Viral Marketing at its Best…or Worst

“Advertising on the moon?”

I heard a friend utter this as we were driving through a highway in Southern California. I turned around thinking, surely he read it wrong.

Sure enough, there it is. A giant billboard telling me to look at the next full moon, because apparently Rolling Rock Beer has gotten the rights to it!

Ever the skeptic, I pulled out my phone and Googled it only to find that it has been deemed impossible, or at the least impractical, to advertise anything on the moon.

Just another example of how viral marketing does its trick.

Viral Marketing is a simple strategy that relies on natural human behavior. Something as off-the-wall as advertising on the moon is sure to generate more word of mouth than your standard commercial featuring scantily-clad and busty females. People see the billboard, many do what I did and immediately seek the answer to their incredulity, but more tell a friend. “Hey did you hear Rolling Rock bought the moon?” Such publicity is priceless in the marketing world.

Though as I found out I was indeed correct in assuming that it was NOT possible at this time to advertise on the moon, I couldn’t help but feel a little stupid. I clearly fell into the trap the marketing folks over at Rolling Rock set for me. This made me wonder, how do I feel about viral marketing?

Marketing in general can be considered a fairly dirty business, and those who hold in high esteem their lack of gullibility would find viral marketing the most reprehensible of strategies. In good conscience however, can we really be angry for being outsmarted? On some level the folks who decided to work with human nature rather than against it deserve at the least a high five, at the most the obscene salaries some of them earn. Rather than being irritated at being outsmarted, I’m more likely just thinking, “Gee…wish I’d thought of that first.”

Though just like most things that work well, viral marketing may turn out to be a short lived fad. Perhaps we’ll all wise up to their schemes and not bat an eye when Marlboro claims to have exclusive rights to advertising space on the Loch Ness monster.

In the meantime, to support the fellow who outsmarted me, I’m going to buy a six pack.