another reason why I think its fake is what girl wants a Saab Convertible out of all the choices for $40k cars???

well, i've come across a few 'anti-beemer' types that find the fit and finish, as well as price/status (b/c that's what's it all about to them :rolleyes: ) of a saab comparable.

i wouldn't b/c i want rwd and some racing history in my cars but i do remember at one point, every rich kid in undergrad seemed to have a 3series or A4... there are always a few that want to stick out- those usually don't care ab performance...

after the recent saab article in grm, i actually want one too, just for its quirky-ness. at times i consider them an icon :D

I think the first one was quite real. The old man definitely had some parenting issues. Hell, how many times did he tell his son to turn off the camera, and the son replied that it's off? The guy has no authority over either. I'm reaching a bit here, but he appears to be the kind of dip***** that "buys" the kids' love; probably not involved in their lives one little bit.

I knew a couple of girls pretty close to this one. Twins, their daddy bought them matching Trans Am Firebirds on their 16th birthdays midway through our junior year in high school. They were pissed because they weren't Corvettes. They got the 'Vettes at graduation.

I saw these two at our ten year reunion. They are a large part of why it is the only one I have ever attended. Both were trolling for hubby number two or three at least, too fat but still trying to wear what they did in high school. Neither had gone on to college or made anything of themselves, and it looked like daddy had long since had enough. They were now looking for their next "daddy" to pamper them, as it was all they knew. Only problem was they were getting a bit past their shelf life, even in their late 20's, for many prospects. I felt sorry for their next targets.

Yep. The first Lamborghini Jalpa I'd ever seen was in the Beverly Hills High parking lot. :rolleyes:

Interesting marketing by Dominos. Too bad it's so stealthy, most people don't even realize it's all an ad, and just hate the girl. But it's certainly nice to be the guy in Lafayette, PA who supposedly picked up the red Saab for $9.99.

To add to dd's comment, when I was in highschool I was studying in the old, temporary Beverly Hills public library (before the current one was built). A kid (from Beverly Hills High) came in and went over to a table of friends. He was pretty excited to show them the new Rolls Royce he just got for his birthday. Maybe not my personal choice for 6-figure car to take home, but it was pretty swank nonetheless. Wish my parents were rich enough to have sent me to that school.

Color me stupid (pun intended), but I'm completely missing the Domino's connection...

Exactly, what is the pizza connection here? Is it that you can get a pizza for $9.99 too?

How does this help sell pizzas again?

Wealth really has nothing to do with who goes to Beverly. As Beverly Hills H.S. is a public school, it is legally bound to accept anyone within its portion of the Beverly Hills area. So, while there are Ferraris in the parking lot, I'm sure there are also some Festivas just a few spaces over. :D

Of course, the rumored exceptions to this rule were the select few black students who were bussed into BHHS from the other side of town. Supposedly, they were allowed into the school, but only to compete in the athletic program or play in the school band.

Again, that's just rumor...;)

www.anythinggoesdeal.com

at the end of one of the videos...

Having grown up in LA, I realize that. However, we didn't live in a Beverly Hills zip code. Real estate's not exactly cheap, there. I suppose we coulda done what others did/do: rent a sham apartment with a Beverly Hills address and claim that to be our place of residence.

Steve's link above explains it. But, in short, Domino's has a promotion going on right now, with some sort of tie-in to ebay. So in one her videos, the chick mentioned how she was going to sell her car for $9.99 (the price of a Domino's pizza) on Jan 1st through ebay. So, on Jan 1, apparently there was an auction for the car (presumably provided for by Domino's) on ebay. Each day, there are other (lesser) prizes that can be won, also through some sort of ebay tie-in. This is supposed to make us all want to buy lots of Domino's pizza.

If it taste better, I might buy, but I'll stick to my local family pizzarias, sure it cost more, but it taste so much better!!!

O.k., my son Chris explained this "viral advertising" thing to me. I guess that's why we send him to school... Anyway, the idea is to put something totally preposterous, intriguing, controversial, revolting, or whatever, but most importantly attention getting out on the web. Like Mackenzie. Get everybody following her exploits and talking about it like we are right here. Lead folks along for a period of time, with no apparnet purpose whatsoever. Then have her red car show up as the one in the Domino's promo, to keep the Mackenzie example going. Kind of a weird approach, but I guess when we have become so saturated with advertising, and so immune to it, the ad folks need to get creative. Sounds like the next logical step from product placement in the movies and on TV; now we have product placement in supposedly home made video sites like YouTube.

I ave devoted more time to this than anything I have seen on TV this week. I guess it works and I'm hungry.

Too much is never enough...!

Behind the Epidemic of Lousy Viral Campaigns
Me-too-itis Hobbles Too Many Marketers' Efforts
By Scott Donaton

Published: January 08, 2007

Most of the online viral campaigns you hear about and see these days have one thing in common: They suck.
Folgers' toleratemornings.com is one example of a bad idea turned into a viral campaign. Georgia-Pacific's Brawny Academy, Nissan's living-in-a-Sentra, and Hewlett-Packard's skunk let loose in a coffeehouse video are others.


On the surface, this isn't surprising. Most of everything sucks, from films to books to TV shows to, of course, ads. Which is why those that don't tend to stand out.

Desperation
But too many of these sponsored viral-video (and fake-blog and social-networking) thingies really, really suck, and there's a reason for that: They are not the end result of an actual idea or strategy but are born of a desperate desire to do something, anything, in the new-media space.

Yes, it's the dreaded "GMOOT" syndrome, short for "Get me one of those," the basic command from CEOs to CMOs or CMOs to their agencies. It sounds oversimplistic, but if you get a few drinks into a marketing exec, he'll admit that at some point he's been directed to do something because his boss read about it in Ad Age or saw that a rival company was doing it or was told by his neighbor during the commute in from Greenwich that he had to get in the game.

'The boys on the 6:12'
I first noticed this circa 1995, when the cry was, "Get me a website!" Why? "I don't know, because everyone's got one." A few years later it was, "We need to do something in branded entertainment!" Great, what's the concept? "How do I know? I just want to be able to tell the boys on the 6:12 that we're on the cutting edge. They're all doing it." You could probably trace this all the way back to Adam, who bit the apple because Eve did. It was a bad idea then, and still is today.

For a prime example, pull up your browser right now (I'll wait) and type in toleratemornings.com. This is Folgers' attempt to appear cool and ironic by offering slow risers such appealing goodies as a wake-up call on their mobile phone from "Lucy," billed as a "sexy way to rise and shine (for the fellas)," or a "boss tracker," in case you want to catch a few z's at your desk. The fact that it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek makes it somehow sadder, like a dad trying to act cool in front of his teenage daughter's friends (aside to my daughter, Molly: Sorry).

You can imagine the pitch meeting: "So people will come to the site and get a good laugh and realize that we understand them and how much they hate mornings, and the next time they're in a grocery store, they'll buy Folgers brand coffee because they'll see it as another tool to help them tolerate mornings." What you can't imagine is someone signing off on it.

Bad ideas gone viral
It's somewhat unfair to single out P&G's Folgers, though, because there are plenty of other bad examples, including Georgia-Pacific's Brawny Academy, Nissan's guy who lived in his car for a week and Hewlett-Packard's viral video for its "Over the Hedge" tie-in showing a skunk let loose in a coffeehouse.

Of course there have been some hits as well. Chevy's willingness to allow negative user-generated ads for its Tahoe stands out, as do Axe's brilliant Gamekillers and the hilarious Shave Everywhere site for Norelco's Body Groomer.

As with ads in any medium, those that work are those that start with an insight, show an understanding of their target audience, and have an authentic, relevant connection to the brand. Those that don't smack of having been produced because someone wanted to do a viral video to please himself, his boss or his board. They're the commercial equivalent of YouTube videos of kids falling off skateboards.

I've loudly encouraged experimentation with new media forms, and believe marketers are better off taking risks than they are sitting around waiting for industrywide standards and measurement metrics to catch up. Permission to fail is essential. But none of these forms will earn respect as a legitimate marketing tool until it's approached with respect and discipline. Doing something just to do something still leads to nothing.

Just watched the video with my 11 year old daughter, her comments "is this real"

Spoilt brat, lots of parenting issues here...

Arthur

Only thing that made me think it was real was having caught an eposide on MTV of some pathetic sweet 16 birthday show. Anyone ever seen this?

The kids were acting EXACTLY like that. Something about how her dad had better get her a Beemer cause she wasn't gonna drive no Audi. If she ended up with an Audi she was gonna kick her dads a$$.

Uh huh.

I still hope that was fake also.