A girl's birthday became a viral situation, after her parents created a Facebook event inviting people to her quinceañera. The family accidentally made the event public, which resulted in a hilarious situation.
The girl, Rubi Ibarra Garcia, celebrated her fifteenth birthday, in central Mexico. The video where the girl's father cordially invited everybody to his daughter's birthday immediately gained notoriety. The result was stunning, as thousands ended up attending the party.
A Viral Quinceañera
The Facebook event has a stunning number of more than 367,000 people who were interested in the girl's quinceañera, and 1.3 million people hit the "Attend" button. Becoming wildly popular, the event also had a total number of over 978,000 shares.
The event, which took place Dec. 24 to Dec. 26, according to the dedicated Facebook page, showed once again how not being familiarized with the social media platform can cost you a tremendous sum of money, calculating by the thousands of people who actually did show up at the party.
Crescencio Ibarra, the girl's father, actually meant to mark his daughter's quinceañera, which is believed to be a true rite of passage for teenage girls. Turning 15, a girl becomes a woman, with the Latin American culture celebrating this day as a fundamental moment in every girl's life.
Additionally, this occasion is traditionally accompanied by a party, where everybody who is close to the family is invited. This party also featured a horse race, whose winner won 10,000 pesos, roughly $490.
However, the girl's family ended up spending more than they expected on the girl's birthday, due to the huge popularity of their public event. Despite the unexpected popularity of the event, the family said they will not turn down any guests at their daughter's party.
"To all those who have already arrived I ask you to please do not despair because in truth we are many people and we are just seeing how to speed things up. I just ask for your patience so that we can all enjoy this party," the girl noted on Facebook Dec. 26.
An Interesting Phenomenon
Just like any other viral Facebook event, Rubi's birthday was used by different companies who wanted to show they had a good sense of humor. One of these is the airline Interjet, who announced discounts on the flights to San Luis Potosi. The tagline "Are you going to Rubi's party?" sparked the interest of thousands of people, who found the joke hilarious.
It is not uncommon for a private event to be miscreated with public settings. However, the turn of this situation did raise the interest of people in the communication field as well.
"What happened with Rubi is an interesting example of how the internet amplifies and makes hyper-transparent people's personal lives and how traditional media look for stories on social networks to bring in new audiences," noted Sergio Octavio Contreras, a communications professor at Mexico's La Salle Bajio University.
