The New Virus

ith the rise of the internet and the possibility of commercial-less television via Tivo, the advertising industry is losing faith in the 30-second spot and is looking for new methods of reaching mass audiences. With Reality TV the advertising became part of the program itself when shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy began replacing your old dirty t-shirts for an Armani suit and Hugo Boss sunglasses, and when in Survivor the contestants must outwit, outplay, and outlast each other for a crate of Sprite Mist at the end of a challenge. Advertisers for years have been integrating product placement into our daily television injections with varying results. But now it´s our turn to spread the disease.

A new disease is spreading amongst the technological elite, the pop culture savvy, and the data trash. It only takes a second to become infected; the disease takes shape in a myriad of ways; and sources of the disease are many, though the carriers are large, multinational entities such as MySpace, YouTube, Friendster and Facebook. Yet even these sites are not the sources of the disease, as advertisers, music, and movie producers provide the content and we do the work for them by providing the market research needed to create these products. We are also the carriers and infectors. Welcome to the new virus.

Viral Marketing is a form of advertising spread by word-of-mouth or through the internet and is shared directly from one person to the next, in essence "infecting" them with the newfound awareness of a brand, musician, movie, television show, or product. Viral advertising makes use of pre-existing social network sites and can spread rather quickly. The virus spreads at an exponential rate, and on the web is not restricted by geopolitical boundaries. This has also led to the phenomena of the web celebrity, such as lonelygirl15 and geriatric1927. Media critic Douglas Rushkoff was the first to write about Viral Marketing in his book Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture and has created the PBS frontline documentaries The Persuaders and The Merchants of Cool.

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n the early 2000s companies such as American Express, Chanel, and BMW made the first big steps into viral advertising with their webisodes. The difference between this and product placement is that instead of being financed by a studio or group of producers, the film is financed entirely by the company selling the product. In 2001 BMW Films created the short series The Hire comprised of eight short films directed by the likes of Guy Ritchie, John Woo and produced by David Fincher and Ridley Scott. All episodes starred Clive Owen and featured appearances by Madonna, Marilyn Manson, and Gary Oldman. The films were made available on the internet and the audience was encouraged to tell all their friends about the films. This also started the technique of branded content: the seamless integration of product, branding, and entertainment into a single content entity.

The trend of the product being toted in a short film came about at the beginning of the information age. In 1984, Ridley Scott directed a 60-second short film for Apple computers after completing the movie Blade Runner. The commercial was set in a totalitarian Orwellian nightmare and featured an athlete carrying a sledgehammer running towards a giant screen projecting the ghostly face of Big Brother giving a speech on "the glorious anniversary." The athlete throws the hammer at the screen, destroying it, and the narrator proclaims, "On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984." Advertising Age named it Commercial of the Decade for the 1980s and when it aired during Superbowl XVIII it reached 46.4% of households in America. The film cost $800,000 to make and another $800,000 to air on television, but the attention and airplay it received in news media after it first played was worth more than the cost of production.

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he Apple commercial marked a turning point in the ways of advertising. Consumers no longer wanted a product; they wanted the experience that their beloved brands provided. What better way than by direct and immediate engagement with our immediate lifeworld? Guerilla advertising comes up close and personal with its tactics, and shares its roots with counter-culture activism. Since 1989, Adbusters has been telling us to jam the culture but now it is apparently being done for us. The appropriation of the rebels' ideals isn´t new and has been sold back to us in the form of Sprite´s tongue-in-cheek "Image is nothing, Thirst is Everything" campaign, featuring Grant Hill toting the wonders of Sprite as moneybags pop up in the lower right hand corner of the screen at every positive mention. Dove took it to the next level, however, with their "Campaign for Real Beauty."

Dove states on their website that they have "...created the Dove Self-Esteem Fund as an agent of change to educate and inspire girls on a wider definition of beauty and to make them feel more confident about themselves." The site also features a short film titled "evolution" that shows the steps it takes to turn an average girl into a model, including digital manipulation leading into an unattainable vision of "beauty." The ad has not been aired on television yet, but has been distributed on the campaign´s website and has been viewed more than three million times on YouTube as of November 4, 2006.

How can we argue against a campaign that is so righteous in its intent to promote and increase the self-esteem of teenage girls wrought with anxiety caused by the superficialities of the beauty industry? Quite easily, in fact. We don´t need Dove to tell us we´re beautiful just the way we are--we know that for ourselves. But wait! On the commercial, one woman has large hips and small breasts, another has freckles, and they all have curves in all shapes and sizes! Furthermore, the women they feature in their commercials are still beautiful, with flawless skin, beautiful smiles, gorgeous hair, and stunning eyes. None of them have slightly yellowed teeth, scars or acne. They advertise a surface fetish that is painted upon different shaped canvases but the ideals are hollow and praying on the insecurities of the image-conscious women who have fueled the beauty industry.

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n 2002, Sony Erickson Mobile Communications carried out two campaigns to promote the t681 cellphone, one of the first with an embedded camera. The first campaign, named "Fake Tourist" placed 60 actors at famous American landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and the Space Needle. Acting in groups as tourists, they would ask real tourists walking by to take their pictures, and then advocate the wonders of the new piece of technology with an instant product demonstration. The second campaign placed 60 actresses and models, well trained with the new mobile, in trendy bars and lounges and given "scripted scenarios designed to help them engage strangers in conversation." And thus promote the new phone.

The goal of both campaigns is to trick people into thinking they have discovered the next big thing in technology, playing on their psyches and making them believe they have made this discovery in a chance encounter. Gary Rushkin, the director of the Ralph Nader non-profit organization Commercial Alert, calls the tactic, "...deceptive, people will be fooled into thinking this is honest buzz." Paul MacFarlane, who is co-owner of the Experiment advertising firm and has done work for Southwestern Bell and Anheuser-Busch claims that, "It is reprehensible and desperate, they are trying to fabricate something that should be natural."

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he promotion of Nine Inch Nail´s newest concept album, Year Zero, encapsulates all aspects of the new marketing techniques. The campaign was first discovered by connecting highlighted letters on the back of one of the band´s 2007 European tour t-shirts and piecing together the phrase “I am trying to believe’ that, by adding .com to the end of it, takes you to a website that describes the possible use of mass hallucinogenic drugs on America. A maze of websites is soon discovered that slowly build the back-story of the Year Zero, which takes place in a totalitarian near-future. You begin to "discover" that world events have led to the government of the United States being controlled by an ultra-conservative religious organization. Worse still, a giant hand-like entity known as "the presence" may or may not be responsible for these events.

Crafted by 42 Entertainment--creators of The Beast, an online mystery/scavenger hunt created for the movie AI--the campaign has depth and a mosaic of complex elements. USB thumb drives have been found along the route of the European tour which include static buzz that, when run through a spectrograph reveal phone numbers to access new song samples or find a new piece of the puzzle. The website Art Is Resistance provides stencil, poster and sticker designs that can be printed off and put up around your area, and only those "in the know" will understand the symbolism behind it.

Rolling Stone calls the enthusiasm behind the campaign a "marketing team's dream." Trent Reznor (frontman for Nine Inch Nails) claims that "The term 'marketing' sure is a frustrating one for me at the moment. What you are now starting to experience IS 'year zero'. It's not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record - it IS the art form... and we're just getting started. Hope you enjoy the ride."

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We're constantly subjected to viral temptations on the Internet. Gmail asks us if we want to invite the recipient of our message to start an account. Furthermore, with our Gmail account we are given the opportunity to invite one hundred of our friends to join. The work is now taken out of the hands of the company and is eagerly spread by its users. YouTube is designed for us to share the videos through e-mail or easy access to links for us to post to the blogs, forums, and journals we frequent. But viral advertising goes beyond the rhizomatic nature of the internet. The content is delivered with the explicit intent of spreading the awareness of a brand or product without the provider having to click a button.

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Sources

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"Coachella Stops Sprawl, NIN Fans = Marketing Team´s Dream, Aerosmith Pressed for Time." Rolling Stone. 15 February, 2007. www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php

"Douglas Rushkoff." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Rushkoff

"Dove Soap." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Soap

Goodman, Barak, Director. The Merchants of Cool. PBS Frontline. 27 February, 2007. www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/cool/

Goodman, Barak, Director. The Persuaders. PBS Frontline. 9 November, 2003. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/

Heath, Joseph and Potter, Andrew. The Rebel Sell. Toronto: HarperPerennial, 2004

Leopold, Todd. "Why 2006 isn´t like 1984." CNN.com. 3 February, 2006.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/02/02/eye.ent.commercials/

Linzmayer, Owen. The Mac Bathroom Reader. Sybex Inc. 1994.

Steven, Peter. The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media. Oxford: New Internationalist Publications Ltd, 2003.

"Viral Marketing." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_Marketing

Vranica, Suzanne. "Sony Ericsson Campaign Uses Actors To Push Camera-Phone in Real Life." The Wall Street Journal. 6 July, 2002.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1028069195715597440.html?emailf=yes

"Year Zero (Album)." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_%28album%29