Wait! Wait! We Forgot the Viral!
So the Mullen creative department just finishes presenting their work for the New England Aquarium shark exhibit to the 12 year old AE they are forced to work with because, ya know, it's a pro bono-ish account and the little tyke says, "Well I like it but where's the viral component? Every great campaign has viral, right?"
The poor creative team stares at each other and sheepishly shakes their collective head because they know there's no point fighting with the tyke since he's like some annoying nightmare of nepotism. The team then goes out and creates the cheesiest of cheesy "viral" videos to layer on an otherwise excellent and well thought out campaign for the aquarium.
The result? A slew of wise-ass "that's fake" comments sprinkled with more than a few planted "that's great!" comments on YouTube. Come on. Mullen. You are better than this.
Comments
The entire campaign is pretty good, but you're right..the "viral" sucks. Decent idea, but the acting is so godawful and fake it crashes and burns.
Did you mention the part where the CCO goes on TV the day after the video launches to tell everyone how awesome we are for making it? Hint: it works better if you let people wonder.
This was not advertising for the Aquarium--it was advertising to Mullen. Basically a big "Look! We do viral!! Look, ma, big idea!!!!!
oof.
The "Shark Week" stuff done in the past is way better. This stuff feels studenty. And while it's pretty easy to go after sharks, the exhibition is also about "rays". Pretty week effort from a usually creative shop. Looks like this is the first work out of the gates from their new ECD from Goodby.