Viral Video of Kyle Scheele Fake Meal Ad Prank Watched Over 23M Times

A TikTok prankster's video detailing the escapades around his fake gas station meal cardboard cutout advertisement has been watched more than 23 million times.

Missouri author and motivational speaker Kyle Scheele did not originally set out to create a fake advert of himself, but suddenly became fascinated with the idea after he asked an employee about taking home a cardboard cutout of rapper Post Malone.

The employee told Scheele he did not know where the cutouts came from and that he wasn't sure if they could be removed, as staff did not deal with them.

Armed with this information, Scheele had an idea for a prank that would lead him to create his own cardboard cutout advert.

In a viral TikTok video uploaded earlier this week, Scheele said: "OK. I'm going to make a cardboard cutout of myself and put it inside a gas station."

He went to a graphic designer who made a life-size cut out for a fake "Kyle Scheele Meal" that featured him standing with a guitar where the body was shaped into a pizza.

Scheele later added: "I've always wanted my own influencer meal. If it has to be at a gas station, so be it."

Once finished, Scheele took the cardboard cutout advert to a Kum & Go store in Springfield and left it inside.

According to Scheele, the employees did not seem to care about the new advert that had appeared in their store.

The video of Scheele's prank has since been watched by 23 million people and the clip alone has been liked on more than 4 million occasions.

Kum & Go acknowledged the prank in a November 17 tweet that included a screengrab of social media users talking about the Kyle Scheele Meal.

The tweet said simply: "What is all this about?"

Then, it happened - Kum & Go introduced the Kyle Scheele Meale where customers can buy a 12oz Red Bull can and two pizza slices for $5.

In an update video shared over the weekend, Scheele told his 3 million followers that every $2 of each meal sold up to Thanksgiving would go toward the national campaign No Kid Hungry, for a total of $10,000. He claimed Red Bull offered to match the donation.

Scheele signed off his update: "From the bottom of my heart thank you guys for everything you have done this week.

"Without this incredible groundswell of ridiculous insane support, I don't think any of this would have happened. In one week we took this crazy idea to a real thing that's going to help real people and that is pretty cool."

Newsweek has contacted Kum & Go for comment.