It might have been a joke forwarded on to you by your best mate; a pic of some Hollywood starlet picking her nose; George Dubya's recent hand-written "loo-break" request; a preview clip from the next hot movie...Whatever has invaded your inbox, the internet's been around long enough for all of us to have been bitten by the viral bug at some point.
And, even with the sheer number and variety of viral films out there, they've all got one thing in common: Not the ad itself, but the way it's passed around.
And, of course, virals come in an assortment of genres, mostly funny:
• Topical: more often than not political, with Bush and his cronies taking a particularly big beating;
• Doctored photos: Jade Goody's face merging scarily into a pig's. David Hasselhoff coming to the rescue of
the hurricane Katrina victims - tasteless, yes, but that's not unusual with virals;
• Celebrity: With and without make-up, looking like a bag lady, pre- and post- nose job, etc;
• Sport: e.g. Euro 2004 when England lost to Portugal - the Swiss ref made a ridiculous call and Beckham missed a crucial penalty;
• Clips from TV: bloopers, streakers, even Jerry Springer on-stage fights!
And then there's subvirals- when brands deliberately spoof their own or their competitors' ads for added hype. Couple of classics here:
• Budweiser's Whassup
ad;
• Tango spoof of the Sony
ad;
• Mastercard spoof.
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Virals are used to:
• Make a statement - e.g. virals with Bush, Blair etc. It's a form of press release that has the ability to
reach many others via the internet;
• Get people to notice them with humour, controversy - an ego thing or a business thing;
• Become part of a community - just look at b3ta.com;
• To sell
products;
• Get a message across and influence behaviour (what Breathe is trying to do!), like this.
