Glitter Bombing

About

Glitter Bombing is a prank that involves dumping glitter particles on an unsuspecting victim. In the United States, the prank has been used as a form of protest against politicians who are opposed to same-sex marriage.

Origin

The earliest known glitter bombing occurred on May 17th, 2011, when political activist Nick Espinosa^[1] dumped glitter on former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and his wife Callisata in protest of their opposition to same-sex marriage. That day, the Associated Press YouTube channel uploaded footage of the incident, receiving over 550,000 views and 4,100 comments in the next four years (shown below).

Spread

On January 5th, 2012, YouTuber SheyaSite uploaded footage of political activist Vermin Supreme at the "Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum," where he glitter bombed Republican pro-life activist Randall Terry, claiming Jesus told him to "make Randall Terry gay" (shown below, left). Over the next three years, the video accumulated more than 2.7 million views and 11,300 comments. On January 21st, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was glitter bombed at his primary headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina. Over the next two months, Santorum was glitter bombed an additional three times.

On February 1st, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was glitter bombed during a rally in Eagan, Minnesota. On February 7th, he was glitter bombed a second time following a speech during the Colorado Primary (shown below, left). The activist was subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty to charges of "disturbing the peace" in April that year. On March 18th, 2013, YouTuber Edward Lawrence uploaded footage of actress Lindsay Lohan being glitter bombed while arriving at a courthouse in Los Angeles, California (shown below, right).

Glitter Shipping Services

In January 2015, the website ShipYourEnemiesGlitter^[2] was launched, which mails glitter bombs to a specified address for a fee of $9.99. On January 15th, YouTuber edamame uploaded footage of her father opening a spring-loaded glitter bomb tube sent from the website RuinDays.^[3] The following day, Redditor chillwithbill submitted the video to the /r/videos^[5] subreddit. Within one week, the video gained over 2.7 million views and the Reddit post gathered upwards of 5,000 votes (89% upvoted). On January 22nd, The Guardian^[4] reported that the ShipYourEnemiesGlitter site had sold for $85,000 on the Flippa online marketplace.

Mark Rober's Package Thief Glitter Bomb Video

On December 17th, 2018, former NASA engineer Mark Rober uploaded the video "Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap" to YouTube. The video shows Rober's engineering and execution of a glitter bomb disguised as a package that would detonate when opened. Using four smartphones, the package would also record the detonation and the opener's reaction. Rober states in the video that the glitter bomb was intended for people who had been stealing his and his friend's packages from outside their homes. Within four days, the video received more than 41 million views and 1.3 million upvotes (shown below).

The video quickly went viral, as media outlets picked up on the story, publishing pieces in The Washington Post,^[6] NBC,^[7] The Verge,^[8] Fast Company^[9] and more. Additionally, when posted to the /r/Videos^[9] subreddit on December 17th, the video received more than 147,000 points (89% upvoted) and 10,000 comments in four days.

On December 20th,^[12] Rober published an addendum to the video on as a comment on YouTube, stating that he "removed 1.5 minutes of footage from the video since originally uploading" after learning that two of the "thieves" were acquaintances of one of Rober's friends in the video, and therefore, willing participants in the prank. He continues:

"I was presented with information that caused me to doubt the veracity of 2 of the 5 reactions in the video[…]I put out a feeler for people willing to put a package on their porch and this person (who is a friend of a friend volunteered to help. To compensate them for their time and willingness to risk putting a package on their porch, I offered financial comensation for any successful recoveries of the package. It appears (and I've since confirmed) inhese two cases, the 'theives' wer acuall acquaintacnes of the person helping me.

"Ultimately, I am responsible for the content that goes on my channel and should have done more. I can vouch that the reactions were genuine when the package was taken from my house. Having said that, I know my credibly is sort of shot […] I hope this doesn't taint the entire effort as 'fake.'"

The post received more than 67,000 upvotes in three days (shown below).

Search Interest

External References