Another Fake Video is an Ad

No sooner did I discuss the growing number of online videos that are actually ads than I was forwarded another one this morning. Turns out that this video, which has been making the email rounds, is actually the beginning of a web viral video campaign for Gatorade.

In the online video world, just remember, if something looks to good to be true, it’s probably an ad. A news report indicates that in this video, the woman’s leaping ability was helped by a harness and cables which were edited out later.

Catchy Tune

I’m sure this has been out for a while, but I was surfing YouTube the other day with my 3-year-old and we both found this video/song extremely entertaining…

Real vs. Fake Ads

It’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s real and what’s fake anymore in terms of new media advertising. There seems to be almost a free-for-all in terms of web videos.

A viral video that’s been making the rounds supposedly shows survelliance camera footage of an office worker freaking out. It turns out that it was actually created by Timur Bekmambetov, the director behind the upcoming movie Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie. Apparently it was a viral stunt about breaking out of your workaday drudgery, as the geeky main character does in Wanted.

Even more surprisingly, a fake tv commercial for JC Penney recently won a bronze at the Cannes Lions International advertising awards show. JC Penney has publically reprimanded its agency – Saatchi & Saatchi – for entering the spot in the awards, saying it was never intended to be seen by anyone. The spot is clever, but seems to promote teens having sex.

With all this crazy marketing going on, it makes you wonder whether or not this was really planned or not.

Say No to Bud InBev Deal

I’m not sure if you’ve been following the news lately regarding Anheuser-Busch, but they could be taken over by InBev. Here’s the story…

Why discuss this in my media, marketing, advertising, online marketing, homebrewing blog?

Anheuser-Busch has been a pioneer within the digital media space. Despite the fact that Bud.tv failed, both AB and the online marketing community learned quite a bit from its branded online video effort. You can’t have continued success without a few failures, and AB took the failure in stride and appears to have grown to be better online marketers because of it.

From all accounts I’ve heard, InBev is good at making these types of companies work more efficiently. Most analysts are pretty sure that InBeb will implement its cost-cutting measures at AB if it purchases it. Most of the time, cost-cutting measures start with marketing budgets. You can be sure that if this is the case, you won’t see nearly as much experimentation coming from AB in terms of online marketing (and certainly not to the level of investment as Bud.tv). While it’s obvious that larger companies have still not completely jumped into online marketing, it will be disappointing if experiments like Bud.tv no longer allowed to take place.

Memorial Day Sales Event

I enjoyed the long Memorial Day weekend and, even though it’s Wednesday, I’m still trying to get back into the swing of things at work.  Decompressing from getting caught up on email, I watched some TV last night and couldn’t help but to notice all of the (mostly car) commercials telling me not to miss their “Memorial Day Sales Event!”  I’m was confused, since Memorial Day was over.  That’s when one of the commercials said, “sale ends June 7.”  I can appreciate a sale as much as the next person, and stretching a sale into a 2 week long event is fine… however, I just can’t see calling it a Memorial DAY sales event when it lasts 2 weeks.  Come up with something better, like the “Kickoff to Summer Sale,” or the “More than just Memorial Day Sales Event.”

Applebees UGC

I know that everyone’s trying user generated content (UGC) nowadays, but the latest attempt by Applebees left me shaking my head.  How many times do you find yourself at Applebees and someone decides to bust out their video camera?  It’s not something that probably happens often enough that it deserves this campaign.  Perhaps Applebees is hoping people will now bring their video cameras with them and will videotape, but this has the potential of easily backfiring… all it takes is one person to videotape what the food looks like when it arrives and compares it to the great looking picture in the menu.  Based on their recent commercials, it looks like Applebees is planning to use the videos submitted to change up the first few seconds of their new commercials.  It’ll be interesting to see how many videos actually get submitted.  I guess you never know… there are plenty of aspiring actors and videographers out there.

Dr. Rey on HSN

We were flipping though channels tonight and somehow we stopped on the Home Shopping Network (HSN). Dr. Rey (from Dr. 90210) was selling his “Shapewear.” It’s essentially spandex undergarments to help women appear more shapely.

The models looked a little awkward to begin with, but it felt even more awkward – and a little creepy – the way Dr. Rey touched the models. In just the half hour I watched he made some of the funniest guestures and comments I’ve heard in some time. Here are couple samples of things he actually said on the air…

“Women come into my office and tell me they don’t like their bodies, but I get them to take off their clothes, and they show me their bodies… it’s so cool!”

“I’m Brazilian. We start at the butt and work our way up.”

“I love women and I love women’s parts… it’s so pretty!”

Dream Home Winner

The other night I watched as HGTV awarded their 2008 Dream Home to the winner LIVE on their show.  I’m wondering if the performance from this year’s winner will make them reconsider giving the award out live again.  First, it was suprising how the “hostess” just knocked and then walked right into a stranger’s house!  Then, when she surprised the winner… I’m not sure if the winner was drunk, fighting with her family, or other, but she didn’t seem all that happy having just won 2 million bucks.  Take a look for yourself…

Collectable Cleaning Towels?

I’m not a huge NASCAR fan, but I did catch the beginning of the Daytona 500 today. One of the commercials I saw was for Shell… and along with advertising their gas, they were promoting the fact that you could come in and get a “collectable microfiber cleaning towel in 3 different colors.” Seriously… collector cleaning towels?

I went to the Shell website hoping to find out more about these cool collectable towels… I couldn’t find more, but I did find this page which I thought was funny… it helps drivers find Shell’s “Loyalty Schemes” in different countries.