The video follows a unique group of content that uses its universally funny antics to go viral. Other videos in this category are renowned like Charlie Bit My Finger and Hahaha. Both of these are on the top of the all time list.  Take into account as well the two above mentioned videos are the first of their kind, added in 2007 and 2006, which only compounds their views with a keyword search like “hahaha”.  

David’s trip to the Dentist will be one for the books already hitting 1.5 million after 2 days. Not hard to see when the clip is littered with Hollywood clichés to match anything written for a drug inclusive film genre. The excellent script delivered by a kid serves up a solid recipe for humor.

From a marketing perspective, if this video came across a desk of the brand manager for Colgate or Crest it should feel like a huge loss. While this is a very difficult category of content producers to contact for business, the relationship between the goals of toothpaste as a product and a trip to the dentist are plenty. Anyone can easily imagine a quick branded message fly by pre or post roll.

The whole situation of these extremely humorous videos popping out of the web’s long tail is what gives the online video popularity system its spontaneity. This category of popularity will always have its tricks. Unless people stop getting sacked or kids go mute YouTube will continue to farm out these beauties.

Cheers

The San Francisco company has launched a new viral effort it hopes will attract young men to pass along videos of customized “beasts” emerging from the button-fly of Levi’s jeans. At Unbuttonyourbeast.com, visitors can choose from nine different animated characters with names like Trout Troutman, Paul the Pincher and Sock Nasty, then customize the beast’s message by calling a toll-free number. The effort, unsurprisingly, is geared to young men just out of college.
 
The e-mail arrives with the subject “Do you dare to unbutton my beast?” Users can customize the message to friends. The default borders on the risque, reading, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, but I don’t want to freak you out. That’s why I’m sending my beast to do my dirty work.” Senders receive a confirmation e-mail that their message was sent — along with a 15 percent off coupon for jeans.
Source: Adweek

While the creativity and technical savy is definately there the interaction has some disturbing elements to it.  With a couple creatures appearing from the crotch of Levi’s 501 jeans looking like they just stepped out of B horror movie, it is unclear whether the young male target will really relate to this.  I bet some guys will get a kick out of it, but I would hazard a guess that most guys don’t relate their male member to a honkey tonk pig or a jewel wearing crab claw.

No one doubts that sex sells.  The ability for users to personalize the message by calling a toll free number has some appeal, but I’m not sure if girlfriends and boyfriends alike will appreciate the inivitable love note from the “Cookie The Cougar” character which looks like something out of Alien vs. Predator.

Time will only tell if Unbuttonyourbeast.com sees some viral success, but the saving grace for the site and the messaging is that this latest initiative is part of a broader itegrated campaign.  Would be players in social media take note.   

Levi’s has already seen some admittedly surprising results with the release of “Jumpin’ In” on YouTube with over 4.4 million views thus far.  “['Jumpin' In'] was supposed to be a small seeding activity,” said Robert Cameron, VP of Marketing, Levi Strauss, San Francisco. “We didn’t know it was going to blow up.”

The video is part of a series produced by Cutwater, the same people who produced the Ray-Ban “Catch” videos.  While no one at either the agency or Levi’s could have predicted its success the video has a universally appealing theme.  Backflips it seems resonate with young males and probably more so than crotch humor.

The positive take on these efforts is the willingness of Levi’s to jump in (no pun intented) to the new social media space as they try to reinvent a brand for their younger male target.  After all it is stories like these that inspired AboutViral.