How to go viral without making a cent

It's been almost five years since I started this blog. I don't do it for money, as I already have a full-time job as a Creative Director. So there are no ads, and I don't get paid for clicks. I just write these posts as part of my ongoing professional development, reviewing the fruits of my industry and thinking out loud about the ethics and social issues involved.

I've managed to generate a bit of a following. The numbers aren't huge, but they include some people who themselves have huge followings on advertising, culture, and social science blogs. As a result, every once in a while, the content in one of my posts goes viral. That happened again this week.

Here I was, just not minding my own business as usual, and I saw some really shitty photoshop from Target show up in a Facebook post by Photoshop Disasters. Since sex, sexism and body image in advertising are some of my regular topics, I whipped up a quick "Ethical Adman" post about it, then promptly returned to my day job.

Then this happened:

That mountain range is an analytic spike that hit on Tuesday. It turned out that Jezebel picked up the story and linked me as the source, but not Photoshop Disasters. That gave me about 6,000 extra views. Then Buzzfeed picked up the story from Jezebel, and didn't credit me. I got no direct traffic from Buzzfeed, but may have gained some secondary hits via Jezebel.

Even more traffic came when Kim Komando, "America's Digital Goddess®" teased the Target story and very kindly added, "Click here to see the full story and more photos from The Ethical Adman." Woo-hoo! That was worth almost 10,000 extra hits.

Next thing I knew, I was linked as "an observant blogger" on the Today Show's blog. The frigging Today Show! But surprisingly, that only racked up another 6500-or-so hits. (I guess they'd better stick with mainstream media.)

With all this attention, I was bound to get some of the negative kind. Several people, claiming to be graphic designers, accused me of overreacting and seeing hurtful "thinning" in what they saw as just sloppy Photoshop. But the real surprise came when fanatical followers of the fitness blog, Blogilates, started an organized campaign to accuse me of "stealing" content.

For the record, the Blogilates post went up after 11 pm, Pacific Time. By that point, the Photoshop Disasters/Ethical Adman/Jezebel/Buzzfeed posts were already hours old. Blogilates author Cassey Ho did, however, manage to become the credited source for a post on CNN's HLN blog.

Since CNN, Blogilates, The Today Show, Kim Komando, Buzzfeed, Jezebel, and Photoshop Disasters are all commercial blogs, they all made money off of Target's bad Photoshopping. I didn't make a penny. How stupid am I?

Oh well, like I said at the top, I already have a job. If anything, this whole affair helps me with my online brand as a "concerned advertising guy" and adds to my credibility when I give clients advice on social media and content marketing strategies. This whole thing also helped my all-time pageviews top the two million mark.

So in the spirit of karma, I'd like to give a big shout-out to the person who apparently first caught the Target fiasco and submitted it to PSD, and also made no money from it:

Major Photoshop Fail @Target! http://t.co/EcGtk46SSl @photoshopfail
— Adam Z Lein (@adamzea) March 9, 2014

If you don't already, I suggest you follow Adam Z Lein on Twitter. You'd be amazed how ahead of the curve you can be when you know the right people.

WestJet celebrates Christmas with joyful excess

Call me Scrooge, but this video that is going viral all over Canada doesn't warm my heart quite as much as it should:



Don't get me wrong. I actually really like the WestJet brand. It's an employee-owned airline, and the crews regularly sing, tell jokes, and do other fun things for the passengers. So surprising a flight with Christmas presents on arrival is totally on-strategy. (As is the Santa in their corporate indigo.)

The adman in me appreciates the concept, execution, and pure joy of this stunt. The part that bothers me a bit is the reinforcement of Christmas as a time to ask for — and receive — luxury goods from big box retailers. Yeah, sure, we all do it. But it would have been nice for the airline to give to people who really need things like food, shelter and company this winter. The best part of this promotion was when people wanted plane tickets home for the holidays. Now that's Christmas spirit!

On the lighter side, however, it's interesting to note that not everyone asked for big-ticket items. I wonder if the guy who asked for underpants was kicking himself later...

No, this is not a "real" Russian Tampax ad

This nasty little clip, which is making the viral rounds of HuffPo, LiveLeak, etc., is not a "Russian Tampax Ad". According to its own YouTube "about" section, it's a promotional video for the bizarre mess known as "Movie 43".

Not to say that admen are above using the "shark week" gag for a Tampax ad:

Leo Burnett France, circa 2007 (via AOTW)

Unintentional Christian hilarity of the week #FdAdFriday

Via Facebook (obviously stolen from College Humor)

According to manta.com:

Ram In The Bush Christian Center Inc in Memphis, TN is a private company categorized under Non-Denominational Church. Our records show it was established in 2002 and incorporated in Tennessee.

Who doesn't fancy a godly ram in the bush on a Sunday morning?

Train etiquette campaign parodies are "super simple stuff"

Last week, Eric shared an image that was my first exposure to the Queensland Rail Meme:

Here's the backstory: Australia's Queensland Rail, a regional interurban rail network, launched a train etiquette campaign way back in 2011. It used the style of children's first readers to show how elementary basic courtesy really is.

You get the idea. Everyone does. Which makes the campaign ripe for parody.


Buzzfeed has collected some of the "best" of the fake posters:

Despite the silliness, this is actually good news for the client. Their brand is out there, and the courtesy conversation is viral. Good on you, Queensland Rail.

Peeing on an electric fence is this week's hot political metaphor #FdAdFriday

It's based on a Will Rogers quote

Roland Sledge, candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner, says, “Isn't it about time we elected political leaders that have sense enough not to pee on electric fences.”



Indeed it is.

Via Buzzfeed

WTM endorses: Hayley Wade for VP, Student Life

UPDATE: She won.

She seems like a nice young woman:

"Hey everyone!  

My name is Hayley Wade and I am running for VP Student Life in the Students’ Union election this upcoming March. I would love and appreciate your support with this endeavor! I have big goals for this position, and I with your help, I know I can achieve them. If you would like to learn more about what I want to do to help you, please check out my platform and feel free to ask me about any questions you may have! If you support me and the great goals I have for this position, please spread the word about my campaign and tell everyone you know, to VOTE HAYLEY WADE from March 6 - 8!
You can also follow my campaign on twitter @voteHAYLEY, send me an email voteHAYLEY@hotmail.com and join the Facebook group - vote HAYLEY WADE for VP Student Life 

Thank you for your support! Please let me know what I can do to help you!"

Ms. Wade was just your average Canadian student politician. Until this campaign poster (said to be strategically placed above urinals on campus) hit Reddit. And Copyranter. And Buzzfeed.

I actually think it's a brilliant campaign poster. But is she really behind it?

According to OpenFile, this was her response on social media (note avatar):

And here she is on Twitter:

So I'll put this down as "not a prank". And I wish Ms. Wade the best of luck.

F'd Ad Fridays: Not an ad for boots (or cats) but it should be

Kerry sent me this cool short video:



Admit it, you danced a little while watching that, didn't you? Maybe just twitched your shoulders while sitting at your desk?

Sainsbury's has the best customer service person in the world

Kerry shared this awesome find from Facebook. (It also appears on Huffington Post UK.)

Three-and-a-half-year-old consumer Lily Robinson had a question about one of UK chain store Sainsbury's store-brand food products:

Cute. But what Customer Manager Chris King wrote back should be enshrined in customer service history.

Full text:

Thanks so much for your letter. I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea — it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn't it? 

It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked sripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly. 

I really liked reading your letter so I thought I would send you a little present. I've put a £3 gift card in with this letter. If you ask your mum or dad to take you to Sainsbury's you could use it to buy some of your own tiger bread (and maybe if mum and dad say it's OK you can get some sweeties too!) Please tell an adult to wait 48 hours before using this card. 

I'm glad you wrote in to us and hope you like spending your gift card. See you in store soon. 

Yours sincerely 

Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)

And that, my friends, is how you attract customers for life. And it didn't even involve social media. (Until now.)

F'd Ad Fridays: Epically Effed Pizza Ad

This Spanish microwave pizza looks awful, but that doesn't stop these creatives from pulling out all the stops to create the most insane online video ad I've seen that isn't from Japan.

AdFreak's Tim Nudd wrote, "It's not clear if Pizza Boomerang is a real thing, or just a stunt project by Sofa Experience Communications, which posted the YouTube video."

Warning: It contains a very fake but very graphic pizza penectomy. Yeah, really.

F'd Ad Fridays: Gaga sings "Happy Birthday" into a hoo-ha

This kind of thing is what the internet was invented for.



According to YouTube user "imyourhooker":

"Novemember 22, 2011 at the TERRYXGAGA book signing, I stuck my phone in my pants, while it was recording, told her what I did, and asked her if she could whisper happy birthday to my crotch.  

SHE DID IT, I LOVE HER SO MUCH."

I should hope so! It would feel weird to have someone you didn't love serenade your genitals.

 Via Buzzfeed

"Angry Cable Guy" and the analog era of viral audio

In the days before the modern internet, it took a lot of awesome to make a meme. Usually, these were faxed visuals of dirty cartoons, pictures or jokes. But there were also audio memes. They were dutifully recopied from one analog cassette tape to another, resulting in increasing levels of hiss.

Some, like tapes of the Tube Bar prank calls, became permanently embedded in pop culture by getting written into The Simpsons. Others just faded into memory when the tape got eaten.

For about 13 years, I have occasionally searched for one of my favourite audio memes from the '80s and '90s: Cable Guy. But somehow I missed it when the recording finally surfaced on YouTube last year (and two years before) and was covered on BoingBoing:



The transcript has errors ("AutoMag" was the name of the show, and "Dogan" is an ancient slur against Catholics) but there it is.

According to No Cable: "This tape came from the answering machine at Cablenet (now Cogeco) in Kingston, Ontario in the mid 1980's. "Automag Magazine" was a car review show that used to air in the area. This customer obviously loves his Automag Magazine! Not safe for work or near children due to the excessive (and hilarious) profanity. This tape was recently featured on Boing Boing, and yes, copies were made and distributed at my high school as well."

From Kingston (my hometown) it spread across Canada in both Beethoven and non-Beethoven versions. The band my brother played in at the time, The Pariahs, used to play it at The Toucan before they took to the stage. It was shared in dorm rooms, at parties, through the mail.

And then the tapes got worn out. Our cassette decks became obsolete. And we forgot about it.

The rate and frequency at which new online memes emerge, spread and fade today is dizzying. You basically need a daily update. Back in the day, though, these things were unusual and long-lasting enough to leave a mark.

And now it's back. It has even been Xtranormaled:



Welcome to the 21st Century, Angry Cable Guy. Wherever you are.

F'd Ad Fridays: Is "Facebook Official" a joke or what?

Everything about this video screams "parody".

The opening.

The hair.

The androgyny. (And the hair.)

The cheesy moves. (And the hair!)

The token diversity. (And my God! The hair!!!)

The dance moves.

The product placements.

And the Rebecca Black league dancing.

When Adland's Dabitch first shared it, I assumed it was a joke. Then I hoped it was one. Then I prayed.

Then I read this article on Perez Hilton:

Is this a joke? This has to be joke.

TELL US THAT THIS IS JOKE!

It's been a long time since the world has had a talented, relevant, five-piece boy band thrusted into their face, and perhaps with good reason. There's some much to live up to - NKOTB, BSB, NSYNC - how could any newbie group every dream of competing. Maybe with a little help from a former boy band member…

Lance Bass would like to introduce you to his new boy band, Heart2Heart. Their first single, Facebook Official, hit the web this week, and it's getting a lot of attention … because people are trying to figure it out!

What is this? Is it a parody? An homage to 2Gether, perhaps? Or has Lance fallen into RB-Rebbecca Black territory? You know, like, he's completely serious with this - the video, the costumes, the horrifying lyrics - and people will jump on board only because the enjoy the sheer ridiculousness of it!

Nobody can tell if ex-'N Syncer Bass is serious or not. Everyone from Queerty to Business Insider is speculating. And that's kind of brilliant.

See more at the band web site 

If the shoe fits, **** it.

What is it with all the smut after a holiday weekend? I take one day off, and the ad blogosphere is practically swimming in pheromones.

This video, via Illegal Advertising, is for European Foot Locker stores.



It's part of a big social media outreach that includes all kinds of user-generated content. (I'll bet they get some pretty icky ones, too.)

Plus, everyone knows that women only make this face for Manolo Blahnik

The concept isn't that far off, though, as shoes have long been considered a vaginal symbol. I recall hearing an Italian proverb against women having concurrent sexual partners that translated to something like "you can't put two feet in the same shoe". You get the picture.

F'd Ad Fridays: DiscoWHAT?!?

This modest Indian take away menu from the UK has been making the rounds online this week as "the greatest typo ever". I found one reference to it that was over 2 years old (with tasteless ads). I'll have to assume they've fixed it by now. Unless, of course, it resulted in a huge increase in soon-to-be-disappointed customers.

F'd Ad Fridays: Divine Rags

This spot for Memphis-area clothier Divine Rags is currently making the viral rounds.



Could this brand get any more classy?

Oh.

F'd Ad Fridays: iHead

This weird viral has been making the rounds. I first saw it on Illegal Advertising.



"iPad Girl" was shot in NYC to promote a version of Cosmo for men which is only available on the Apple tablet.

Very cool coordination of the four screens, although the ending is presumably staged.

Feministing had this to say:

As bad as this ad is, I’m sure the product will be even worse. In case the idea wasn’t painfully clear, the video’s director explained: “The concept and analogy here is to show a guy ‘getting inside a girl’s head’ and sort of ‘reading her mind’ by flipping through the magazine pages on the iPad. The reason for that is: it is the first magazine for men that is written by women, so for the first time women are letting guys in on what they think.”

Ewww. It's like some terrible Mel Gibson movie.

F'd Ad Fridays: The stupid Skittles porn spoof ad you've already seen

And if not, don't bother. It's silly, the audio will get you fired, and the multicoloured money shot is poorly SFXed.


Skittles - Newlyweds - Dir. Cousins [Not affiliated with Wrigley or Skittles. Contains explicit content not suitable for minors] from Cousins on Vimeo.

You watched it, didn't you? Not my fault.

British reactions to Walmart

This would make a decent ad for the mega-chain, if they had any sense of humour whatsoever:

Mooncup presents: way too many synonyms for "vagina"

Mark from Osocio shared this amusing video on Twitter, for the menstrual cup manufacturer Mooncup:



The lyrics are based on user submissions from loveyourvagina.com, a campaign microsite now over a year old, that talks about the product's health and environmental benefits, and invites women to share their own pet names for their pudenda.

The top entries so far (99% of which I assume were offered by my fellow men) are:

The raspberry cave, Liltulip, Lady gaga, Penis flytrap, Falangee, Vagibagi, Sashimi, Vaginator, Nether regions, La vajajay, Bananajaja, Stikkio, Vagillow, Chachina, Vajingi, Dr muffenstein, Forrie, Jabba the hutt, Farfy, Savvanah the sexi, Boof, Wahola, My little, Pakangkang, Spencer, Flamoush, Super, Pusspuss, Pussalinda, Fisse, The beach, Guhther, Gobbleitallup, Ginee, Hoo nanny, Sweet pie, Picika, Flimflam, Jungle, Jackpot, Blueberry, Love shack, Pink kryptonite, Down stairs, My love nub, Fupa, Far south, Picza, Ninny ninny nine no nu, Fanny long stockings, Off limits, Mc lovin', Candy, Cherry, Minnie the moocher, Fenella, High china, Poom, Mervis, Loo lah, Chochi, Zina princess warrior, Slug of love, Minnie ha ha, Tiffany, Geoff, Pa-cha-cha, Love bits, Milkshake, Felma, Vageesh, Moobies, Smurfette, Foef, The mouse's ear, The furry cup, Lady star, Fica, Lovesump, Ferlangee, Mucka, Woobie, Minney, The last supper, Whisker biscuit, Anne fan fanny, Bit, Foofie g, Mrs tickle, The place of no return, Basket, Funini, Place of business, Cavern of secrets, My ladybeak, Perrechooo, My delta love cave, Pink lotus, Wikerty splikerty, Fru fru :), Hairy cup, Pooey tooey, "v" reg, Pookey, Foufoune, My girlfriend, Lisbeth, Vertical smilenot, My netherlands, Firecrotch, Constance, Billie va-jean, Nou-nou, Pansy, Tropical flower, Platypussy... and literally hundreds more.

Effective user engagement, or just puerile fun? Only their sales will tell.

Meanwhile, here's the classic male version: