A sportswear boss has put his money where his mouth is and challenged flat Earthers to convince him of their conspiracy theory.
If you can prove it, not only will you make the rest of us look like fools for believing in gravity or the Moon landings – but you could also win a £3billion company.
In a new ad campaign, the sportswear giant Columbia has challenged all flat Earthers, from both sides of the globe, to prove the planet isn’t round.
And its chief executive, Tim Boyle, has promised to hand over the keys to the company if you can.
In a video posted on Columbia Sportswear’s YouTube channel on Tuesday (December 2), the boss, dressed in a casual navy quarter-zip and red and white checked shirt, challenged conspiracy theorists to prove him wrong.
Mr Boyle said: ‘This message is for flat Earthers. You guys claim there’s an end to the Earth?
‘Well just go snap a picture. Send it to us – and you get the assets to the company. All of it.
‘No paperwork, no lawyers, no catches.’
He is then interrupted by a man who appears to be a part of Columbia’s legal team, dressed in a black suit and blue patterned tie, who said: ‘Um, Tim, there is some paperwork.’
The CEO, taking viewers on a tour of Columbia’s facilities, then said, gesturing to a range of jackets and jumpers hanging from a clothing rail, that ‘we’re giving you all this’.
Mr Boyle hinted that successful flat Earthers would also have access to the office printer, the camera used for their photoshoots, parcels being shipped out of the building, someone’s lunch, a stapler, a wall mount of an elk and a whiteboard.
Signing off the video, the Columbia boss said: ‘Hey, flat Earthers: do me a favour.
‘If you’re going to the edge of the Earth, wear a Columbia. You’ll need it. Best of luck.’
Is the Earth flat?
The first flat Earthers can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia who thought the earth was disc-shaped and under a dome.
But by about 300 BCE, educated scholars overwhelmingly accepted that the Earth is a sphere thanks to the work of intellectual heavyweights Pythagoras and Aristotle.
The Greeks calculated the planet’s circumference with remarkable accuracy.
Observers assumed the Earth’s spherical shape because it cast a curved shadow on the Moon during lunar eclipses.
And it has been much easier to document its curvature since cameras and planes were invented, because photographers can now reach altitudes from which they can record it.
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