Rolling Rock’s shameful attempt at Viral Marketing
Recently, the giant billboard outside my window that sits atop Jillian’s was changed to something new:
I thought, “What the hell is this advertisement talking about?” But, sure enough, the “Beer Ape” video appeared on YouTube that same day.
What a dumb commercial. Seriously.
It’s hardly even controversial, and it’s unlikely that it would have even been “banned” from TV.
The video claims to have come from Friends of Rolling Rock, a blog-looking site that appears to be “followers of the rock”. Too bad the website states right at the bottom “© 2006 Latrobe Brewing Co., Rolling Rock® Beer, St. Louis, MO”. The domain is registered to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a marketing company with clients like Anheuser Busch and Comcast.
What is really embarrassing, though, is the all the dummy YouTube accounts they created to post positive reviews of the video. Some of these have already been deleted, and comments I tried to post on the video were also deleted.
stobosky Funny! Too bad it was banned.
Videos Watched: 0
ccostelnock Love the Beer Ape!
Member Since: 1 day ago, Videos Watched: 2
sdildarian funniest thing i’ve ever seen in my life.
Videos Watched: 2
ebrockbeer Ron Stablehorn should be fired [...]
Member Since: 13 hours ago, Videos Watched: 0
rossi1262 Whoever designed this ad is an absolute pioneer to the marketing world [...]
Member Since: 5 hours ago, Videos Watched: 0
zachsoccer12 Wow! Simply amazing! I am glad I took the time out of my [...]
Member Since: 4 hours ago, Videos Watched: 1
December 5th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
This campaign did exactly what it was designed to do
February 16th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Rolling Rock - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OqpR5afbWI