Remember when internet memes, internet celebrities and viral videos were all the rage? Oh for the innocence of those early days before the genre was forever tainted by big bad marketers who sucked every last drop of fun out those clips we used to enjoy so much.
For a trip down memory lane, Adland has a video from Judit & Judit and Swedish internet provider Comhem which celebrates all the favorites. Adland notes, "we see references to Mentos & Coke*, Chocolate Rain *, "Leave Britney alone!"*, the Swedish TV host who was suddenly ill on live television *, Nunchuck guy *, The Bad Day Viral (which already spawned it's own viral homage), Ansiktsburk * a turkish song subtitled with what it sounds like in Swedish, ending up being a love poem to "face-cans""
Britney! Mentos/Coke! Star Wars Kid! Chocolate Rain! We miss it all.
If you're going to shoot a "viral" of a hot chick like Yfke Sturm stripping in a limo to pimp your Samsung Allure 5 phone, the least you could do is film it so we could actually see what was going on. Especially when she's got assets like these.
Oh wait. We get it. You shot it to purposefully make us drool for more. It's viral strategy 4,745. Sorry. We should know this stuff by now. Our bad.
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Hello? Hello? The helium-fueled floating viral thing has already been done people! Don't you pay attention to YouTube everyday? Apparently you don't because now you're blowing bubbles with helium and floating into the air like those idiots in the Levi's video.
Oops. Wait. This is different. For Blue Film Production, Rapp France created the video and is pimping to any brand that would like to slap its logo on it with the apparent intention of getting some viral goodness. Trouble is if everyone's already seen the unbranded version, why would anyone want to see a branded version?
As Loren Feldman loves to say, "It doesn't matter." It's all a ruse to get people to check out a case study covering the steps it takes to create a successful viral campaign.
OMFG. This has to be the worst "viral" ever created. It's filled with repetitive fake laughter, an overly long lead up and a painfully lame conclusion. It's like a bunch of 13 year old boys got together to film what they thought would be a funny joke on a friend. So stupid. So idiotic. Such a waste of time...and, unfortunately, some marketers money.
We can't blame 7thChamber for this. They're just seeding it.
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This is what you get for deciding to enjoy the weekend as opposed to spending it obsessed with Twitter. While we were right on top of the Motrin Moms Fiasco a few months back, we completely missed this past weekend's Denmark Karen Debacle which involved a video of a woman seeking the father of her newborn baby. Turns out the whole thing was for Visit Denmark.
In the video, which was created by Grey Denmark, "Karen" holds her baby and speaks into the camera. She talks about how she met the father of her baby a year and a half ago in a bar and how they proceeded to have sex at a place call the Custom House bar. She doesn't remember where he's from or what his name is but she does manage to mention a few tidbits about Denmark in the video.
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Yawn. Sorry. We just can't help it. Viral. Viral Viral. It just makes us wish the word never existed. Well, at least for describing advertising efforts otherwise known as videos. Yes, people, videos. They are, after all, just videos. THEY AREN"T VIRAL UNTIL A SHIT TON OF PEOPLE VIEW THEM!
OK, sorry, we tend to off on that one.
Anyway, Audi's out with a collection of new VIDEOS (oops, sorry) that depict freakty electrical happenings like a lawnmower gone crazy, static electricity that sends a kid across the room and a lightning storm that attack Frankfurt.
All to promote a new car. Yea. A new car. Makes one long for those boring winding mountain road commercials that just, well, show the car. Which is, after all, what everyone wants to see in the first place.
OK so first there were the Cutwater-created videos for Ray-Ban which had a guy impossibly catching sunglasses on his face. Now we have a video of a guy catching a laptop in his...wait for it...butt. Yes, over and over again laptops are tossed into this guys butt and he catches them. Already almost a million views.
You've seen them. The fake videos that attempt to pass themselves off as real all while minimizing the fact their just ads for brands. Some are stupid. Some are funny. Most are lame.
But they all have one thing in common. People who are seemingly incapable of holding a camera steady while filming the idiocy. Seriously. It's not that hard and you don't have to be a Hollywood DP to film something without the camera becoming possessed by an epileptic seizure.
Annoying and idiotic as the commonality is, it's never going to change. Why? Because if the camera remained on the video's primary subject, we'd get to see behind the curtain and the video would become even more obviously fake than it already is.
So here we have yet another shaky cam "viral video" selling some random energy drink.
Tactic 375 from the book, "How to Guarantee Your Ad Will Get Banned...And Get Seen by Millions" - make an amateur video of a teenage girl giving birth on a Leicester (England) high school field as students crowd around to watch like it's some kind of hair pulling bitch fight.
The clip comes from the National Health Service. As with many "virals," it's unbranded which, as is always the case, makes us wonder, "What's the point?" If you're just going to shock without including any viewpoint, why do it in the first place? Oh right. We can't actually tell people stuff. Then it would be advertising and people hate advertising. So we have to be all sneaky and shit. Hence faux viral clips such as this.
Actually, we should just shut up. Like the reveal of an old school teaser billboard, a branded version of this clip will be seeded later this week.
Created by The Rocket Science Group, the video was seeded by The 7th Chamber Friday and quickly got the boot from YouTube. Predictable, the press are all over it. The Sun. The Guardian. The Leicester Mercury. BrandRepublic.
In a coup to position itself as the refresher of choice for discriminating grown-ups, last year Schweppes Europe launched the Schweppes Short Film Festival.
Like Little Minx's Cadavre Exquis ("Exquisite Cadaver") project, five directors from The Sweet Shop were tasked with creating short human dramas for the 'net, the only requirement being that each film contain a "Schhh Moment."
"Consequently all the shorts make reference to Schweppes at some point, however this product placement is thankfully subtle and clever," says Creative Review, which posted the films on its blog.
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