This time last year Jonathan Schoenberg of TDA Advertising & Design conducted a guest lecture in Boulder, CO and smashed the disruptive cell phone of a student with hardly a pause in his sentence. Naturally, somebody recorded it.
The video is startling but not nearly as exciting as the one of the UCLA student getting repeatedly tased. Even so, in 12 months it’s made multiple public TV and news cameos on ABC Nightly News, MSNBC, CNN and O’Reilly Factor, not even counting appearances in New Zealand and Canada. To date it straddles nearly 3 million views and is the 16th most-discussed video ever.
Bummed-out TDA creative director Schoenberg admits the viral was staged, though this fact is eclipsed by the more popular sentiment that he’s simply pure evil. “The point was to show my students, and our clients, the power of ‘disruptive’ communication, and that it’s clearly done,” he explains. “However, there are now millions of people out there who think I’m a dick. That’s a big increase.” Other culprits include TDA’s Justin Horrigan and Ben James.
The last nail in the coffin? The uber-popular viral generated not a single unique visit – no, not one – to the TDA website, which generates little more than 60 visits per day. Go figure, considering the agency isn’t mentioned. Way to win ’em, tigers.
How on earth could a viral fail more? we wonder. Or is it actually a success swathed in really ugly trousers?
