So apparently the all-knowing octopus of World Cup 2010 fame has died. Firstly, who cares? Secondly, that’s hilarious! I remember reading about Paul (the octopus) who would predict the outcome of matches by landing himself on top of one of two jars filled with an oyster. The jar had flags of competing countries on them, and it turns out Paul the octopus got it right every time. SO FUNNY!!! Here’s the article reporting this sad sad loss.
The funniest thing is that Paul was actually quite an effective marketing tool. Even though he had been in the aquarium for a while before his psychic abilities (haha!) were proven, one octopus isn’t a really exciting addition to a large venue. But one that can predict the future… that’s a product! Or service? Either way, Paul’s presence drew large crowds and even incited donations from pleased customers. I wonder if they would have been so happy if he had correctly predicted Germany would lose over and over? It was genius on the part of the Sea Life Aquarium however, using something as popular as soccer in Europe to attract a target market who might otherwise be uninterested by pairing two completely unrelated things: sea creatures and soccer!
This honestly just goes to show how much hilarious novelties like this really can impact a population. According to the Wikipedia page about Paul, studies have been done to try to determine if it is actually legitimate that Paul may have oracle-type knowledge of the future. Apparently Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who seems to make weekly addresses criticizing the most RIDICULOUS thing he can find about the West) even mentioned Paul during the World Cup this summer, chastising him for something or other relating to Western-centralism. HILARIOUS!
