash mob in the world. Flash mob on the Internet: what is it and why is it needed?

Our rating includes hundreds of lonely Beyonces in Piccadilly Circus, gigantic emoticons and the Internet Bee-Challenge, which forced girls to flash their bare breasts. What collective ventures have settled in the neighborhood?

Who organized the first flash mob and how?

When sociologist Howard Reingold published Smart Crowds: The Next Social Revolution in 2002, he had no idea that the idea of ​​using the Internet to organize oneself would become so popular. In the summer of 2003, Rob Zazueta, having developed flocksmart.com, decided to begin chronicling the “instant crowd” (this is how flash mob is translated from English).

Although the first event, scheduled for June 3, was disrupted by the New York police, people liked the idea. On June 17, 2003, two hundred activists gathered at the exclusive Macy's carpet and told the sellers amazing story. A pitiful story about people living in a warehouse somewhere on the outskirts of New York and looking for the “rug of Love” shook the whole world. Very soon, flash mobs organized through LiveJournal took place in Moscow, Dnepropetrovsk, Kyiv, Odessa and St. Petersburg.

The planet was captured by flash mob euphoria. Competing in ingenuity and passing the baton to each other, active earthlings surprised their passive brothers who followed life through the media.

Top most famous flash mobs

In just a couple of months, the classic promotions, designed not to cause rejection or laughter, have had several subtypes. Socio-mobs engaged in political influence on the masses, advertising mobs - promoting the necessary goods and services, and extreme mobs - demonstrating hooligan “stuff”. The people began to collectively sing, dance, draw or simply smile.


Optical illusion

15 pairs of twins, identical as two peas in a pod, staged a small psychological attack on the New York subway. Having perfected their movements to the smallest detail and dressed in identical outfits, the guys sat opposite each other in the carriages. Portraying ordinary passengers, they copied each other's movements down to the smallest detail.


It is not surprising that their unlucky compartment neighbors, tired of looking at the simultaneously raised hands and turned over pages of newspapers, disembarked ahead of time.

The sea is agitated once...

In March 2007, 50 English flash mobbers said a little hello to the cameras that provided security in one of the supermarkets in Manchester. At the pre-agreed time, the activists who were making purchases froze in place, as if by magic. magic wand. After standing for four minutes, the “sea figures” came to life and, as if nothing had happened, continued to move towards the cash register.


It's amazing that ordinary people who found themselves in the same store did not notice anything remarkable.

Mr Mandela, you will not die this week

“Heroes never leave,” decided the employees of the Woolworthsfood store and honored the great fighter for human rights with an unusual flash mob. Right in the middle of the working day, they sang with the vociferous church choir and stopped working. The composition “Gospel Flash Mob”, performed out of tune but with soul, shocked the visitors to tears. It is no wonder that the memorable action was captured on video and caused a storm of applause.

Company of lonely Beyonce

On April 20, 2009, the usual rhythm of the morning London rushing to work was disrupted by deafening music. To the rhythms of the hit “Single Ladies”, which broke all records on the radio charts, a whole hundred girls jumped out onto the square. The ladies, throwing off their cloaks and flaunting tight tights, twirled their bodies and swung their legs. All traffic in the area was paralyzed: pedestrians, cyclists and bus drivers gaped at the unusual performance. It turns out that this dance flash mob was intended to draw attention to a prank free tickets to the Beyonce concert and had a commercial basis. The world, sucked into a dizzying whirlpool of flash mobs, can only envy the scope and imagination inherent in our domestic mobbers.

A smile will brighten the day

On September 14, 2008, residents of Dmitry Medvedev were captured by the QuickBird satellite and appeared on Google maps.


Unfortunately, the weather that day was clearly not in good spirits: due to the piercing cold, the participants in the good-natured flash mob were forced to retreat to their homes.

Pillow battles

The popularity of children's fun, which has grown into a classic flash mob, is on truly cosmic proportions. Activists, hiding pillows in their bosoms, start a real war at the sound signal. A fierce fight, drowning in fluff and feathers, can end in a matter of seconds or last for hours. Special clubs have been created for fans of pillow fights, and flash mobs, which are regularly held in Moscow, Ufa and St. Petersburg, are so noisy that they are not without arrests.


Lower my bra

This virtual flash mob, which occupied the Odnoklassniki and VKontakte networks, is very much loved by the male half of Russian society. Ladies who are not particularly modest take their bras off from where they are supposed to be and put them over their eyes. So they replenish the population of the erotic swarm of large bees or dragonflies. Unfortunately or fortunately, 85% of girls who participated in online surveys reacted negatively to BeeChallenge. Giraffe in the avatar - a memorable flash mob on VKontakte

The Americans, inspired by the idea, wrapped everything they could find in colorful packaging: light bulbs and canned food, toilet paper and a sausage stick. The children's dissatisfaction knew no bounds. Girls who received dolls instead fire truck, banged their heads against the wall, and the boys, who fished out the Barbie doll, swore at the innocent Santa in vain. Collective torture of immature psyches has become the leader of YouTube.

Not only flash mobs, but also other events are grandiose. There is an article on the uznayvse website about the biggest and grandest concerts.
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Surely everyone has heard and, perhaps, became a participant Ice Bucket Challenge(Cold Water Drench Test), popularized in 2014. The purpose of this campaign was to draw people's attention to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which causes muscle paralysis. The pioneer and founder of this flash mob was baseball player Pete Freis, who suffered from this disease.

According to the rules, the participant had to douse himself or plunge into cold water, contribute $10 ($100 if you don’t accept the challenge) to support the association of patients with amyotrophic sclerosis and choose the next 3 people. 24 hours were given to complete the task. The flash mob gained popularity instantly, thanks to the participation of many famous people such as Bill Gates, Dr. Dre, Stephen King, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Mark Zuckerberg and others.

We can say that the goal of this challenge was successfully achieved. People not only learned about incurable disease central nervous system, but also collected quite a large amount. Thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge, over $100 million has been donated to the association.

#Don'tjudgechallenge(from the English “don’t judge” - don’t judge) is one of the most beloved by social network users around the world.

The source of this flash mob is not exactly known. It is believed to be linked to a video by British beauty blogger, Em Ford. A girl who has severe acne filmed and published a video of her transformation using makeup, and the whole process was accompanied by screenshots of negative comments about Em’s appearance.

In contrast to this sad video, people began actively posting videos on Instagram and Facebook that demonstrated the superiority of ordinary appearance.

#Dontjudgeme Challengers at the beginning frightened followers with completely strange and partially “wild” makeup, and then delighted amazing transformation. By the way, the video of young Dimash Adilet has gained the most popularity in Kazakhstan.

Not only #Don’tjudgemechallenge related to appearance, were interesting to the Internet community, but also #thepowerofmakeup(from English “the power of makeup”).

This flash mob was a response and continuation of a video by professional makeup artist and part-time beauty blogger Nikki de Jager. In her video, the girl demonstrates the full power of makeup, having painted only half her face, leaving the other half for comparison. The idea and purpose of the photos posted is to prove that girls should love and be loved both with and without makeup.

For better or worse, the hashtag #Distractinglysexy(from English “distractingly attractive”) was not popular in Kazakhstan.

It became one of many ways to fight for gender equality, and the initiator of #Distractinglysexy was a public statement Nobel laureate in Physiology and Medicine Tim Hunt. The scientist made a careless statement that employees of opposite sexes often fall in love, and subsequently women cry even because of criticism.

Scientists and workers of the fairer sex did not remain in debt and began to publish photos with their opinions on this matter. The hashtag #distructinglysexy demonstrated women's confidence in their work and ability to control their emotions.

Have any of you ever been so tired at work that you couldn’t lie down and rest? This is exactly the mistake a young resident doctor made in Mexico.

An article with a photo blaming a sleeping guy prompted doctors around the world to support the poor guy and fill social networks with themselves dozing off at work. Under the hashtag #I also lay down, or in the original #YoTambienMeDormi, doctors say that their work is not easy, and there is practically no time for sleep even at home. For those who are not doctors this good lesson, because those who care and save lives also need rest.

Challenges demonstrating beauty, that is, the thinness of users are:

1) touching the navel with your hand across your back;

2) measuring the number of coins that fit into the clavicular cavity.

Flash mobs caused absolutely different opinions, but to be honest, many have tried to do this. Some doubted the possibility of touching the navel in this way, while others did not have an extra coin. But it’s difficult to deny the popularity and interest in these tasks on Instagram.

Whispers Challenge(YouTuber Whispers) Everyone should try it, if only because it's fun.

The idea is that one person wearing headphones is trying to read the lips of the words spoken by the interlocutor. It can be anything: a phrase, a word or a whole sentence, but the result is almost always the same: a lot positive emotions. This flash mob not only brings you closer together, but also evaluates your ability to communicate using vision. Therefore, Eldana Forais also posted her version of this challenge.

One of the newest, but very cute of all flash mobs, was #Cheeriochallenge. Knowledgeable Having fun, the fathers decided to give themselves a gift for Father's Day.

Created and started by one of the following: Happiness requires nothing more than a sleeping baby, a lot of Cheerios, and a lot of patience. Whoever builds the tallest tower on their baby's nose or forehead wins. And fathers who don’t have cereal in their cupboards confidently replace them with cupcakes, muffins, and even the boxes themselves. Moms and wives of merry dads can only admire the intelligence of their chosen ones.

After viewing photos using the following hashtag, you can forget about Photoshop and the ideals from the cover. It is dedicated to yoga and confident girls. They prove that the stereotypes about sports that the media instill in us are completely meaningless.

Under the hashtag #SizeDoesntMatter you will find thousands of inspiring examples. People with a figure far from a model perform a variety of asanas and look amazing. Ultimately, all boundaries are only in our heads, and the popular flash mob is just a small push to reconsider our opinion.

The last one, not quite a flash mob, but rather a call #followmeto(from English “follow me”) cannot be ignored.

Created completely by accident by Murad and Natalia Osmann, it penetrated the hearts of many people and became popular all over the world. The young man took a photograph of the girl who walked in front and held his hand. The most amazingly beautiful and deep photographs of different parts of the planet with the caption #followmeto continue to be posted by loving couples, and probably will not stop.

If the number of followers of the movement’s creators has reached more than 4 million, then there are hundreds of times more captured moments from this angle. There are also many parodies on #FollowMeTo, which are very popular.

Friends, have you ever taken part in flash mob- mass actions in which large groups of people gather in public places and carry out pre-planned actions, and then disperse?

From the outside flash mobs are very similar to mass attacks of madness, however, they perform more harmless functions - to diversify people’s lives, to feel free from existing stereotypes of behavior, to get emotional recharge, and just to have fun.

People are always looking for something to do when they are bored. Therefore, flash mobs became the first stage in the emergence of various movements, such as Ice bucket challenge, scotchers, plankers, smack cam, Owlers, hadoukeningers, batmaning, duckmanning and others.

Only one question arises: where does all this come into people’s heads? 🙂 Today we decided to prepare for you a selection that contains the best flash mobs and the most prominent representatives modern movements . Go!

Scotchers

As part of the “scotching” movement, people wrap themselves in tape, take pictures, post them online and compete to see who can make it funnier. 🙂 Just look!





Plankers

Plankers try to surprise the people around them with their ability to be in horizontal position V unexpected places. Looking at the plankers, you are once again convinced that people's imagination is limitless!


Our favorite))


Duckmanning

Hearing this scary word, You'll probably say Whatafuck? We will explain that people participating in dakmanning are, as it were, competing in the skill of creating optical illusions. People hide their own heads, and their friends play along with their heads to make a funny photo. Look what usually comes out of this!




Ice bucket challenge

Ice bucket challenge is a movement that had a charitable purpose— raising people's awareness about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and helping people suffering from this disease.

During the movement it was necessary to pass the test with a bucket of ice water and challenge other people. This is the movement in short time flew around the world and affected many famous people, who also did not hesitate to douse themselves with ice water.

It must be said that some people even went overboard with this, resulting in funny videos. Take a look!

Smack Cam Movement

A very fun and at the same time cruel movement - Smack cam, in which you need to make fun of your friends and hit them on the cheek. To be honest, we feel like some people went overboard with the punches, to put it mildly.

Now let's move on to the largest and oldest of movements - flash mobs. Let's look at the five most striking ones, from the idea to the execution.

5th place - New York, 2010, dance flash mob to popular songs.

4th place - we will pay tribute to the premiere of the film Deadpool.

3rd place - station flash mob, a group of people froze at the same time and then began to move, it looks very interesting and spectacular.

2nd place— USA, Soccer game, one of the largest flash mobs.

1st place - well-known flash mob at a concert Black Eyed Peas to "I Gotta Feeling" in Chicago.
Of course, most of the movements do not cause any harm, but serve only as a way to break out of the usual way of life. However, as in all types of activities, the main thing is to adhere to the principle - “ Everything should be in moderation". Otherwise, for the sake of entertainment, we will soon end up dying and filming! Take care of yourself! Peace for everyone!


On November 20, 1997, 1997 British people united in a human column and walked 30 meters. In memory of this event, the site has prepared a review of the most striking and massive flash mobs of the last decade.


Dance flash mob in the station building
Members of an Australian charity promoting active lifestyle, in In 2010, they began a synchronized dance in the Sydney station building.


The sleepiest flash mob
And German mobbers from Baden-Baden, on the contrary, lay down en masse to rest. Under the slogan "Sleeping Beauty and Climate Policy" (Dornröschen Klimapolitik) 40 participants were located on the roadway. In this way, they intended to draw the attention of the “sleeping” authorities to environmental problems that caused serious climate change.


Flash mob in freeze-frame style
In March 2007, a funny flash mob was organized in one of the supermarkets in Manchester. Before time X, participants behaved like ordinary shoppers. The greater the surprise of sellers and bystanders when the mobbers immediately “went into freeze-frame mode.” The living statues had enough patience for 4 minutes. Not one of the approximately 50 participants stepped out of character early or spoiled the spectacle with an occasional sneeze or nervous chuckle.


Flash mob in freeze-frame style in a Manchester supermarket

Flash mob with elements of acrobatics from pregnant women
A year later, a truly frightening action was carried out in Paris, Berlin and a number of large Canadian cities. Several hundred women later pregnant women gathered in the parks of big cities to perform breakdancing. Passers-by were shocked, to put it mildly. However, the brave dancers pursued more noble goals. Posing a serious threat to unborn babies acrobatic stunts symbolized the plight of women in third world countries, forced to give birth in unsterile conditions and without the help of a midwife.


Flash mob warning from Greenpeace
An even more shocking flash mob was planned and carried out by Swiss Greenpeace members. Several hundred people split into groups and dispersed throughout the most crowded places in the capital. Having previously joined the crowd and waited a couple of minutes, the participants of the action synchronously fell “dead”. The uninitiated fell into panic: among the “stricken unknown disease“There were a lot of kids and old people. A little more, and the witnesses themselves would have needed medical attention. But Greenpeace only planned to say “no” to nuclear weapons.


Massive and shocking flash mob from Swiss Greenpeace activists

Flash mob with stripping on the coast Dead Sea
A serious flash mob without elements of a disaster movie is possible, the Israelis decided on September 14, 2012. And they stripped naked on the shores of the Dead Sea, wanting to remind their fellow citizens of the threat of the reservoir drying up. PR provided Spencer Tunick (Spencer Tunick) – American photographer, specializing in filming “naked” flash mobs. The action deeply outraged the Israeli government and devout Jews. The latter were unable to intervene due to the fact that their cunning compatriots timed the action to coincide with Saturday - the day when Orthodox Jews are prohibited from using personal transport. As luck would have it, no buses go in this direction.


The most massive dance flash mob from Michael Jackson fans
A record-breaking flash mob in terms of the number of participants took place in 2009 in Mexico City. On August 29, 13,957 people celebrated their 51st birthday Michael Jackson, gathered for a collective dance to his hit "Thriller".


The lead mobber was dressed in a recognizable costume of the pop legend, and part of the large support group chose a zombie outfit.


Walking invisible dogs on the streets of New York
2000 members of the New York art collective Improve Everywhere In 2009, they organized a mass walking of invisible dogs. One of the mobbers came across real deposits of children's toys that had gone out of sale - the so-called “collars for invisible dogs.”

The illusion of the presence of an invisible pet is created by the rigid base of the leash and muzzle. The most resourceful "dog owners" staged bad behavior of imaginary four-legged animals - from chasing cyclists to messing around in a garbage can.


Flash mob with a charge of positivity from Chelyabinsk
On September 14, 2008, residents of “harsh” Chelyabinsk smiled at the whole world. More than 9 thousand participants, dressed in bright yellow raincoats and baseball caps, came to Revolution Square and lined up in the shape of a smiley face. A positive sign with a diameter of 75 meters was even seen by an American satellite filming the area for Google Maps. Mobbers were driven by the desire to get into the Internet and the Guinness Book of Records. And also congratulate Dmitry Medvedev Happy 43rd birthday.


"Smiley" from Chelyabinsk residents - flash mob - "smile" to the whole world and Dm. Medvedev personally

All-female flash mob "Runaway Brides"
On June 5, 2013, another flash mob took place in Moscow and 12 other Russian cities. "Runaway Brides" from Cosmopolitan magazine. Contrary to the name, the participants did not leave their chosen ones on the wedding day and not forever. The girls simply went to a massive bachelorette party in their own or rented ones for the occasion.


Participants of the spectacular Russian flash mob "Runaway Brides"

In 2013, many interesting and unusual flash mobs took place around the world. On which they sang, danced, launched sky lanterns, “hanged” famous figures culture and undressed... We have collected 10 of the most striking - from undressing in the subway to singing of British military personnel.

Flashmob is a fairly new phenomenon that appeared in 2002, after the publication of sociologist Howard Reingold's book Smart Crowds: The Next Social Revolution. In it, the author predicted that people would use new communication technologies(Internet, Cell phones) for self-organization. In essence, this is true: a flash mob is a pre-planned mass action in which large group people appear in public place, performs pre-agreed actions (according to the script) and then disperses.

On June 17, 2003, the first official flash mob took place. Its organizer at that time was Chief Editor Harper's Magazine Bill Wasik. That flash mob was quite strange in description: approximately 200 people (according to other sources 150) gathered around one expensive carpet in the furniture department of the Macy's department store and began to tell the sellers that they lived together in a warehouse in a "suburban commune" on the outskirts of New York and came to buy the “Rug of Love”.

Musical flash mob from the British Army


British military Music band has the most large composition in England. Not so long ago, in September of this year, they organized a musical flash mob in Chamberlain Square in Birmingham. 60 musicians performed the classic “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Louis Prim.

Flash mob in memory of Nelson Mandela


WoolworthsFood store employees paid tribute to the recently deceased President of South Africa and one of the most famous human rights activists, Nelson Mandela, in an unusual and very beautiful way. The flash mob, called "Gospel Flash Mob", is a song they prepared together with the Soweto church choir and sang in the store on a weekday. The visitors were touched - they filmed it and clapped at the end.

Flash mob - launching sky lanterns


Synchronized launch of sky lanterns in the city of Miag-ao in the Philippines.

Flash mob “No pants on the subway”


The strange and funny flash mob “No Pants Subway Ride” has been taking place in many cities around the world for several years in a row. The idea of ​​stripping down to their underpants in front of subway passengers arose in 2002 among seven daredevils from the art group ImprovEverywhere in New York. On January 13, 2013, the flash mob was repeated - more than four thousand women and men in their underwear rode in the New York subway. And around the world, in 25 countries, about 16 thousand people took part in this unusual event. The largest concentrations of participants in this flash mob can be seen in the metro of Mexico City, London, Madrid, Berlin, Helsinki, Washington and, of course, New York.

Flash mob from a musical group of the US Air Force


In December, in honor of the holidays, the United States Air Force musical group surprised visitors National Museum aviation and astronautics with an unexpected flash mob. Without any announcements or warnings, emerging from the crowd, they began to play classic"Joy To The World".

Flash mob “Do Not Kill Culture”


In October, a flash mob called “Don’t Kill Culture” took place in Rome. During this action, cultural activists hung a slogan in defense of culture on the Ponte Sant Angelo bridge, as well as silhouettes of “hanged” icons European culturefamous dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch, film actor and director Charlie Chaplin, writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, film director Piero Paolo Pasolini, artist Pablo Picasso, architect, “father of modernism” in Northern Europe Alvar Aalto, experimental scientist Maria Skłodowska-Curie, singer Maria Callas and writer Astrid Lindgren.

Flash mob at an employment service office in Spain


There are a lot of unemployment cases in Spain and the employment office is a very sad place. In January of this year, the musical group Carne Cruda decided to slightly diversify the lives of people forced to look for work, and held a musical flash mob in one of these offices. The video shows that they chose the Beatles song "Here Comes The Sun".

Flash mob of zombie culture fans


Fans of zombie culture constantly organize flash mobs in different corners peace. Brighton Academy students staged a London Museum science small flash mob in support of ZombieLab events.

Large-scale dance flash mob in Seattle


On April 14, more than 500 people came out to surprise Seattle pedestrians. The flash mob “The Glee Flash Mob” took place in three different locations in the city. The dance in the video was recorded in Westlake Park in Lower Seattle.

Flash mob “Verdi Style”


May 15 ten opera singers from Canada, the USA and Puerto Rico, being among the guests at one of the evenings, began to sing famous composition Giuseppe Verdi.