Walking into work on Monday morning, regional marketing manager for Nebraska Furniture Mart, Rebecca Ritterbush received around 1 200 messages on the company’s Facebook page. It took a while to figure out what had happened, but soon she realised that a video filmed and shared by a TV reporter in Dallas had garnered about 16 millions views. And it was all for a throw pillow.

Yup, a throw pillow. But it’s name might have had something to do with its appeal. *Marketing*

It is called “the mermaid pillow” as it has reversible sequins that change colour with the mere swipe of a hand, or a finger, or even a slight accidental brush of your elbow, face, or thigh.

By Wednesday, the video had around 29 million views and had been shared on Facebook around half a millions times. All for the mermaid.

The pillows aren’t new, and they’re in limited supply. Aviva Stanoff Design (the creators of the pillow) is more of a boutique designer, not a mass producer of pillows, but I am working to get more in stock at Mart stores and online.

The pillows sell for about about $100 to $170 each. good luck getting your hands on one.

[source: omaha]