In my opinion, most viral adverts don’t begin as viral adverts; they are made viral by the public’s opinion and their views. For example, the Polo VW advert wasn’t meant to be seen by the general public, as the makers of the advert told The Guardian “I just wanted it for show reel purposes, not seen by millions of people around the world”. Little did they know, the advert would “shock” and “create such a fuss”, the advert issues and debates as to whether to sue the makers or ban the artefact. Volkswagen was rumored to have sued them and go ahead with taking legal action against Dan and Lee from the London based advertising group (the producers).
Viral Adverts are usually produced by low budget film makers, who want to get their views across about certain issues and themes. However, they might be produced by those who work for companies, like, Agent Provocateur, who made the famous Kylie advert.
One advert in particular which caught my attention was the Polo Volkswagen advert, containing clear reference to a suicide bomber. The 21 second clip shows a man walking out of his house and into a Volkswagen Polo, driving to a busy restaurant area and pushing a detonator. Unknowingly, he blows himself up instead, supporting the adverts tagline “Polo- Small but tough”. The advert ends with a shot of the car’s undamaged exterior, following the tagline. We are given a scene and it is up to us how we look at the mis-en-scene and how we interpret it. For example, the fact that an Asian looking man walks out the house into his car seems innocent and the audience thinks nothing of it. If they notice the black and white chequered taffiyeh, they could interpret this as a reference to suicide bomber or even politics as the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.
Depending on different cultures, the level of offense taken varies, for example, the Polo advert would appear to be insulting to the members of the public in our society. For the obvious reason, the 9/11 attack on America, and the recent 7/7 suicide bomb attack on London, many people wouldn’t take this lightly and find it highly offensive, especially to those effected, and therefore lead to complaints. The references to terrorism could also affect these people too.
The audiences are found online, as the adverts are passed on by friends via email. This method is a popular way of advertising, works similar to pop ups as you are in a way, forced to view these. It is likely that when reading an email from a friend, you trust them and the subject name of the email is usually suggesting “Watch this, it really good”. As “Viral Advertising is more powerful than third-party advertising because it conveys an implied endorsement from a friend” it is therefore part of a trend between these people ages from 16 and above. However, viral adverts aren’t targeted toward older generation as they are typically obtainable online and it’s more of a “sick humour” thing.
There are different examples of viral advertising; the three main ones are as follows, interactive, political and adult. They all contain some kind of humour, but targeted toward different audiences. The interactive example would be like games and “provide hours of mindless fun”. The Shave Your Yeti advert where the audience can participate in this interactive game and another example would be the Burger King’s subservient chicken. The polo advert would go under the political example, as it raised issues of terrorism.
Bibliography
http://www.9mmfilm.com/news/2005/02/vw-polo-viral.html
http://wizbangblog.com/archives/004842.php
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1394517,00.html
