Steve Noviello Goes Viral... With A Mermaid Pillow

FOX 4's Consumer Reporter, Steve Noviello, is a 6-time Emmy Award winning journalist known for money-saving advice, bargain hunting & product reviews (like his story on the Samsung S4 phone battery malfunction that caused the phone to catch on fire - yikes!). His popular "Deal or Dud" series tells you what's hot and what's so not... He was just at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas bringing viewers technology trends of the future. Heck, he's the guy who tracked down the thief who hacked his credit card and busted her on camera.

But he never imagined that one of the biggest news stories of his career would take place shopping on his day off. Steve and a pal were at Nebraska Furiture Mart when they stumbled across some fun throw pillows that feature a reverse sequin pattern. It's called a Mermaid Pillow. Rub the pattern one way and it's one color, reverse your flow and it turns into a different color altogether. They thought the pillows were cool and made a short video showing what you could do with them by moving your hand back and forth to create patterns or write words. Steve posted this video on his Facebook Page thinking a few people would also find it fun. He was right! Within 24 hours the video had racked up 20+ million views. Nice!

Came across these changing "mermaid" pillows at Nebraska Furniture Mart. Amazing or horrifying? Nebraska Furniture Mart...
Posted by Steve Noviello on Sunday, January 10, 2016

I reached out to Steve to get his reaction to the viral video. "Eighteen years in news and now I'm 'thepillow guy'. Of all videos NOT to appear in!" he chuckles. "It's a great lesson in social media. You don't build your audience with the big stories, you build it between the big stories so the audience is there to listen when they come. This was a live video of us goofing around and it added 26,000 followers (and counting) to my page in 24 hours. Now my audience is bigger, my brand is stronger and my message will reach more screens. For me that's the real win."

These pillows are $149 at Nebraska Furniture Mart but being the investigative reporter that he is, Steve tracked down a local vendor who can ship these pillows worldwide - and at a lower cost. Click here to check out Bling Is The New Black's pillows available for a more affordable $99. Connect with Steve on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or at his website at http://www.stevenoviello.com.

UPDATE (Jan. 15) Since the original publication of this story, Steve's story has been picked up by Cosmopolitan, Glamour, FOX News, Real Simple, Refinery29, Bustle, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Today Show and others bringing the total page views of his little video to over 31 million. Proving once and for all that people are very easily entertained...