This isn't really a case of viral marketing as much as Compassion marketing, which is targeting a new market.
This would have been viral if instead of simply leaving keys on the ground, it encouraged you to "see if you can trick your friends" with the same set of keys, or a similar action element for you to push.
Mea culpa, but the point of the article still stands. I apologize for sidelining the conversation with a poor title.
To ask a (hopefully) better question, although I fear it may be too late for conversation in this thread- Is there a point where people start becoming less engaged in the world, because they're afraid that every action has a marketing angle behind it..
To quote Futurama-
LEELA: Didn't you have ads in the twentieth century?
FRY: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio... and in magazines... and movies, and at ballgames, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no sirree.
I worry that as people get more and more used to seeing an ad behind every action, they'll stop caring about the actions, and stop investigating..
Look at the ATHF scare.. Imagine if that were more common, but if it were actually a fake bomb, as the Boston Police had suggested..
As you go to open it, it screams "BOO! Too bad you didn't have life insurance. Go to Omahalife.com to get some"
This isn't really a case of viral marketing as much as Compassion marketing, which is targeting a new market.
This would have been viral if instead of simply leaving keys on the ground, it encouraged you to "see if you can trick your friends" with the same set of keys, or a similar action element for you to push.
Mea culpa, but the point of the article still stands. I apologize for sidelining the conversation with a poor title.
To ask a (hopefully) better question, although I fear it may be too late for conversation in this thread- Is there a point where people start becoming less engaged in the world, because they're afraid that every action has a marketing angle behind it..
To quote Futurama-
LEELA: Didn't you have ads in the twentieth century? FRY: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio... and in magazines... and movies, and at ballgames, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no sirree.
I worry that as people get more and more used to seeing an ad behind every action, they'll stop caring about the actions, and stop investigating..
Look at the ATHF scare.. Imagine if that were more common, but if it were actually a fake bomb, as the Boston Police had suggested..
As you go to open it, it screams "BOO! Too bad you didn't have life insurance. Go to Omahalife.com to get some"