The film Watch Out, the trailer of which is posted here, tells the tale of Jonathan Barrows (played by MySpace, um, "sensation" Matt Riddlehoover), a man who literally falls in love with himself. He loves his smile. He loves his hands. He loves his torso. And yes, he probably loves the X-rated parts of himself too. So much so that he enters a sexual relationship with a blow-up doll of himself. It reminds us of that Ryan Gosling movie Lars and the Real Girl, except with this movie, you can't tell whether it's going to be absolutely terrible just by looking at the trailer, [via K212]
We've spent many instances of clicking "publish" discussing viral marketing or, as it's known in some circles where buzzwords don't annoy, "murketing." From Levi's uploading a video to YouTube featuring young people jumping into pants to LG's not-exactly-secret-but-very-creepy spot for its Secret phone, the trend of paying very little for a video spot that reaches a much wider audience than a TV spot ever could is a growing one.
Auto maker BMW and its agency GSD&M understood this quite well, which is why they spent a few bucks on a five-day shoot to produce a half-hour mockumentary, in the style of This Is Spinal Tap, about a Bavarian's town attempt to launch a new BMW 1 Series, via ramp, from Germany to the United States.
When the clips began popping up in February, it wasn't long before most everybody called bullshit on them, and linked the spots, part of a campaign called "Rampenfest," to BMW. The car company, however, refused to acknowledge it was behind the project. More so, they even went the additional step and "created a Web site for the fictional events planner, Franz Brendl, and the fictional Bavarian town of Oberpfaffelbachen. Several characters, including the faux film maker, got their own Facebook profiles."
Now, the Wall Street Journal issued a postmortem on the stunt, which argues BMW could've faced significant backlash for its unconventional – though, these days, all too conventional – attempt at reaching younger consumers, by refusing to own the spots when they were found out. CONTINUED »
How long until the Parents Television Council summons a firestorm for over this "viral" spot for LG's new Secret phone? In the ad, a good-looking creep peeks out from his apartment window to capture, using his chic new Secret phone, a lovely sleeping lady next door, who just so happens to be wearing a revealing nighty that she squirms around in. Sure, it's ends up being – spoiler alert! – a dream sequence, but this is the sort of thing they build Law & Order: SVU episodes around.
Click below for LG's less stalker-y alternative clip for their phone. CONTINUED »
This advertisement, airing in the UK and promoting Sure Girl deodorant, was yanked form airwaves when the Advertising Standards Authority there received 21 complaints.
Viewers weren't upset about young girls dancing to a sexually provocative Pussycat Dolls song — they were upset the girls were dancing in an old VW van without seatbelts.
Nevermind that Unilever insisted the ad was filmed in a stationary van, and that the movement of the vehicle was from the girls dancing. Because who doesn't climb into the back of their parents VW while it's sitting in the garage to bust out to some pop singles?
It's with great sadness that we can no longer watch videos like this one – entitled "People's encounters with wild animals in daily life" – without immediately jumping to the conclusion that it is a fake and, worse, that it was put together by a creative marketing agency with a product to push.
These viral videos, named for their inclination to spread like the nasty crap that'll force you to the ER at 4am with a burning sensation, are now becoming the territory of corporate America. And lately, these murketing efforts have simply stopped making sense.
Sure, there are the obvious videos, like the one where young people are taped finding various ways to jump into a pair of jeans, courtesy Levi's. And then there's the other end of things, like that "office freakout" video that had almost nothing to do with the project it was promoting (the movie Wanted).
So who's behind this one? It could be the work of somewhere that makes sense, like the San Diego Zoo. Or maybe it's a Frisbee company. (You'll have to watch the video to understand that.)
The now-infamous video of the "security camera catches office freakout," which was exposed as a fraud almost as quickly as everyone assumed it to be, turned out actually to be a viral gimmick for the new Angelina Jolie movie Wanted, from Timur Bekmambetov.
So how does this clip, which shows a cubicle sufferer absolutely lose it in front of his coworkers, fit in with what the movie is about?
Because, as some Russian translating reveals, the movie is about escaping your everyday life, just as the loon in the video wants to. Ehhhh, that's a stretch.
At last(?), the mystery behind the videos of cell phones supposed popping corn, which has been seen nearly 2 million times, is solved: It's an ad. For Cardo Systems.
Surprise!
Oh, murketing, that buzz word describing the stunts pulled by Levi's, Coor's Light, and Nike, which produce stunt videos, post 'em on YouTube, and wait for viewers to eat them up. Unlike TV spots, the clips are cheap to produce, free to distribute, and find audiences in the hundreds of thousands and beyond with a creative that people want to watch.
And: We fully support them.
Parking your car sure can be hard. Even if you have a license and have done it before!
Getting the word out about a nifty feature on one of your cars can also be tad bit difficult. Because people are inundated with THREE HUNDRED MILLION marketing messages a day!
So Volkswagon – or so their "guerilla" video clip would have you believe – went around a parking lot in Brazil and applied stickers to all the cars sporting dents, dings, scratches, and scuffs, alerting them to a standard feature on the VW Polo: the parking sensor.
It's the most basic marketing pitch in the history of all marketing: You've got a problem, we've got a solution. And also, if you want those stickers removed properly without leaving that crappy film when you rip them off, you should head to your local VW dealership, 'cause they're probably the only ones who are going to be able to do that for you.
Shallon Lester, the
You might know Lester from her chronicled attempts of trying to be Paris Hilton' BFF. But she's also the co-author of Hot Mess, about a surburban girl who takes to New York City to, like, try and make it.
As Amazon describes the book: "Emma’s totally prepped for days at a fabulous internship and nights of socialite-ing around town. But when you’re 17 and not an heiress, reality is far from pink fizzy drinks and red velvet ropes. As the summer heats up, Emma learns that glamour is hard to come by when your only friend is too boy-crazy to hang, your budget is more H&M than D&G, and you spend 8 hours a day working for a man who proves that the devil wears Dockers too."
Which has this video from Lester making perfect sense. It's where she describes the Hamptons, a mythical place she says she's never been to, as a place for losers. (Which it totally is! See you there this weekend?)
The video is below and, warning, it auto-starts. But it's quite funny.
Update: Lester writes in to tell us that she went to the Hamptons this weekend. A virgin no more! CONTINUED »
When one thinks "straight-to-DVD," images of The Hottie and The Nottie might come to mind. Actually, that movie did open in theatres, grossing a blockbuster $27,696 its opening weekend. But it's all the same.
But here's one straight-to-DVD project you can get behind: The Onion Movie. The fake news network brings you "crucial stories," like an industry recall of motor vehicles with neck belts, which cause decapitation. And a cameo from Steven Segal, who is finally in on the joke that his acting chops carry a certificate from The Freddie Prinze Jr. School of Acting, cement this as a must-pirate DVD.
Though she scored a victory in Puerto Rico, what we'll take away from Hillary Clinton's weekend are photos like this one, and videos like the one at left.
Way to represent, New York.
What if you only had typefonts and voiceovers to pitch your film? Would you be able to make a trailer that captures audience attention?
We'd argue: Yes.
And this gallery of videos doing just that should prove the point. At left, one for Pulp Fiction. Below, get sold on Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, Thank You For Smoking, Little Miss Sunshine, Superbad, and Anchorman. Careful: They have swear words in some of 'em. CONTINUED »
What's this? Another web video that's supposedly shot and uploaded to YouTube by amateurs who are simply fans of the product featured heavily in the clip?
This video, about the Wii Fit, looks like it might come from a horny boyfriend who's all too pleased about his girlfriend's affinity for hoola-hooping on Nintendo's new fitness game.
Or, given the fact that it was uploaded by user "tinsleyadvertising," we're gonna go out on a limb and surmise this was a paid-for spot that's racked up nearly three-quarters of a million views thanks to one hot ass … and people not caring who made the titillating spot.
Not only do the campaigns hate when legitimate news operations forego sending actual on-air talent to cover them and instead send "embeds" – reporters armed with video cameras and a YouTube account – but they hate fake news reporters even more.
Exhibit A: The Daily Show's Rob Riggle, who tags along on Barack OBama's campaign trial, managing to piss off various NBC News and Newsweekcorrespondents, and everyone else on the bus.
Surprise! That clever YouTube video featuring a guy perfectly pouring a Coors Light from a can to a glass was actually produced by Coors Light and its agency Avenue A/Razorfish (owned by Microsoft), not brand-devoted fellas with a video camera.
The spot on the left has been viewed over a two hundred thousand times, which means it's reached its viral effect, and now it's kosher for Coors to tell all about the videos, which comes on the heels of Levi's "pogo pants" spot, and a slew of others.
But lest you think this is the end of these pseudo ads, there's a suspicious Stella Artois that's been seen over a half million times. CONTINUED »
Editorial Director
