Viral Video DEFINED!

Someone asked me what a "viral" video was and they actually made the little finger "air quotes" when they asked....old people are so cute.

Okay, basically a Viral video is a video that is produced (either by you or for you without your authorization) and distributed via the Internet. Now that's pretty vague but what really makes a video go "viral" is when they are good enough for people to distribute and post them EVERYWHERE on the Internet. Think of it has the internet video version of word of mouth advertising. A really good viral video is a marketing executive's wet dream and a negative viral video is a lawyer's wet dream.

So here is this story about how viral video goes wrong....or does it? First, watch the "controversial" viral commercial. That commercial was supposedly submitted to the Cannes Film Festival by the ad agency without the permission of JC Penny. Of course the commercial won an award at Cannes and is now the hot shit on the Internet...not to mention it is a really good idea for a commercial. But JC Penny doesn't approve of the video's message of teenage fornication, fucking puritans, at least they don't approve publicly. This is where viral becomes win-win, JC Penny comes out looking "edgy" to teens and getting a shit load of free advertising to their target audience. At the same time they can publicly appease stodgy chrtistian parents by saying how wrong the message is.

This is easy as pie. All they have to do is issue a public statement about how it is wrong and they don't approve and then make a half-hearted attempt to get the video removed from the Internet. All they really need to do is have the video "pulled" from YouTube, that virtually guarantees that the video will be EVERYWHERE else in a matter of hours.