Viral Friday: john.he.is

Written by Niels Bellaar on February 15th, 2008 | 1 comment

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 Election08 with john.he.is. In responds to the “Yes We Can” video, several musicians and actors made a parody of the song titled “john.he.is”, making a fool of John McCain (the leading candidate for the Republican Party nomination). The runner up spot is for Frank Warren’s PostSecret: A Valentine Video. His blog is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard and shows us an overall picture of send in Valanetine’s cards. SCADshorts’ “Love Hurts” completes this week’s top 3. This Dandy Dwarves creative project shows why they say love hurts.

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. john.he.is

Last week rapper will.i.am and producer Jesse Dylan scored a huge hit and a stunning viral success with their declaration of support to Barack Obama. Several actors and artists, like Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Nicole Scherzinger cooperated. Last week Barack Obama, currently the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination, posted the supporter generated video on his official campaign site. In responds to the “Yes We Can” video, several musicians and actors made a parody of the song titled “john.he.is”, making a fool of John McCain (the leading candidate for the Republican Party nomination). The skit got one million YouTube views in less than a week. (Source: AD.nl)

2. PostSecret: A Valentine Video

Yesterday it was Valentine’s Day, the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other. They do that by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting each other flowers, offering confectionery and sending cute text messages. The day is especially loved by those who anonymously want to express their love. Since 2005 Frank Warren’s PostSecret website services in this need. The blog is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard. The three-minute movie, titled A Valentine Video, shows an overall picture of send in Valanetine’s cards. The Valentine Video has about 1.1 million views on YouTube and MySpaceTV combined.

3. SCADshorts: Love Hurts

SCADshorts is “a creative project developed by the Dandy Dwarves and commissioned by the Savannah College of Art and Design“. Especially for Valentine’s Day they made the hilarious video “Love Hurts”, starring Jeff Crispi as Cupid. A Behind the Scenes video and trivia can be found on SCADshorts.com.

4. Global Warming: Bring It On?

Sidney based viral agency Lava Communications developed a campaign for GoShout to crank up a discussion about “global warming”, including facts and graphs. The Australian company made a viral video featuring Emma (from Big Brother Australia) on a warm winters day in the year 2079.

5. Adidas: Adi Dassler

In this beautiful animation we see the rise of one of the most iconic brands today, Adidas. 180 Amsterdam created this animated short to promote the heritage of the brand and its founder Adi Dassler. The ‘Originals’ campaign includes a branded site, online films, interactive content and online advertising. (Source: NMA)

6. Sprite: They All Look Good From Far Away

This commercial for Sprite shows us what you see is not always what you get! From far away it may look small, but the closer it gets the bigger… That’s not always good, but in this case it is. The viral leads us to a website for Southern American Sprite drinkers.

7. Ann Summers: Valentines

In the above video Ann Summers, a British chain of High street sex shops, shows woman what they should give their lover this Valentines Day: Wood. The gentlemen in this commercial are the lucky recipients of hand-delivered wood, what more could a man ask for on Valentine’s Day? (Source: Adrants)

8. PropertyGenie: Hedge Trimming

With the above video PropertyGenie, a South African property website, shows us they take you house hunting any day and any time. The campaign was made by South African advertising agency Jupiter Drawing Room and features the above TV commercial and several print ads. (Source: Cherryflava)

9. Ford Focus Orchestra Beautifully Arranged

Ogilvy & Mather London helped Ford relaunches their Focus with an integrated campaign featuring an orchestra of 31 instruments assembled out of the parts of the new Ford Focus. Instruments include the clutch guitar, ornamented with a backdrop from inside a door, a spike fiddle made from a rear suspension mount and a shock absorber, the Ford Fender bass made from fenders and a pillar/roof support, and Shockbone made from shock absorber parts. There also is a long version of the video.

10. Jawbone Eliminates Noise

Jawbone is a brand of headset which uses ‘Noise Shield’ to reduce background noise. To show just how well their technology works the company launched the “Jawbone Eliminates Noise” campaign, existing of four videos that need no further explanation. (Source: Spotlight Effect)

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One Comment

• laurens says:

  February 15, 2008 at 14:05

  I reaaly like the Jawbone videos!

  Reply