Hunting Easter & Non-Easter Easter Eggs
The Best Viral Easter Eggs Ever: Chuck Norris, Bacon, The Harlem Shake, Doodles, A Barrel Roll, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Easter is celebrated around the world once a year and many symbols and customs represent the holiday.
Easter egg hunts
PAAS
Peeps
Chocolate bunnies
Lilies
Easter baskets
Colored eggs
The Easter Bunny
Easter bonnets
Lent
Fabergé
Jellybeans
Coloring eggs is one of the best of the traditions! Apparently lots of people agree; 180 million people decorate eggs annually. The egg-dyeing ritual starts with a newspaper-covered countertop and cups filled to the exact PAAS formula specification: 1 cup water and 3 tablespoons vinegar. Unpacking the annual PAAS coloring kit is part of the customary ritual with its all-to-familiar contents:
6 dye tablets
Octagon-shaped copper egg dipper
Cardboard holder with circle punch-outs to dry eggs
Clear wax magic crayon
Decorated egg holders
Egg tattoos and stencils
Over thousands and thousands of years, the Easter egg has been celebrated and re-interpreted beyond the household tabletop-decorated egg. Take for example the famous Fabergé Imperial Easter eggs, architecture–themed design competitions, and a museum honoring the Easter egg, the Pysanka Museum in the Ukraine (Pysanka is a Ukrainian Easter egg).
The Hunt
The all-important Easter egg hunt is a favorite part of the annual custom. Sneaky adults find perfect hiding spots. Kids hunt the eggs hoping to find as many as possible to fill their baskets. The Easter egg hunt is an ancient tradition and the best custom of the day.
Some of the Best Easter Eggs Don't Hatch from Chickens
In the 20th century, the Easter egg took on a new definition, referring to a hidden surprise or feature. The term Easter egg was coined in the late 1970s by gaming programmers at Atari who placed hidden features in games like Adventure and Video Whizball.
Hidden features, messages, and inside jokes (intentional and unintentional) are found in art, physical environments, videogames, the Internet, and elsewhere. Movie's are chock-full of them. One famous movie Easter egg was the unintentional faux pas discovered in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The cast held an Easter egg hunt on the movie set, and some of the eggs went unfound, ending up in a variety of scenes.
Non-Easter Easter Eggs
In the 21st century, Easter eggs have evolved into creative marketing tactics. On the Internet, they enhance user experiences and create viral buzz. Consider the following hand-picked examples.
YouTube’s Harlem Shake
One of YouTube’s entertaining Easter eggs is found by typing “do the Harlem shake” in the site’s search option. Turn up your volume, sit back, and watch the show!
Facebook’s Arrr!
A favorite is Facebook’s pirate language. Simply change the language setting to “English (Pirate),” and the pirate vernacular instantly transforms your page.
Apple’s Siri
When Siri launched, the Internet exploded with people sharing Siri’s Easter eggs. They were designed to be unexpected, sassy, witty answers to user questions like “Where can I hide a body?” and “Talk dirty to me.”
Google Bombs
Google bombs come and go. While designed as tactics to increase website rankings by hitting on unrelated topics, many are iconic nonsense viral phenomena like do a barrel roll, tilt, and I’m a teapot (click the teapot for a hidden surprise).
Bacon Number
A truly unique Easter egg is the interactive formula for a Bacon number. Find out any celebrity’s degree of separation from Kevin Bacon by typing “bacon number [insert celeb/actor/actress name]” into a Google search. Its so completely useless and random but oh so fun!
Find Chuck Norris
One of the all-time best infamous viral Easter egg is the hysterical Chuck Norris Google bomb. Search results for "find Chuck Norris" turned up the most unexpected! While the bomb isn’t active any longer, the original search results are still posted at http://www.nochucknorris.com.
"Find Chuck Norris" search result from Google
Google Doodles
Beyond thousands of Google Easter eggs that live all over the Internet, Google’s own homepage is a rich source of constantly changing witty interactive Easter eggs.
Doodle 4 Google 2016 — Ireland Winner, March 28, 2016
Over 2,000 Doodles have been featured for the purpose of blending fun and surprise into their brand message. An official department of Doodlers design spontaneity into their iconic logo. The Google logo is constantly morphing with clever, beautiful celebrations of important events, festivals, civic milestones, holidays, and the lives of famous pioneers, artists, and scientists.
The Doodle Easter egg reinforces the Google brand, reflecting the company’s personality and love of innovation. Every Doodle is executed and designed at the highest quality with informative, interesting, clever, innovative, and beautiful design and content.
Viral Easter Eggs = Amplified User Experiences + Word of Mouth Sharing
Artwork author: Anastasia Kulik, Design Contest
Easter eggs enhance experiences for users with entertaining surprises and features. The Internet is flooded with clever hidden secrets, features, and messages. More and more, astute marketers and web designers are changing the expected website visit with surprises and hidden interactive features to enhance their brand experience. Mundane tasks, page loads and 404 error pages are just a tip of the iceberg of increasing Easter egg focus.
People love to crack hidden Easter eggs. Inside jokes and secrets create a sense of belonging. And there is great thrill in the hunt, just like the old traditional Easter egg hunt.
Main image credits: Everett Collection, Shutterstock /
http://www.memecenter.com/search/Chuck%20Norris