There’s a bit of a trend developing in the US. Marketers are creating spoof documentaries in the hope that the videos will go viral, but also in the hope that traditional media outlets will take the stories seriously and report on them as if real.
The Hi-Tec ‘Liquid Mountaineering’ video is a good example. The documentary about some crazy Europeans and their new sport was reported as real news by NBC in Washington. A nice bit of earned media for Hi-Tec and it resulted in the spoof soaring up the viral charts, attracting 2.5 million views in one week alone.
Another piece of earned media involves the far right nit wit Bill O’Reilly of Fox News going berserk over a French TV ad for McDonald’s. O’Reilly ranted and raved about the ad which shows a clueless father trying to connect with his gay son in a McDonald’s. This ad also climbed the viral charts in the US, proving O’Reilly spectacularly wrong. He said it would ‘never’ play in America. Maybe someone should tell him about this thing called the Internet?

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