About 100 onlookers gathered by the big rock as “Meme Awards” hosts handed out frozen packs of White Castle cheeseburgers. Area man Floyd Lloyd, 61 — donning a convincing drawl, burnt orange T-shirt, well-worn boots and a 10-gallon hat — landslid his way to the $200 prize.
He nailed the accent. Lloyd hails from Midland but lives in Austin. But he looked west to nail down the perfect impression: an “Alright. Alright. Alright.” fit for prime-time.
“Matthew is a combination of John Wayne and Spicoli,” he told the American-Statesman postgame. In other words, a sly outlaw but also a SoCal high school burnout.
Kevin Vahst, 33, from Shelby, Indiana, came in third. Jonaton Haller, 28, from “Slovenia and Portugal,” was the contestant who most closely resembled the Oscar winner, actually. Haller was runner-up. Other contenders included a man from Delaware with a loud cheering section and an Iranian man who called himself “Matthew I-Ran-Away.”
So what did we learn? That sometimes brand activations can thrive despite frozen food-aisle budgets. Especially during SXSW, a conference that loves to inflate the value of random new technology.
We learned that virality, or the pursuit of virality, is more valuable than silver.
And most key, that McConaughey remains an absolute vibe. His philosophy is about lifestyle without the burdens of last night’s bad decisions — truly in the now. And if we, as he so often says, just keep living, life is always a walk in the park.