totallyMAd – The Blog

Can Smart Water and Jen Aniston go viral?

The marketing gimmick of the moment is viral videos. How we all wish we knew the secret, fool-proof ingredient to make those internet videos go viral, because of course, by now we should know that you can’t ‘make’ a viral video – you’re just lucky if it happens.

Glaceau Smart Water parodiesthis idea in its latest internet video. Jennifer Aniston is the star, as in the other Smart Water ads, but this time she tells the audience, “I’m here to talk to you about Smart Water. But in this day and age, I can’t just do that, can I? I have to make a video apparently that turns into a virus.” And so begins Aniston and the directors’ plight to find the key to making their video go viral. Cue lip-syncing kids, cute puppies, dancing CGI babies, a ‘double rainbow’ and even kicking a guy in the crotch (because “that should be worth about 100 000 hits.”).

However, the clincher is when Aniston drinks suggestively from a Smart Water bottle, resulting in the would-be viral video being called ‘Jen Aniston’s Sex Tape’. Seems the idea that sex sells is never far from marketers’ minds

Interestingly, trawling through YouTube, although the video has been posted several times, it has yet to get more than a few hundred views. So, is Smart Water trying too hard? Can consumers see too clearly that this is an ad trying to be funny and go viral? After all, most viral videos like said ‘double rainbow’ was never meant to be an internet hit, which Smart Water clearly hopes its video will be.

Clever idea and certainly pertinent commentary on the ludicrousness of viral videos, but is this a hit or a miss?