…or not.
There’s an interesting article on the New York Times about the recent blossoming of internet comedy, partly thanks to the Writer’s Guild of America strike (will it continue after it ends, I wonder?). In it, there’s an interesting quote:
“I love it when people say, ‘I want to make a viral video,’ because it’s like saying, ‘Let’s make an Oscar-winning movie,’ or, like, ‘Let’s write a best-selling book,’ “ Ms. Cackowski said. “You can’t force that.”
There are an awful lot of people who need to read that. I’ve heard, “Why don’t we just make Lonelygirl?” or “How about we do a Flash game like Bejeweled?” a truly depressing number of times. Hey fellas, it’s not like I’m holding out on you – if I had a formula, then I’d be doing it. Probably for myself. But it’s just not that easy. The longer you work at it, the harder you realise it is.
mssv 
And yet, people really try…
Don’t know if you caught the confessions-of-a-viral-marketer styled post a few months back:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/
Some people *claim* to at least be successful! But then it’s more about the actual promotion of the vid, as opposed to the production, to which a few simple common-sense rules are applied…
Yep, I saw that. But you’re absolutely right, most viral videos do a truly awful job of promoting whatever product they’re actually for. I also question the long-term benefit of these cookie-cutter videos, and how suitable they are for many ‘smarter’ brands.