Viral Marketing's Worst Nightmare - Hoaxes

from the viral,-but-fake dept

Adrian Anders writes "Here's an article about the recent surge of "viral hoaxes" that have proven to be damaging for both the companies that were spoofed, and the marketing industry that uses viral clips as a means of promotion. Front and center in this discussion is the recent "Who Ordered Room Service" viral which everyone thought was created to promote the new Bryan Adams album "Room Service." It turns out that two pranksters made up the whole ad campaign as a fun gag, never intending it to spread like things (especially gross things) on the net sometimes do. In the end, Adams may have grounds to sue the two directors since the misappropriation of his name in this "ad" has most likely hurt (maybe helped, but doubtful) the legitimate ad campaign for the album. Could this incident and its legal repercussions send a chill through viral marketing? I wouldn't count on it, but perhaps the source of these ads will be more transparent in the future." There's been a lot of this lately. Part of the problem is that marketers who think they're clever are really embracing this "stealth" marketing technique. The downside, of course, is that means anyone else can "hijack" the viral campaign, intentionally or not. How soon until competitors try to come up with viral hoaxes designed to hurt the competition? If (when) discovered, it will backfire badly, but that doesn't mean it won't happen.

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