This takes the fake

There's nothing quite like a viral video. Remember the Mentos and Diet Coca-Cola clip that made the rounds a couple of years ago? It showed an amazing array of soda bottles spewing fountains of soft drink after the candy was dropped into the bottles. It was a work of creativity and it quickly spread across the Internet. Both Mentos and Diet Coke reaped the benefits of this viral marketing.

Fast forward to another video that is making its way around the Web: www.megawoosh.com. It shows a man sliding down a gigantic water slide, flying through the air and splashing into a small swimming pool some distance away. It looks real. It isn't. It's the work of some slick videography and editing. You'll notice the slider dips below the view of the camera near the bottom of the slide before being launched off the ramp. Here is where the editing happens, as the projectile is actually a mannequin and the motion and splash-landing is added with slick editing.

The piece was produced as a television commercial to be run in Germany. The product is video editing software from Microsoft Corp.

I score the jump a 10.0, but have to give Microsoft a zero for not coming clean. Why not show how the spot was produced? Yes, the video is somewhat convincing, but don't be surprised if the flying slider gets talked about more than the software that made it happen.

Here's the video: