While some pretty insane ideas manage to get crowdfunded by millions, some others are just too wild even for the most daring investors.
The array of ludicrous and just plain ridiculous ideas on crowdfunding platforms is vast, however there’s one that gets the Gold Medal in our opinion.
It’s PAUL – aka ‘The Sexiest Smartphone Charger on the Planet’ – a sarcastic piece of art made in direct response to popular trends in mobile and social technologies. Though the project only garnered a quarter of its funding goal ($2,160 of $8,000) and the campaign was not successful, the first incarnation of PAUL was showcased at the Orange County Centre for Contemporary Art in California. Never underestimate what some people consider as art!
The Silver Medal goes to ‘Twerk Island a Real Contest Movie’, an ‘All Star Movie’ about a famous woman who invites a choreographer and her dancers to the world championships of twerking, giving them the chance to be ‘Champion of the year’, win a money prize and feature ‘in a new clip of one of the DJs’. Wow. Needless to say, the crowdfunding campaign by the Netherlands-based production company Lasaya International was not successful and only raised €30 of the €1,000,000 goal.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/800612063/twerk-island-a-real-contest-movie
The Bronze Medal goes to the Skarp Laser Razor, described as “The first ever razor, powered by a laser. For an irritation free, incredibly close shave.” This campaign did get funded with $4,005,111 pledged for $160,000 goal, however it was suspended by Kickstarter as Skarp was “in violation of our rule requiring working prototypes of physical products that are offered as rewards”. However, after a little Google search, the same product has resurfaced on the rival platform Indiegogo. We’re still wondering what happened there:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-skarp-laser-razor-21st-century-shaving#/
A special mention goes to ‘JVD Bond Case’, a failed crowdfund set up to raise enough money to bail out a police officer who had been charged with first degree murder for killing a 17 year a man. GoFundMe pulled the campaign.
Finally, we couldn’t round up this post without mentioning ‘Cage Match: The World’s First Nicolas Cage Dating Website’. Its description instructs: ‘You tell us your favourite Nicolas Cage films. Then we’ll show you potential matches based on your Cage preferences. Easy. Soul-mate found.
For Malta’s popular crowdfunding projects, check out the Zaar Crowdfunding platform and see what innovative projects you can back, crazy or not.