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IrelandJoe Bartolozzi examines Max Fosh's secret billboard celebrity
A friend's unwitting condom campaign in Vietnam leaves Joe wondering how much real business an elaborate prank requires.
Joe Bartolozzi
Story of Why this story? 2,169,887 views so far, and here is what is inside it.
What If You Were Famous And Didn't Know?
Video summary
Press to jump
- 0:02Joe introduces Fosh's plan to put his unsuspecting friend Jonny in condom advertisements in Vietnam.
- 4:02Joe looks up Times Square digital billboard prices to compare advertising costs.
- 5:48Maisie gets Jonny to pose with a banana, supplying the campaign photo without explaining its purpose.
- 7:18Joe discovers that the campaign includes an actual sales website, not just a mockup.
- 13:17Branded shopping bags at airport arrivals test whether Jonny notices his own picture.
- 17:55Fosh meets Jonny on the street; the billboard reveal begins here.
The banana photo takes some explaining. In the Max Fosh video Joe Bartolozzi watches, Maisie persuades their friend Jonny to pose with the fruit as if it were a phone. Jonny doesn't know the picture is destined for a condom campaign in Vietnam.
Bartolozzi's "What If You Were Famous And Didn't Know?" is a reaction to Fosh's "I Made My Friend A Celebrity In Asia... Without Him Knowing", not a prank Joe organized himself. It has drawn more than two million views since publication, though the attraction here is the increasingly elaborate machinery behind the joke.
Joe initially questions how real the company setup is. Discovering that Fosh has built an actual sales website changes the question: why go to quite this much trouble? He also looks up Times Square digital billboard prices, bringing a practical cost check to a scheme involving giant roadside portraits and motorcycle ads.
Fosh then tests whether Jonny will notice his own face on oversized shopping bags at airport arrivals. The eventual reveal begins at 17:55.
That question of noticing runs through the comments, too. Viewers describe tuning out everyday advertising, while one distinguishes familiar billboards from ads abroad, where even the products can be part of discovering a different culture.
Published on Trari
Where next?
What viewers say
What if I’m not famous and do know??
@Fish-x4cSee it on YouTubethis would be a really good way to convince someone they're dreaming
@NickThyySee it on YouTube4:53 Icl I see so many ads on the day to day I have gotten really used to tuneing them out, I genuinely cant remember the last time I saw an ad that I actually payed attention to
@garfrockbreadtrollSee it on YouTube
4 more comments
14:26 yeah if Ik time square but if in different country a lot of times I like looking at the ads just to see different cultures and what they promote.
@Anthony_9701See it on YouTubeJOE AND MAX FOSH. YES.
@urbanlypse7573See it on YouTubehis name being jonny is the cherry on top
@tresyySee it on YouTubeBasically the plot of the truman show
@xerfa6472See it on YouTube
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- Channel
- Joe Bartolozzi
- Subscribers
- 6,120,000 ▲ 40,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 43,983,448
- Channel views, pace per day
- 6,313,954 (on a normal day: 5,993,175)
- Video published
- October 18, 2026
- Video views so far
- 2,169,887 (7 days online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 50,802 (on a normal day: 417,757)
The numbers
The upload's audience is substantial, but its views are not an unusual result for Joe's channel.
💡 Test your knowledge
Who organizes the secret billboard campaign Joe watches?
Joe is reacting to Max Fosh's video about making his friend Jonny recognizable in Vietnam without telling him.