After walking amid San Francisco neighborhoods, an artist came up with an elaborate internet joke about social media, but not everyone caught on.
"You can now get a Verified Badge crest on your Bay Area home if you're an influencer, public figure, or represent a brand. bluecheckhomes.com" read a Twitter post that now has over 20,000 likes and nearly 6,000 responses.
Clicking on the hyperlink mentioned in the tweet takes you to a fully functional website with an application and photoshopped pictures of blue check ornaments on SF homes and one of a "Blue Check Homes" installation van.
The creator of the prank, artist and co-creator of the app DialUp Danielle Baskin, soon found herself with almost 500 applicants looking to get a verified badge crest of their own.
Some applicants were just playing along with the prank, putting names like Kim Kardashian, "But everyone else thought the website was real," Baskin told SFGate.
"I did what I thought was a mediocre Photoshop job … I thought, ‘This is all very clickbait-y.’ All of the copy, I thought, was so obviously satire.”
The prank started after Baskin went on a walk through her neighborhood and noticed several houses had a blue shield with a diagonal purple stripe in it.
Baskin told SFGate she plans to sculpt a verified badge crest for one of the applicants.
I generally enjoy the whole theatrical production of an internet joke," she said. "I will give it to someone who appreciates the joke and is not afraid of the mobs coming."
The "Blue Check Homes" now has a disclaimer at the bottom of the page subtitled "WTF Is This Real?" It reads:
“If you thought this was a full-fledged service, please investigate the things you read on the internet! And if you're an artist making jokes on the internet, we should consider adding disclaimers like this, because not everyone understands your commentary and will share your jokes as fact.”
Photo: BlueCheckHomes.com/Danielle Baskin