There’s this crazily viral fad spreading around Facebook this week called Doppelganger week. The idea is for this week, you change your profile picture to a photo of a celebrity you’ve been told you look like. And if you don’t have a celebrity in mind, you can use Facebooks “Face Double” application, which uses the features of your face from a photo you upload to find your celebrity counterpart. It’s spreading so fast they’re comparing it to the “bra color” status fad where women wrote the color of the bra they were wearing in their status for breast cancer awareness. Though it’s unlikely such a virally spread fad could happen with a brand (unless it’s really freaking awesome), it’s still a good “how content goes viral” case study.
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2010/01/29/2010-01-29_doppelgnger_week_looks_like_facebooks_next_big_craze.html
I found this ad to be interesting and effective. What jumped out at me first was how similar it is to those lengthy commercials for video games. It talks about a main character and a quest he must go on, which is basically the story line behind any video game. Even though I don’t personally enjoy most video games, this particilar ad grabbed my interest and forced me to continue watching to try and figure out what the catch was with Mountian Dew.
Another creative aspect of the ad is that it allows for the consumer to play a role in the designing of a new product. Again, I don’t like video games, nor do I drink soda, but after seeing the ad I honestly went to dewmocracy.com to check it out and see what kinds of new bottles or flavors you could choose from. This is exactly what the people behind this ad what consumers to do: visit their website.
I also think the creators of this ad campaign were pretty creative in naming it “DEWmocracy”, considering it gives consumers a chance to create a new kind of soda. This is exactly what a democracy is, providing the people with a choice, and the fact that they incorporated their product name into this word is brilliant.
One last thing I wanted to add was a remark on the look and overall feel of the ad. It apperas to be suspenseful and exciting and very similar to an action movie. I think it gets people motivated, especially men, in a similar way that an action movie would.
Katherine Olson was last seen by friends when she went to meet someone about a nanny job posted on Craigslist.org. A day later, her body was found in her car at a Minnesota nature preserve. Authorities say a 19-year-old man who they believe placed the fake ad is being held pending charges. Olson’s family said she had taken nanny jobs at least twice before after answering online ads.
Whats crazy about this story is I am a nanny, I’ve used craigslist to find 3 of my nanny jobs, and still was using it to find a babysitting job for while I’m at Marist. In fact, I was even on the site searching for a job just last week when I was bored in class. People need to stop beleiving what they see/read on the internet, especially on craigslist. People need to learn to be more LITERATE when using these forms of media.
