A video is popular on the Internet in which a famous actor and martial artist masterfully uses nunchucks as a ping-pong racket. We have verified the accuracy of this video.

In confirmed accounts of the Ren-TV channel in Facebook* and in "VKontakte" A one-minute “rare recording” entitled “Bruce Lee plays ping-pong with nunchucks” was published; it was viewed about 1.5 million times on two social networks. At one time, Express Newspaper turned on a similar video in the collection “Bruce Lee’s coolest tricks that no one can repeat.”

A video of Bruce Lee playing ping pong with nunchucks was published on YouTube and 2015, and in 2012, and even in 2008. The last of these videos is noteworthy for two reasons. Firstly, it received 36 million views. Secondly, at the end of the 2.5-minute video, for some reason, a Nokia N96 mobile phone is demonstrated, which entered on sale almost 35 years after death famous actor in 1973.

The appearance of this gadget in the video is no coincidence. The fact is that in 2008, Nokia released for the Hong Kong market a special version of its new Nokia N96 Bruce Lee edition. A doll depicting Bruce Lee, a stylish bracelet and a keychain in the form of a nunchuck were added to the standard package, and a portrait of the martial arts master and his autograph were engraved on the back cover of the phone. Also, several rare photographs of the actor and a theme dedicated to him for the design of the interface were pre-loaded onto the phone.

Although the cost of the Nokia N96 Bruce Lee edition was more than double the price of the regular version, the manufacturer did not provide a special budget for the advertising campaign. However, the Beijing office of the JWT agency, which was initially ordered only to advertise directly at the point of sale, offered to shoot a viral video to promote the phone. “We discussed with the director how to make it look like never-before-seen secret footage of Bruce Lee. The director put a lot of effort into studying him and found the right understudy,” told portal Agency.Asia creative director of JWT Beijing Polly Chu.

Thus, the video, which on the Internet is often passed off as a real filming with the participation of Bruce Lee, was filmed several decades after the actor’s death to advertise a mobile phone dedicated to him.

*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Facebook, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons