
In late 2007, Greenpeace held a competition to name some endangered humpback whales in the South Pacific Ocean.
After gathering over 11,000 suggestions from people across the globe, the organization narrowed it down to just 30 contenders:
- Aiko
- Amal
- Anahi
- Atticus
- Aurora
- Babu
- Bumi
- Cian
- Echo
- Gana
- Humphrey
- Jacques
- Kaimana
- Kigai
- Libertad
- Madiba
- Malaya
- Manami
- Mira
- Mister Splashy Pants
- Moya
- Nurani
- Paikea
- Paz
- Sedna
- Shanti
- Suzuki
- Talei
- Veikko
- Yarrindi
When the polls opened, the rule was one vote per person. But things didn’t go quite as planned.
An anonymous voter in Arizona disabled cookies on his/her computer and was able to cast thousands of votes for Mister Splashy Pants early on.
This attracted the attention of various websites (Digg, Reddit, BoingBoing, Fark, etc.) which led to even more votes for Mister Splashy Pants.
Mister Splashy Pants ended up winning by a landslide, with over 78% of the vote. In 2nd place was Humphrey, with less than 3%.
So let’s play a game. Though I love the name “Mister Splashy Pants” (reminds me of Sparklemuffin!) let’s pretend Greenpeace had disqualified MSP mid-competition. Out of the 29 remaining names, which one would you have voted for?
Source: Mister Splashy Pants – Wikipedia