The Swiss Tourism Board released a video that revealed the secret of why their mountains look so clean. It was due to the hard work of the Association of Swiss Mountain Cleaners, whose members daily scaled the Alps, scrubbing the rocks of unsightly bird droppings. The cleaning not only maintained the beauty of the Alps, but also prevented the droppings from eating away at the rocks, causing cavities that might eventually lead to the complete erosion and disappearance of the mountains. Millions of people watched the video, and 30,000 took the online test to determine whether they had what it took to become a mountain cleaner. Later that year, due to popular demand, the Brunni cable car company began offering an actual mountain cleaning course that attracted would-be Felsenputzers from around the world.
Telecommunications company Qualcomm unveiled a plan to expand wireless coverage by implanting tiny base-stations into pigeons hybridized with wolves. Their reason for using this hybrid creature was that the wolf-pigeons could fly overhead but simultaneously be self-defensible, form packs when needed, and go out as lone wolves to areas without coverage. However, the company confessed that their plan had encountered some problems requiring a series of fixes. Because the wolf-pigeons tended to run amok, it had been necessary to create Shark Falcons to keep them under control. And to control the Shark Falcons, in turn, Qualcomm engineers had drafted plans to create a Crocodeagle. The video press release probably fooled few people. Nevertheless, the escalating absurdity of the technological fixes, coupled with the earnest sincerity with which they were described, quickly made the video a popular favorite, elevating it to classic status.