Top 3 Viral Marketing Stunts That Backfired A comedy article
by Clinton Nortje 252 3 11/16/2009 09:30 AM 8430 views
Big corporations are trying to exploit and control us by tapping into "viral marketing." They already have us buying products, forwarding e-mails and even watching movies for reasons we can't explain.
Viral ad campaigns, like the traditional flu virus, require copious amounts of tongue-to-ear contact.
I will never forgive viral marketing for convincing me to spend 86 painful minutes of my life watching 3 talentless filmmakers running around a forest babbling incoherently about a witch. Those are 86 minutes I could have spent more productively by jamming knitting needles into my eyes.
With this in mind, it is vital for us to fight back by celebrating the Top 3 Viral Marketing Campaigns That Backfired.
1. FAKE SONY PSP SITE
This one tops the list because they actually tried to infiltrate the Hive.
The Web site www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com (no longer in operation, but see the cached site here) was set up in 2006 as a so-called "independent blog" whose authors had a friend named Jeremy who really wanted a PSP for Christmas. The site was replete with l33t speak, as written by professional advertising copywriters who had never spoken l33t in their lives.
One blog entry read, "We created this site to spread the luv [sic] to those like j who want a psp! consider us your own personal psp hype machine, here to help you wage a holiday assault on ur [sic] parents, girl, granny, boss, ... whoever, ... so they know what you really want."
Even worse: they also made fake hip-hop videos.
Unfortunately for Sony, their prime target audience was not clinically retarded. They caught on quickly, establishing that the website was registered to a company called Zipatoni ... who also had Sony listed on their site as a client.
Drink the Kool-Aid ... drink it.
Sony noticeably absent from their "successful case study" list
Sony eventually came clean, saying, "The tongue-in-cheek nature of the site didn't come across as intended," which is corporate-speak for, "We tried to lie, and got caught."
2. FAKE "I LOVE YOU BETH COOPER" MOMENT
As the title suggests, the plot of the movie involves a typical high school nerd using the opportunity of his valedictorian speech to declare his love for the hottest girl in the school. Later that evening his declaration earns him a visit from the foxy Hayden Panettiere. Grrrr!
July 10th : The day the world didn't watch this movie. See also every other day.
Well the brain boxes at Intelligence Group (the marketing team behind this stunt) didn't even try. They had a movie starring Hayden Panettiere and the best promotion idea they could come up with was to pay some high school senior to declare her love for a fellow student at her graduation ceremony. Of course, she would be required to cite the movie as her inspiration for the declaration.
According to the Intelligence Group, something of this magnitude would have people tossing women and children aside as they rushed home to view the clip on YouTube. It had viral written all over it.
Only it didn't.
With a meager 26,000 views on YouTube, most of which occurred after the movie had been pulled from the circuit and the truth behind the deception came to light, both the viral campaign and the film were decisive flops.
Marketing Genius 1: All right fellas, we have to increase traffic to the Web site. Any suggestions?
Marketing Genius 2: Uh, why don't we paint a whole lot of bicycles bright orange, put the web address on the side and dump them in the middle of New York?
Marketing Genius 1: You're a genius. Let's roll.
New Guy: But guys, what abo-
Marketing Genius 1: Shut up new guy. We are geniuses.
They would soon realize two things:
1) NYPD do not take kindly to abandoned vehicles littered across the city and would proceed to dispose of these monstrosities quickly and easily.
2.) People in cities steal things if they are left unattended, or at least strip them for parts.
This was not their biggest failure, as not even the police's swift disposal of the offensive bikes would save DKNY from the "poor taste factor."
As many people know, white painted bicycles, or "ghost riders," are used to memorialize cyclists who have been killed in the city. The few New Yorkers who did see the bicycles before they were hauled off felt the entire campaign was in very poor taste.
Know of any other viral marketing stunts that failed in a spectacular fashion? Comment below!
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