Plymouth shop's online competition captures the world's attention
AN online competition run by a Plymouth shop for a bit of fun has gone viral, with about 200,000 entries from around the world.
More than 2.5million people have viewed the competition posted on The Art Side's Facebook page.
Of those, 15,234 people gave it the thumbs-up by clicking the page's 'Like' button.
And by the end of last week there had been a whopping 196,291 comments by people hoping to win the modest £50 prize.
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The incredible flood of entries has so far made it nearly impossible to choose a winner.
Garry Haine of The Art Side in Mayflower Street said: "This went viral so quickly that I can't get back to the first comments to see who has won the competition."
He has now emailed social media giant Facebook to ask for help.
Mr Haine said he had not been able to work out why the competition – based on a simple word search puzzle – had been such a hit.
Now he plans to use his new-found internet muscle to raise money for charity.
Students and holders of the Plymouth Saver Club card, which is backed by The Herald, already get discounts at The Art Side.
Mr Haine said he would give the equivalent of a day's discounts to charity.
But it will be up to his new-found army of followers to decide which charity.
He said he would give a list of charities, including Derriford-based child bereavement charity Jeremiah's Journey, Plymouth Music Zone and the Marjons-based charity Barefoot.
After that it will be up to the hundreds of thousands of Facebookers.]
Are you a puzzles fan? We have two pages in every edition of The Herald – see pages 22/23
Comments
by xxSteveOxx
Tuesday, March 05 2013, 5:59PM
“I love going into this shop. Garry is so welcoming and helpful I always leave feeling a warm glow inside. X”