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The AI and deepfakes revolution is making it increasingly difficult for us to distinguish what is real or fake, the veracity of an image or a product. It is a paradigm we face as technology moves into a bewildering future largely shaped by artificial intelligence tools, big tech companies or global economic powers.
Within this futuristic macro-trend, there is one particular concept that would lead us to reflect on the products we consume online. And that is snackfishing, created by Australian Benji, who operates online under the nickname @uksnackattack.
The user’s project focuses on fake viral products from a perspective that enhances the absurdity of the current era. His activity would start at the end of 2023 with his ‘Tomato Ketchup Clear’: a transparent Heinz tomato sauce. The product was presented through a video showing the bottle on a supermarket shelf, which would reach 113 million views. However, the reality is that the product did not even exist, but was a strategy to introduce ‘snackfishing’ to the world, and achieve the impact he wanted to generate with it: revolutionise the internet and sow confusion among users.
Seeing the impact he had had, Benji decided to keep the same format and continue publishing fake viral products. From chocolate Pringles flavoured with MilkyBar to pistachio Kinder Bueno or chocolate mayonnaise. Of all these snacks, none of them are real, even if they look like it. In fact, many of us wish we could try them in real life.
In an interview with Wired, Benji revealed that it all started in 2019, when he and his friends were selecting original flavoured drinks to review. When the pandemic hit, he was forced to find an alternative way to discover new flavours: by making them up. With the help of Photoshop and a printer, he was able to create any snack his imagination could conjure up, including pickle-flavoured Haribo candies.
In this sense, and seeing that unreal products or content on the internet are increasingly proliferating, some platforms have implemented a verification tool that allows users on X to debunk false information, while on Instagram it labels certain content as ‘AI-generated’.
