Cala Boca Galvão phenom

This hilarious cultural phenom story has been making the rounds. If you Tweet, maybe you were an unwitting participant. In this case the Brazilians really got one over on the rest of the world. It just shows how focused we all are on the World Cup (and how many Americans will text/tweet donations for a good story/cause).

Since I am not an active Twitter user (I only follow a tiny number of tweeters and never tweet myself) I first stumbled on this story at the Corin in Exile blog. But then I saw a great deconstruction of what all was going on over at Murder is Everywhere.

In short – here’s the deal. The underlying premise is that a beautiful Brazilian Amazon-region parrot species, which is quickly going extinct, needs your help. You can help save the galvão birds, represented by the Galvão Institute, by simply tweeting “cala boca galvão” whereby a modest 10 cent donation will go to the Institute for the campaign.

Here is their video.

This campaign has Brazilians everywhere snarking about those gullible gringos, and with good reason. To understand the trick being played on the non-Portuguese speaking world (and World Cup fans), follow this link to Leighton Gage’s full explanation.

Just to be sure the joke gets pushed over the top, brilliant pranksters put together the following spoof (with English supra-titles).