Origin

In a 2007 summer report video by Los Angeles Fox affiliate KTTV Fox 11 on Anonymous and 4chan, stock footage of an exploding yellow van is used in order to illustrate Anonymous danger and warn people about their "domestic terrorism".

The exploding van footage came from ITN Source, a provider of stock and archival footage to large news corporations such as FOX and Reuters.

Asha Oberoi, content director of ITN Source, offers some enlightening insight into why FOX may have chosen to use the exploding van footage; in this excerpt from Realscreen.com

"Declining advertising revenue on traditional mediums has meant that there's a real demand for cheaper television to be made so that broadcasters see a return on their investment," says Oberoi, who believes that commissioning editors are looking to the Internet to see what draws viewers and are taking their leads from what's working online. "And the kind of content that works online has been that quirky, 'exploding van'- type stuff," she says.

(bold added for emphasis)

Use

Following Fox 11's use of the exploding van stock footage in their Internet Hate Machine segment,
Anonymous used the van in image macros and gif animations of the said van, focusing on the offbeat and, one may say, sensational use of the van as an example.

• Electro-van