Over 100 men showed up for what they thought was a tinder date with a woman
named Natasha but it turns out it was all for some viral marketing campaign.
You're watching What's Trending, I'm Shira Lazar. Be sure to like this video
and subscribe for more social media news daily. This is Natasha Ponte, a model and
actress from New York City. She messaged a lot of guys on tinder and over a
series of weeks made plans to meet up with them at a free DJ performance near
Union Square. One of these men detailed his history of
talking to Natasha through tinder. How she disappeared for several weeks then
invited him to this DJ set out of nowhere.
Misha said that all these guys were milling about when Natasha ultimately
took the stage and said "I've invited you all here for a chance to go on a date
with me and proceeds to give a Hunger Games speech about what it's going to
take to date her." Video: "You may or may not know, my name's Natasha,
and I have a confession to make for everyone here.
Everyone here today was brought here to be on a date with me." And despite this weird
and deceitful way that she gathered all of them, some were actually up for it. Video: "all
right, the next one. I like to go to the gym every day and I need someone who also is like really fit. Right?
Cause I wanna go to Central Park and enjoy the park and just walk around.."
they competed in physical competitions. Including up a push ups
contest and an actual 40-meter-dash.
And this girl has got some cojones because she also listed physical requirements
that she expected. No long beards, no beer bellies, nobody under 5'10". And this all begs
the question, if she was really looking for love, then why did she and my guys
that didn't fit those standards? There were some other requirements too. No
Trump supporters, that make sense, and no one who was dumped by their previous girlfriend.
and as you can imagine, this came as a huge surprise to some of
these guys who didn't realize they were part of some sort of viral event. Video: "I
think a lot of people are probably ashamed to be there, so I think some
people quietly walked away, but it was a strangely obedient audience for
the little bit of time I stayed. They just wanted to meet someone, maybe have
a good ****. And some of them strongly voiced their displeasure with one man steadily
screaming "bull sh*t" during Natasha's speech.
Reporting by Gothamist initially suggested that dozens of men showed up.
The event's creators said there was an estimated audience of 1,000, but judging
from this photo which appears to have the crowd at its height our best guess
is around 200 men were there. So, what was this all about anyway? The answer to that
comes from a man named Rob Bliss who confirmed to Gothamist that he produced
the tinder event. Bliss runs Rob bliss creative, a viral marketing company
probably best known for a 2014 video indictment of catcalling titled ten
hours of walking in NYC as a woman.
He's been cagey about what the event is for and he says it's not for a company
or to sell a product. Here's his only tweet on the matter: "How
about everyone pauses to hear what natasha has to say about the tinder
project, when the video comes out Thursday, before passing judgment." The
video on Thursday will probably have more footage from the events and
hopefully an explanation of why they put this together. But whatever the purpose
of this video ends up being, it will probably be overshadowed by the fact
that they humiliated a bunch of people to do it. Philip DeFranco gave his
thoughts on Tuesday and called both Natasha and Rob a**holes. Video:"They tricked dozens
of guys to show up to a location so that she could say "hey, based off of your life
choices and just how you were born, I don't like you, I don't think you're
adequate. There was already a big reaction to this but imagine if you
flipped the tables and it was a guy and he tricked a hundred girls into showing
up and he was like sorry, you're too fat you're too tall, I'm not looking to get some
Philip DeFranco neck thing because I have to look up your giraffe ***." And he's
not alone. Charles Burt tweeted to Natasha
"Your tinder prank was not an experiment, it was a morally reprehensible abuse of
trust and fairly insulting a ction." Writer Caroline Overington said "This is just awful:
A beautiful woman pranks hundreds of men into turning up
for a "date" with her, then humiliates them? what a mean thing to do." I see both sides,
I do think this is totally mean, I would never do this to anyone. On the other
side, I can see how it's kind of like oh yeah, this is kind of smart, this chick
is smart. There's simply a whole group of people that are like good on this girl
cause they've had bad Tinder experiences and this is like some sort
of revenge. And some commenters are saying that some of those guys are
playing into the prank. @GodHamGod said "You find out that you're part of a mask
date prank via Tinder, and you don't leave immediately? Have some respect for
yourselves. Aponte is keeping quiet about the pranks purpose as well. Though
she was at the VMAs and wrote on her Instagram story "nothing can stop me, but
God *prayer hands emoji* Not your toxic hurt masculinity watch
me win." What would you do if you showed up for a tinder date and a hundred other
people were there? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to like and
subscribe for more of What's Trending. And for more stories, go to
whatstrending.com