Operation Kinder

Overview

Operation Kinder is a prank orchestrated by members of 4chan who encouraged other posters to vote for a child model nicknamed "Victor" in an online contest which would choose an image of a child to be displayed on the boxes of Kinder chocolate bars in Kazakhstan.

Background

On November 10th, 2012, an anonymous 4chan user submitted a post^[6] calling for others to vote for a child they called "Victor," showing a mockup design of his face on the box (shown below) and a link to the contest^[4], with the hopes of getting Victor's photo the 8,000 votes needed to win.

While the identity of the boy in the photo is unknown, he has previously been associated with an image macro series called "Death Child"^[3], using a similar captioning style as PSTD Clarinet Boy and Vengeance Dad. The photo has been circulating online since as early as August 2010.^[7]

Notable Developments

On the same day, a link to the the image was submitted in a post titled "Operation Kinder" via /r/4chan subreddit. The post had already reached the top 25th place by the time of its creation^[2], receiving 4,888 upvotes and 2,195 points overall within the first 48 hours. Additionally, the image and link were submitted to FunnyJunk^[8], where 4chan pranksters encouraged the site users to jump in on the bandwagon and vote for "Victor" as well. On November 11th, another 4chan user made a chart^[1] with a step-by-step procedure and description of how to navigate the Russian website so people could influence the localized online poll. Hours later, a follow up link was submitted^[5] titled "Operation Kinder Success," which displayed the achievement of over 8,000 votes and first place for the image. It recieved more than 5,200 upvotes and 2,067 points overall. As of 3 p.m. (ET) on November 12th, 2012, the image is ranked in the first place with 16,474 votes.

Vote Page Reset

On November 14 the vote page was reset by Kinder and Victor was taken off the number one spot. A 4chan post and an /r/4chan subreddit was posted to put Victor back on top but Kinder removed his picture. On November 16 4chan once again tried to vote him back up. The vote count, at it's peak, was 11,965 putting Victor back in the number one spot and once again Kinder removed the picture.

Search Interest

[Not currently available]

External References