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Viral Marketing to Become the Norm?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the advertisers-working-for-their-bread-and-butter dept.

An anonymous reader writes "One of the oldest advertising companies in the U.S., JWT, has just bought up all the Huffington Post's front-page ad space for a whole week. They are taking the unique approach of trying to create ad content interesting enough to make people want to watch, instead of the traditional ad agency approach of bludgeoning the user base over the head through interstitials and other forced ad techniques. Will the ad companies be able to put forth enough continued effort to make good ads that become viral, or is this just a short phase to gain publicity?"

4 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. What a concept! by JoeLinux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Instead of MAKING the customer do something, you make it attractive enough for them to WANT to do something.

    MPAA, RIAA: you taking notes?

    1. Re:What a concept! by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Guess what? I do not want my advertizing to be entertaining. I want it to be informative. I am tired of products being advertized as a way to meet some emotional need of mine: No, I do not need a BMW to make my peers envious. I do not need to think of McDonalds as a hip place for youngsters. Seeing Lebron on TV does not make me want to buy his shoes... I'm an uncoordinated white guy... your shoes won't help.

      The point of advertizing has morphed from a way to educate to a way to associate it with a feeling or a mood. I think this defines the difference between a capitalist society and a consumerist society. We crossed that a long time ago.

      But I won't go along with it. Maybe that is why I am (generally) happy with life.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  2. It's already working! by SEMW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They've already succeeded. It's been posted on Slashdot. What better indicator of sucess in a viral marketing campaign designed to attract attention and publicity do you need?

    --
    What's purple and commutes? An Abelian grape.
  3. I keep telling everyone... by Gordonjcp · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... that viral marketing just doesn't work.