Alternative Marketing: Controversial Advertising Campaigns

Â

Itâ € ™ sa new world of marketing out there. Viral marketing, or use of existing social networks to disseminate information and knowledge about products and an order of virus replicates through human contact, is becoming increasingly popular. Youâ € ™ ll find viral promotions in the form of e-books, video clips, interactive games and Flash. You've € ™ ll find promotions on Facebook.com, YouTube.com, Digg.com, and MySpace.com. You can even find cell phone in a text message.

One problem with viral marketing, however, is that the lack of a central filter advertising ideas leaves the door open for ads that may be considered inappropriate, or even offensive. For example, do you remember the controversy that erupted in January 2005, on an ad for a new Volkswagen car? The British newspaper Guardian reported that two young British designers had created a short video commercial for the Volkswagen Polo. The video is spreading like a virus, online, through social networking sites.

In the video, a bearded man in dark sunglasses and fatigues drives his VW Polo, a sidewalk cafà ©, parks, and detonates a bomb inside the car. Its purpose is clearly a suicide mission to blow up the cafà ©. A flash is seen inside the car, but it contains. The announcement follows the tag line, â € œPolo. Small but tough.â € According to the Guardian, Volkswagen denied Strongly have tolerated or encouraged the ad. The designers, known only as Lee and Dan, said they had made the video for Volkswagen as a self-made promotion, to show what he could do. Volkswagen has announced plans to sue two young creative professionals for damages to the Company ™ S reputation € â € "if they were able to find them.

Despite all this, the video has continued making the rounds on Internet forums, the video-sharing sites, blogs, marketing, and chat rooms ever since. The lack of accountability for the content of this announcement, the political œincorrectnessâ € â € of its object, and explosiveness of the reactions that we are all an indication of Whata € ™ s to come in advertising alternative. And yet, despite that VW could not have been behind the offensive advertising â € "certainly brought them a lot of press and publicity!

The ideology and the terrorist act is something to fight. Our country is waging a war against terrorism, and many of our young people have died in a clash personal and physical with him. Traditional advertising has always tried to sell people a better life than they € ™ re living. It has provided products and services with an emphasis on making people comfortable and happy. Now, with alternative advertising, suddenly the focus is on what bothers us. Ads like the Pole disturb us, disturb us, but they realize and remember the product.

Another controversial aspect of the advertising alternative is that the incorporation of political discourse. The line between news and advertising is increasingly blurred, as components of the current political debate are included in advertising aimed at selling a product. In this a climate, how can we become increasingly apathetic and cynical about politics?

Just a month after the video incident Volkswagen another large company found itself highlighted by a controversial case that prompted his sales. Hotel-heiress turned into reality-TV-star Paris Hilton said that hackers had invaded its T-Mobile Sidekick. Shortly thereafter, the contact information that many of his famous friends appeared on the Internet, along with a series of â € "say â € "indecent photos that Hilton had kept in his cell phone / organizer combination of the camera.

As the story unfolded, revealed that the group of young hackers responsible for swiping Hilton € ™ s personal information is fun for months for harassing several T-Mobile, some known and some not. They had made use of engineering œsocial € â € â € "misleading people to provide information sensitive, in other words, the former with art â € "for the phone and account numbers, apparently without much difficulty.

You've € ™ d think that this massive attack on T-Mobilee Safety € ™ s been removed from the company the right to exit the market. Not so: sales Sidekick was roaring Hilton after the incident and subsequent stories about the group of hackers. Could it be that T-Mobile had organized the whole thing to the public more aware of the Sidekick? Could have been an incredibly complex and intelligent piece of marketing alternative?

Both VW and T-Mobile received a tremendous amount of press coverage after their scandals Internet. Is it true that all the press at all, positive or negative, is ultimately good for a business? Maybe what we're seeing here is the final proof of the value of risk taking, marketing techniques of dispute.

Finally, Leta € ™ s see user-generated content as a publicity stunt. An example of user-generated content on a web page is offered by Amazon.com. Most Amazona € ™ s content is produced by administrators. However, regular users write reviews of products included in Amazona € ™ s advertising. People of all kinds, with a myriad of different viewpoints, life experiences, cultures and educational levels, may have an interest in the same product. If they are encouraged to give their opinion about the product as part of the producta ™ € s advertising, advertising can talk to all the various groups in their own voices.

User-generated content provides new ideas, cheaply produced. When consumers believe the majority of advertising for a product free, a ™ € companyA chopped s costs of advertising. Every society must provide the accommodation website and is carried out further by the content user generated. Compared with the expense of traditional TV marketing campaign, user-generated content costs virtually nothing. No costs of creative directors, actors, writers, and airtime. Itâ € ™ sa good deal for the company.

Hereâ € ™ s trade-off, however: if origin of the creative process, you lose control of the production of that process. You may like what users say about their product, or may not, but you can not ™ € do much about whether or not dissemination. The Internet is open for everyone to use. All free sites cargo such as Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, and the rest will everyonee € ™ s ideas to be publicly available. Â € And if their ideas are intelligent and unusual "as video that VW â €" is likely to make the rounds on the Internet for a long, long time.

About the Author

Paul Coulter is an Internet marketing professional who specializes in Markham Web Design. For more information, or to inquire about services, please visit: http://www.tradewebdesign.com

Metsuki Promotion Code