This Week: Frisky wombats and more ~wild~content from BuzzFeed Oz
Back in the day, cuddly animal content was our bread & butter over here at BuzzFeed. And while we’re still extreme suckers for a killer cat vid, it’s BuzzFeed Australia’s animal coverage — which is equal parts bizarre, hilarious, and terrifying — that we’re all currently obsessed with.
Take one of BuzzFeed Oz’s latest posts, Confirmed: Wombats Eat Ass, which interprets what is easily the most fascinating scientific study you’ll read about all week. It’s another hit story where news reporter Brad Esposito taps into our universal love-hate relationship with freaky animal facts, much like he’s done in the past with this story about a woman rescuing a drowning spider, and this post debunking that dingo + shark + snake sex photo. Yep. That one.
More on this from Brad:
Australia’s animals benefit hugely from being miles away from anything else. I think that’s a large reason stories about them are so interesting to foreigners. Within our own media, there are regular stories about wombats eating ass, koalas fishing, snakes being pulled out of toilets, and spiders building webs on top of grass to avoid floodwater. If anything, I only cover about a quarter of these story – if that!
We have some of the deadliest snakes and spiders in the world – which I think most Australians are educated about at a young age – so it’s always funny to see the reactions from people outside of the country to our wild and deadly critters.
And, if you’re wondering whether Australia might ever run out of material when it comes to outrageous animal content, brace yourself for the mother of all Aussie posts: 37 Pictures That Prove Australia Is The Craziest, from 2014.
To this day, it’s been viewed by readers from just about every country, and it remains BuzzFeed Oz’s top performing post ever.
International Hits:
In Australia — The top post in Oz from the past 2 weeks? This personality quiz based on your dream dim sum order.
In Brazil — We can all apreesh a good sex scene, which is why this steamy movie roundup went viral in Portuguese, English and Spanish.
In Canada — You’ve been mad about not getting to use Starbucks’ bathroom before, but you’ve never been this mad.
In Germany — Here’s 5 reasons to either have or not have kids, depending on your sense of humor (German here).
In Spain — Dogs eating ice cream / our summer goals (Spanish here).
In France — What IS Katherine Heigl (+ other major 2000s actresses) doing these days, anyway? (French here)
In India — Anyone recovering from finals will LOL at this video imagining what life would be like if what we learned in school was ~actually~ useful.
In Japan — While we’re on a canine kick, this post about dogs pushing their owners to the limit is one of the top Japanese posts, too.
In Mexico — Rest assured that your day’s going a lot better than these people’s (Spanish here).
In the Philippines — If you fuck up (read: westernize) spring rolls too much, mark our words, they will look like used tampons.
In the UK — We know whether you’re ruled more by logic vs. your emotions based on this ~colour~ quiz.
Elsewhere From The Webz:
Two oldie but goodie reads that explore the nuanced way that two major brands realize their global ambitions:
- How The IKEA Catalogue Cracked What “Domestic Bliss” Means In Different Cultures
- Netflix Divides Its 93 Million Users Around the World Into 1,300 “Taste Communities
We hear a lot about the “one product fits all” model (i.e., selling the same Ferrari all over the world) vs. the “localized” model (i.e., adapting the McDonalds menu according to regional tastes), but the IKEA and Netflix globalization models strike an interesting balance of both acknowledging what brings cultures together & makes them distinct.
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