The ad got a lot of interest. The advantages of being intentionally stupid. Or, never underestimate the American public. The Beware of the Doghouse ad was so well made, and pricey to produce that it took away from its net benefit. A lot of viewers, but it never had that quality where it could be fan-vidded with lots of parodies. It was called a viral success, but that term is misunderstood; the phrase to remember is Henry Jenkins and if it doesn’t spread its dead.” A cute ad, completely superficial, that followed formula, but nothing there to make an ongoing narrative of it. Just too slick and polished to contain a bubbling human element. Eventually, it easy to foresee that advertising will have product placement within the advertising.
Created by Saatchi & Saatchi New York in collaboration with Razorfish, the campaign is centered on the site, www.bewareofthedoghouse.com, and includes a humorous video displaying other men’s gift-giving failures. After watching the video, visitors to BewareoftheDoghouse.com can send an email warning or upload their loved ones into the “Doghouse.” Leveraging innovative, non-traditional marketing elements, the campaign uses Facebook Connect where Facebook users visiting the site can easily select “Doghouse” candidates from their friends list or send warnings to other friends. Men can be released from the “Doghouse” by purchasing the diamond jewelry gift selected on the site by the woman in their lives – or at their mercy with the click of a button. Read More:http://ir.jcpenney.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=70528&p=irol-newsCompanyArticle&ID=1297324
ADDENDUM:
Henry Jenkins:It is because of these empowered individuals, their new capacities, and their desire for social interactions that spreadable media is possible. If the technology was available, but society hadn’t undergone any cultural changes, we would still be operating exclusively under a sticky model. Benkler has observed that this new society gives “individuals a significantly greater role in authoring their own lives, by enabling them to perceive a broader range of possibilities and by providing them a richer baseline against which to measure the choices they in fact make.”
Consumers are choosing to be part of participatory culture in diverse and fluid ways. Forrester Research has developed a useful taxonomy of the types of participation that occur in networked environments; it starts with the most passive users and finishes with the most active participants that publish their own content at least once a month. Read More:http://henryjenkins.org/2009/02/if_it_doesnt_spread_its_dead_p_4.html