What is CALA BOCA GALVÃO!?

As the neighborhood friendly Brazilian at MobLoSo, I thought it’s only be appropriate to clear up the CALA BOCA GALVÃO trending topic mystery here for you guys.

And to my fellow Brazilians, I apologize for ruining the biggest inside joke we’ve ever had.

First of all, a little on Twitter use in Brazil.  Brazilians are the most internet obsessed nation of them all.  We’re online for more time a month than anyone else, we’re growing really quickly, and online cell phone use is sky rocketing!  Beyond that, with 30 something% of our close to 200 million population, we’re the most social online, and we’re somewhere in the top three in Twitter use in the world (these are all close to legit numbers, I promise, but I can’t find all the updated versions for you!).  So it’s really no surprise that the week the World Cup starts in 2010, Brazilians of all people are twittering (twitting? twittando?) the most.  And this is where we run into Cala Boca Galvão, the top trending topic for a few days now.

Being Brazilian is sometimes embarrassing (when I see what our politicians do, how   corrupt and beaurocratic everything in our country is), but it’s mostly entertaining and makes me proud… and I say that because overall, Brazilians are pretty f*&@kin’ creative.

Let’s get this straight. No, Cala Boca Galvão does not translate into “Save the Galvão Birds;”

No, Lady Gaga did not write a song in honor of the Galvão bird, and

No, those are not real feathers.

Galvão Bueno is a Brazilian sports jounralist and official Globo play-by-play announcer, and  he simply wouldn’t (and just never does) shut up (or stop dancing) during the opening presentation for the World Cup last week.  So someone decided to twit “Cala Boca Galvão,” which really means, “Shut up Galvão.”

But of course, there has to be that one gringo who says something and as soon as a Brazilian sees you’re confused… he or she will take full advantage – and since so many Brazilians have been online these past few days, it just spread like wild fire! (I had to protect this guy’s identity – poor thing…)

Now this, my friends, is what I call spontaneous viral social media marketing.  Although the New York Times calls it one of history’s most successful cyberpranks (is that a word?).