Movie Viral Will Pimp Your MySpace Profile
A new campaign for parody flick "Date Movie" takes a page from last year's online viral hit for "Wedding Crashers".
A new campaign for slapstick flick “Date Movie” takes a page from last year’s Crash the Trailer online viral hit for “Wedding Crashers”. Only this time it’s not the movie trailer that viewers are crashing, but their own MySpace profiles.
The campaign, courtesy of agencies Deep Focus and Organic, uses original video shot for the Web to capture its target audience at two sweet spots: their deep love for midget humor and their even deeper love for MySpace.
The interactive experience begins on a section of the official movie site, where video footage of dwarf actor Tony Cox (who plays the character Lil’ Hitch in the film) addresses site visitors directly and promises to trick out their lamentably bad MySpace profile.
“Do your parents tell you your profile is neat?” he asks. “Are you getting a bunch of messages from prisoners? Well today’s your lucky day. Your problems are about to vanish, because I’m gonna pimp your profile. Now step aside and let the master take over.”
The viewer is then asked to enter a MySpace ID, and after they do so the site displays their profile. Hitch’s head, relegated now to a sidebar, flings a number of insults before offering to pimp out the page.
“Your profile’s as bland as the Clay Aiken Christmas CD,” is one of his barbs. “That profile’s got more issues than a Pitt-Jolie baby,” is another.
Users who click “Hitchefy Me!” are then shown a version of their own profile with elements from the movie inserted. In one such pimping, the profile owner’s photo is replaced with that of Alyson Hannigan , who stars in the movie. In another, the profile’s wallpaper is swapped with a landscape of balled up tissues that’s a taken from the film’s promotional materials. Users can download the “hitchables” to add them permanently to their profile.
“This is the kind of thing that a lot of folks talk about,” said Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus. “If you’re really going to put video online, let’s make an effort to create… things that are crafted specifically for the medium.”
The viral undertaking is supported with a video banner campaign, also starring Hitch, and “forward to a friend” function. Other video banners promote the film itself and don’t mention Pimp My Profile.
