Viral Friday: Ken Lee

Written by Paul van Veenendaal on March 21st, 2008 |

Viral Friday is the weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 10 most popular viral videos, commercials or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread.

This weeks Viral Friday #1 position goes to Bulgarian Idol: Ken Lee. The 29-year-old Valentina Hasan from Zvezdelina, Bulgaria became a real internet meme in the past month with her interpretation of Mariah Carey’s “Without You” in the television show “Music Idol”. The runner up spot is for Boston Dynamics with Big Dog. BigDog, the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots, is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. Awareness Test completes this week’s top 3. London based agencies Gorgeous Enterprises and WCRS created an awareness campaign for Transport for London.

Do you want to see this week’s list from 1 to 10? Go on then, and have a look! We’d like to hear your opinion about the virals. Have fun!

1. Bulgarian Idol: Ken Lee

The 29-year-old Valentina Hasan from Zvezdelina, Bulgaria became a real internet meme in the past month with her interpretation of Mariah Carey’s “Without You” in the television show “Music Idol”. Her own version, “Ken Lee”, was viewed over 3 million times in just two weeks time on YouTube. Although she didn’t make it to the next round, the jury gave Valentina another chance to perform the song.

2. Boston Dynamics Big Dog

BigDog, the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots, is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. The robot weights 120 kilos and can carry another 40 kilos. BigDog is developed to go to any place people and animals can go. The program is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA). (Source: Boston Dynamics)

3. Awareness Test

London based Gorgeous Enterprises and WCRS created the awareness campaign Do The Test. The campaign is for Transport for London and aims to increase awareness amongst cyclists in order to reduce the amount of traffic accidents.

4. Case 1017

A few weeks ago Eric Brody started a video blog about his new job, how bored he is and how he hopes to meet women online through his blog. Then suddenly he got fired and sent home with a box with his belongings. In the box he found a video titled ‘case 1017′, which shows a shaky camera Cloverfield type of video. Rumors are the video has something to do with the remake of Spanish zombie horror [Rec], called Quarantine. (Source: the next web)

5. The Kings of YouTube

The same guys who made the Kings of Myspace rap video now bring us the Kings of Youtube version. In the video the guys sum up why YouTube is the perfect site to visit when you’ve got nothing to do. The Kings of YouTube video got over 1.2 million views, obviously on YouTube, in just one week.

6. Banned Wendy’s Commercial

YouTube user jpickar uploaded this video, stating it’s a banned commercial for fast food restaurant Wendy’s. The video promotes the “four-alarm spicy chicken sandwich”, which seems to be very hot. The video got 3568 diggs in just 6 days, and 265,902 views on YouTube in just over a week.

7. Kotex Beaver

This Australian Kotex commercial, rated M (for Mature) and broadcast only after 8.30pm, features a woman and her pet beaver eating lunch, having their nails done, at the hairdresser, and being gawked at by men on a beach. When the advertisement aired last Sunday, the day after International Woman’s Day, the Advertising Standards Bureau received a large number of complaints.
The ad ends with a voice-over: “You’ve only got one. So for the ultimate care down there, make it U.” The woman then hands a packet of Kotex tampons to the beaver as a gift. Behind the scenes footage can be seen on the U by Kotex® website.

8. Tipping Pot (Guinness Spoof)

Unilever UK launched this special St. Patrick’s Day commercial, a parody of the Guinness Tipping Point commercial, for Pot Noodle. The action begins in Westport Inn, ignited by a drinker’s fart. Cigarette lighters, cigarette packets and mobile phones set off a chain reaction which includes fridges and microwave ovens. All to end in a Pot Noodle moment. London based Cake made the viral video.

9. MySpace: A Horrific Tale of Obsession

Exactly one month ago, YouTube user therealPeilo posted the “MySpace: A Horrific Tale Of Obsession” documentary, with the intention to illustrate the dangers of MySpace. In the seven minute video we see how Dan’s little gets utterly addicted to the social network MySpace.

10. The World Is My Canvas

To promote Nokia’s new N82 model, Swedish digital creative hot shop Farfar created the “The World Is My Canvas” campaign. The main figure in the campaign is Stavros, a self-proclaimed Position Art “Genius” who uses the Nokia N82 Sports Tracker application as his “brush” while he walks around anywhere in the world to “draw” his motif. (Source: Adverblog)