You've almost certainly seen that photo of someone who appeared to look like Justin Bieber eating a burrito sideways by now — but as it turns out, the whole thing was a prank.
The Bieber lookalike is Brad Sousa, who was apparently hired by a company called Yes Theory to participate in the stunt. According to Us Weekly, Yes Theory flew Sousa from Canada to Los Angeles, where he not only dressed as Bieber to eat the burrito, but also participated in other "engineered-to-go-viral scenarios" like helping a (hired) grandma cross the street.
A viral image of a person who may or may not be Justin Bieber sparked a spicy debate amongst burrito enthusiasts. https://t.co/RrOZjkhrvQ
— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) October 26, 2018
"We wanted to prove a point: that staging a story, as goofy as it was, can be done much more easily than most people can imagine," said Yes Theory employee Thomas Brag says in a new YouTube video explaining the prank.
It didn't take much to transform Sousa into Bieber since he already looked like him, but by the time Yes Theory was done making over Sousa, the two were nearly twins.
Once Yes Theory's founder Zack Honarvar snapped the photos of Sousa, he sent them to media outlets. However, they didn't really garner attention from news publications until they made Reddit's front page. Vanity Fair, E! News, and more outlets all published the photos.
"Not a single person is questioning whether that's actually Justin Bieber," Honarvar says in the video.
Justin himself hasn't responded to the prank, but Sousa said Bieber's manager Scooter Braun seemed to find the whole thing amusing.
