Ethan Switch - Monday, 14 July 2003
The annual running of the bulls into the public abattoir in Pamplona, Spain only injured 11 people. Of that, only 3 of them were actually gored by the bulls. Not bad on the part of the bulls. Among the many to run like mad foxes at the crack of the farmer's rifle was Mark Roberts. Though he failed to be skewered by any one of the bulls down their merry way to death, he did manage to become another bitch in the slot machines of an Internet-based casino.
The casino, like many others, are notorious for hijacking the calming pornographic images riding down the bit stream in an attempt to jack off some of the loose coins wedge tight in the surfers the world over. True to digital form, the casino lured Roberts with a flash of money in return for a flash of skin and paid him to run for his life down the streets of Spain. Not able to start the game like everyone else, Roberts jumped into the fray midway through and scrambled down the cobbled roads to only bail minutes later, saving himself from a brutal goring by the sheer mounting strength of his fingers.
While the backside below the belt was stained in indecipherable Morse code, the URL of the Internet Casino sat proudly and captured much screen time as footage of the bulls was played out and over.
The Casino involved in the backslashing are known to execute such similar stunts like sending out streakers at sporting matches and accounts for their only offline type of advertising. The publicity works because despite catching the ire of the fans and organizers, the media love splashing the images of streakers in all their often unsightly form.