Ahhh there’s nothing like severe copyright violations, pathetic animation, mass violence and hearty libel to get your Friday, and your viral clip soaring like a grey goose. It is, however, unfortunate that these elements that put the “viral” in viral video can also put the “former” in former client if you execute a viral video idea that “takes risks.”
Take The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny for example. A great piece of online entertainment that, at first blush, may seem unusable in the marketing world with all the “risks” it takes (decapitation, silhouetted gushes of blood and Mister Rogers committing Hari Kari), but that would be missing the point. “The Ultimate Showdown” is great because of the audio track. The animation is crude, amateurish and possibly detestable, but with the audio in the mix, the poor quality animation becomes hilarious.
Sure, enthusiastically celebrating taboo is the HOV lane of viral entertainment. Those of us in the marketing world have to take a longer route in being virally clever. And with production dollars typically running too tight (or too skeptical of returns) for viral video the road to viral brilliance isn’t easy. Or is it? The “Ultimate Showdown” reminds us that not only is good audio cheap; it makes cheap visuals good. Want to do something viral without a lot of fuss? Focus the fuss you do have on the audio.
Brian Linder
When it comes to brands, imitation is the sincerest form of a lawsuit brewing. And desecration? Well it kind of cuts both ways. No matter how brilliant your brainstorms, no matter how locked onto your target you are, no matter how tightly your brand message is shaped and thought through and focus grouped, when you send that campaign off into the world there's no telling what kind of miscreant behavior it will attract. Sometimes it's a wonderful thing and sometimes an utter tragedy that the ad guys should have seen coming. 
