Time to test out your “is it real or fake” instincts. Watch this video where a random Verizon caller is surprised when that Verizon Wireless “Can You Hear Me Now” guy shows up with an army of Verizon people personifying the Verizon network.

Is it truly candid, or is our “victim” an actor?

• Shaky camera
• Genuine surprise and laughter from victim
• Natural crowd reactions

Mercy, this looks like an amateur prank. This guy’s been punked by a big corporation with the world’s worst logo. Yey.

• So, um, how’d they get a lavaliere microphone on the victim?
• Isn’t Verizon lucky that one of the first things out of the victim’s mouth is, “it’s the network”? Yeah- That’s probably what I’d say to a friend, if a bunch of people in construction hats started following me. “It’s the network,” I’d say. I’d probably then work up a gag about reduced call drops and virtual tributaries that allow for ad/drop multiplexing of subrate traffic.

Lesson learned? This would have been a clever bit, but don’t dupe the viewer. Either the joke’s on the victim (the call recipient) or the joke’s on the bystanders (which would have been funny on its own). But this one makes me feel like the joke’s on me.

People are often trying to encourage me to mock a “candid” video, and even if you have a great actor like this guy (who laughs convincingly, which is extremely hard)… you can’t get away with the crunch because the crunch always gives you away.

Verizon Wireless Surprises Customer – Watch more free videos