The hit of the summer isn’t Gnarls Barkley’s "Crazy" – it’s advertising disguised as consumer generated media. 

With around six million users daily, YouTube is proving to be an irresistible draw for marketers looking to reach a youth demographic that spends less and less time with traditional media.

Last year, it was enough just to load up the best traditional commercials.  Nike Soccer’s Ronaldinho spot garnered more than 6.3 million views when it was posted in October 2005 , and is the 11th-most viewed video of all time on YouTube.  But look at the Top 10- seven of them are basically home videos.

So it was only a matter of time before Madison Avenue stepped in with what I call fake CGM. On Wednesday, Smirnoff released TeaPartay, an essentially unbranded video parody featuring rapping New England WASPs.  It points the viewer to www.teapartay.com (not currently live) to learn about Smirnoff Raw Tea, a new entry in the flavored malt beverage category. 

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal ran an investigative piece on Al Gore’s Penguin Army, an anti-Gore parody that was designed to look homemade, but which was ultimately back to DCI, a lobbying and PR firm that has close ties to Exxon and the Republican Party.  To judge by the comments on the site and in the blogosphere, the strategy of secrecy has clearly backfired.

I should admit that we were among the earlier practitioners of fake CGM.  Back in September 2004, Organic launched YuriInDaCab.com, an Ali G-inspired "personal homepage" of a mythical  Russian cab driver who listened to rap and worshiped Queen Latifah.  Yuri rapped to a 50 Cent hit (we thought of it first, Diageo!) and was part of an elaborate campaign to support Fox’s Taxi, an under-performing buddy flick featuring Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, and Gisele Bundchen.  The campaign preceded YouTube’s wild popularity- we seeded it with text ads buys on entertainment-oriented blogs and a paid placement on iFilm.

Does this stealth marketing work, or are we heading for a backlash?
(thanks Marita, Dave; image credit: Art Today Association)

Misha Cornes