A California singer is facing backlash for buying food in a fast food drive-thru while allegedly infected with monkeypox. He now says it was a marketing plan that went wrong. Duane Cali says he received threats after posting a video sipping from a McDonald’s cup in a car on Aug. 14 with sores on his hands and face and implying that he had just ordered food from the fast food restaurant with a monkeypox diagnosis.
Some commenters says Cali should have been arrested for possibly spreading the contiguous virus. They also questioned why he did not use a food delivery service instead. Cali’s video made national and local headlines. However, it was all fake he says.
In a TikTok video posted on Aug. 28, another man applies prosthetic makeup to Cali’s skin to create a fake monkeypox rash. Cali says the stunt was an effort to promote his new single.
“The person who took my payment is absolutely fine,” Cali said. “This was just a promo gone wrong. I would’ve revealed this sooner, but I was taking input left and right, and I didn’t know what the hell to do.”
The artist added that he always advertises his music in “unique and unconventional” methods. In another video, Cali promoted a song with fake parking tickets to bring attention to his music
The video explaining the truth has a caption urging viewers to stream his new song.
“I usually try to tie the marketing around the premise of the song. This time the song was called ‘Choose Yourself,’ so I was trying to market it in a way where it displays a person choosing themselves regardless of how other people feel about it,” he continued. “Unfortunately, it didn’t translate that way and people just ended up getting mad at me.”
Responses to the video was a prank were mixed. Some commenters said they figured it was a prank and a method to promote his music. The marketing scheme, did however, upset some people in the comment section of the video.
Link to original The Black Detour