One of the common techniques of advertising that we discussed was the ability of an ad to be disguised so that the viewer would not know that they were watching an ad. Well, this just happened to me. Ages ago, I saw this video on YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XH7p3xWyv7g&feature=user
It shows a girl being given a car for her birthday, then proceeding to throw a tantrum because it wasn’t the right color. The video is hilarious (and tragic), and I was just watching it again when my friend looked it up on Wikipedia and discovered that the entire thing was staged by actors as an ad campaign for Dominos pizza. Apparently, there were sequels to the video made, in which the girl finally gets the right car, then sells the old one on eBay for $9.99. In the last video, she announces that she used the money to buy a Dominos pizza. I’d totally been had.
But seriously, what an interesting idea for an ad campaign. And how appropriate, given today’s media climate. It’s typical of advertisers to use particular cultural trends as a canvas for advertising: graffiti ads, the Nike swoosh shaved into the back of heads, etc. In the age of YouTube, why not disguise an ad as a YouTube video? It’s really brilliant, I have to admit.