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Good Commercials Go Viral

By Marsha Gellerman

Commercials have a tendency to all look alike. Such as car commercials showing someone blazing down a winding road at an excess of 90 mph. The disclaimer at the bottom says, closed course, professional driver. I don’t even have to read the disclaimer any more to know this. Most car companies follow that advertising model and have commercials that exactly fit in this mold. So, it's nice to see a car company taking a different approach.

I don't know why we like the Kia Hamster commercial aka "This or That," which you can find at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfJnqbudMzs. We're not big rap fans and the song used in the commercial, "The Choice is Yours" by Black Sheep, passed me by when it was released in 1991. But the ad is very creative and pays attention to minute details. I'm still trying to figure out how they got the life size hamsters to look so real.

Another recent trend is to make fun of older men. You'll see this in the commercials for Mac versus PC, and in several copy center commercials, where the older worker tries to figure out how to operate modern office machinery. I made up my mind that I didn't like commercials that made fun of people. That is, until I saw the Planet Fitness commercial, which we call "I pick things up, and put them down." We've all met people like the one in the commercial, and making fun of them isn't nice, as a matter of fact it’s mean. I’ll let you decide whether or not the commercial is funny and you can watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-cpojkILO0. What the commercial does very effectively, is make the point that Planet Fitness is for the everyday man or woman who wants to exercise. This commercial is local to the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Another set of local commercials, which have made a habit of bucking all the trends, are the New York State Lottery commercials. They have a series of winning commercials, from "the Jackpot is..." where they announce the weekly prize amount and everyone runs out of the room to play the lottery, to the "Little Bit of Luck" commercials. In the Other Kinds of Luck commercial, Little Bit of Luck introduces his friends - Beginner's Luck, Tough Luck, Dumb Luck, Down on His Luck, Born Lucky, Hard Luck, Pot Luck, Lucky Streak, Ran out of Luck, Fat Chance, Lucky to be Alive, Lucky Two Fingers, and then finally, his girlfriend Lady Luck. Fitting and funny characters represent all of these “luck” names. You can find this commercial at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytofoTuZAhU.

However, the crown jewel of the New York State Lottery Commercials is the Sweet Millions "Bunnies" commercial. Whether you think it's too saccharine, or you think it's too adorable for words, this commercial is the subject of hundreds of blog posts. The song, "If You Were a Candyman," which was created for the commercial, has not surprisingly been recorded by a number of fans and uploaded to their YouTube accounts. You'll either hate it or love it and you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF6PyIML0hI. The bunnies at the amusement park marks the second time New York State Lottery has used cute animals for a commercial.

With all the bloggers who need things to write about, and the explosion of video channels on the web, it pays to make a different kind of commercial. A good ad company or marketer who comes up with a notable commercial that goes viral, can save an advertiser millions of dollars.

Contributor's Note

I love YouTube. I found an old commercial for Radio Free Europe, where the Eastern European announcer plays the Drifer's "und Broadway." It's been at least 35 years since I first saw this commercial and I still remember it.

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Showed the hamster vid to the kids and they loved it. I will hire the ad agency behind it for my presidential election campaign.

My husband absolutely loves the KIA commercial. We're not in the targeted demographic, but he's fascinated by the whole look, feel and sound of it.

The KIA hamsters commercial is my favorite of all time. My grandchildren and I still go to this You Tube video when we want to laugh. I almost bought a Kia Soul, too. It is compelling.

I thought it was just us. Hubby despises the typical fast car commercials. The KIA Hampster ad is different and just as compelling.

Some of the best viral commercials are the ones that air with the superbowl. after the superbowl people vote on what commercials they liked best. You find them on Youtube. I know people who rush bask to the tv during halftime to watch the commercials, budwiser usually having some of the best.

You'd think they would be, but this year's Superbowl commercials were kind of disappointing. (GoDaddy's ad with Joan Rivers was an exception.)

Not too many YouTube users ran to post these. They appeared on the web as part of the overall ad campaign - with "vote for the best SB commercial" being played up by Yahoo videos and YouTube.

I didn't get to watch it (SB) this year (no TV where I'm at). At the price they pay for those commercials I bet someone got fired then.

Sorry to hear that. I never actually wind up watching the game - only the commercials, but at least I had a choice. I hope that where ever you are - you can get some sort of service soon and can join the rest of us in complaining - "but there's nothing on."

That's a great one and one of my funny favorites. Just put a rap song with a hamster and you have a huge hit! YouTube is also a powerful venue for us piano teachers, reaching so many who are passionate to learn. Great intel, thanks.

I'm glad you're able to reach people via the internet. The web and YouTube are extremely powerful forces.

The visuals on the Hamster ad are amazing. But, I have to confess that the Bunnies ad is my favorite - and I know the words to "Candyman" by heart.

Thank you for sharing this interesting intel, Marsha. I still haven't gone to YouTube, so I guess I'd better get with it!!
I'm still struggling with face book and the business pages.
We senior's are a little slow on the up-take.
Best wishes.
Frederick

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