Last week, messages appeared on the Internet about an advertisement for a device that users nicknamed a children's muffler. According to its description, this is a soundproof device through which the child can breathe. We checked whether such a device can really be bought.
In April 2023, the news went viral on RuNet in the form of short posts consisting of a picture and text. The image shows a baby wearing an unusual device on his face, secured with a strap. Under the photo there is text in English, the authors of the publications translate it as follows: “A soundproof, breathable device that will muffle your child’s screams during long flights and evenings watching movies.” Often the news is accompanied by comments such as “finally”, “great development” or “contender for startup of the year”.
Similar posts have become popular on Telegram - the channels “Ax Live"(685,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "All-Seeing Eye 🇺🇦 Ukraine"(427,000), "KB"(259,000), "Mousetrap"(253,000), "Leprosy"(144,000), "r/repeater"(96,000), Putin TG Team (77,000), "Sledgehammer 18+" (60,000) and "What's going on?"(38,000). Posts about children's silencers also receive tens of thousands of views on VKontakte (examples here, here, here, here, here And here) and meet on Twitter (here, here And here).
At the top of the image there is a logo with the name Baby Mute. If you enter this phrase in a search engine, you can find website for the sale of this device with the same photo of the child and product description as in popular posts. The mask is reportedly made of soft, breathable material and is designed to gently cover the mouth and nose of a child up to 18 months of age, reducing the audible volume of their cries by 87%. According to the advertisement, the device will help muffle the cries of the baby during long flights and trips or trips to the cinema: “This is a great gift for new parents who could use a little help during the difficult first few months.” The main page of the Baby Mute website also lists the advantages of the product, namely:
- comfortable to wear for a long time;
- easy and quick to clean;
- reduces noise from crying;
- safe and reliable, no risk of suffocation;
- Compact design for travel.
When you try to order a device appears message that the muffler is no longer available for purchase: “Dear customers, we would like to take a moment to thank you for your tremendous support for our Baby Mute product. Due to high demand we have currently sold out of all our stock and are working hard to replenish it as quickly as possible.” The price of the product is not indicated.
In addition to all of the above, the site contains contact information and customer reviews, information about free shipping in North America and returns, shows product packaging and photos of the creators of the device, and also provides answers to frequently asked questions.
At first glance, everything on the site seems plausible. What if you take a closer look?
For example, in the “Our Team” section it is indicated that a certain Dr. York Hunt was responsible for the development of the device, and her photograph is also shown there. Following guide “Verified” by identifying images created by neural networks, we drew attention to the stethoscope of an unrealistic design and the meaningless inscriptions on the doctor’s coat. In addition, there is no other information about York Hunt on the Internet.
The inventor of the device was named Brad Goss, whose social media accounts are listed on the Baby Mute website. According to the profile description in TwitterGoss is a Canadian comedian and writer. On his page in Instagram* says: “Follow me for cringe humor, comment trolling, and over 120 humor books. You might like my jokes. You might get burned."
New to Baby Mute Goss wrote on their social networks on April 18, after which the news about the scream silencer got infected on the Reddit forum. Over the next two days, the comedian showed a screenshot of an advertisement for the sale of a product on the marketplace, shared articles Media that wrote about the device, and published Lots of reviews criticizing Baby Mute. April 20 Goss wrote: “Baby Mute everything is falling apart. I trolled millions with my low-brow comedy and next time I will stoop even lower.” And in another post added: “Some people are angry that I created a fake product to create fake outrage because I used children as clickbait. How quickly you forgot that I am the author of such literary classics as... "Dead Children. Coloring Book." By the way, the fictitious names of the doctors who “participated” in the development of the silencer also refer to the works of Goss. So, for clinical trials of Baby Mute answered Michael Lit, which refers to book "Mike Lit: Shouldn't Be Hard To Find." The name is a play on words, as it is consonant with the phrase my clit (“My clitoris”). And the name of the previously mentioned York Hunt is associated with a book “Mike Hunt: Smells Like Fish” - these combinations of first and last names are consonant with your cunt (“your p***a”) and my cunt (“my p***a”).
In an interview with CTV News Toronto, Goss told, that the idea for the draw came to him when he learned about discounts on special envelopes in which online stores deliver orders. He used MidJourney to create the images later used in the campaign, and the chatbot ChatGPT helped write text and reviews on the site. According to Goss, a lot of people were furious: "I put the Skype phone number at the bottom of the site and I've probably gotten 200 calls in the last 24 hours."
April 23 Goss published video asking: “Last week I fooled millions of people on the internet with a fake product called Baby Mute... The media, along with millions of people, went wild. I've received calls, death threats, hate mail, and more tweets than I can possibly read. So I ask you: what to do with these bubble wraps (with the Baby Mute logo. - Ed.)? Should I create a giveaway system so you can send them to your friends with some kind of cracker inside? Or sell envelopes so you can wrap your gifts in them? What would you do with such an envelope? Tell me in the comments, I need ideas on what to do with babymute.com.”
A couple of days later, the comedian shared a new joke. He published a photo of a child sitting in a glass jar, which he captioned: “The original Baby Mute prototype was 100% silent, but 0% breathable.”
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social network Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: babymute.com
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