The Doghouse: A Marketing Video That's Gone Viral and Why

Anyone who's ever been in a relationship can relate to these situations, although there surely will be some (men) people left wondering "But what's so bad about giving a vacuum as an anniversary gift?"

The Doghouse came to me from women friends, it came in a direct message on twitter, and more than one male friend sent it with a note "I know you'll love this." And that, in a nutshell, is what makes a viral. One friend saying to another "I know you'll get a kick out of this..relate to this...etc."

Doghouse Rolled
I actually was interested in seeing whose ad it was and what they were selling. That's not something that happens every day! But I certainly never expected J.C. Penney Jewelry to be the creator, or to be so hip. Bravo!

I even got "Doghouse Rolled" this morning on Twitter by my pal Albert Maruggi.

Potential problem: The Doghouse, which is how people will look this video up on Google, is already the name of lots of other sites. I betcha at least one is porn.

Note to agencies - none of the emails from friends and acquaintances had the subject line: "new viral campaign launches next week."
Posted by By B.L. Ochman

Update: NY Daily News: "You got me what?! Gifts like blenders, cleaning supplies could lead to a breakup: survey"
Related: Can You Guess Which Pitch is a Real Viral? Agencies Can't!

B.L. I LOVE it! It's viral for so many of the right reasons. It doesn't have JC penny stamped all over it. It has the consumer all over it.

I could care less about the Doghouse video, I've been elevated to "my pal" after BL and I started out in a fiesty animated twitter exchange on politics.
This means:
1) I'm out of the BL doghouse and,
2) on my way to the ultimate objective of sharing our fun, fiesty exchanges on a panel. One day, I can dream can't I?

Ok off to JC Penny, hmmmm I wonder if they have anything in initials?

BTW - I tweeted this JC Penny video with the line For men only - now why would BL open that? :>)

Speaking of "viral": it's interesting to see that contents "go viral" (as you wrote, they aren't built viral) when the content can be easily embraced by the user's personal brand.
David Armano defines it as the brand U.0.
When traditional brands succeed in embracing U.0 brands providing them attractive content, personal brands help spread the content and making it viral.
The viral dynamics help traditional brands to target directly to the end consumer through U.0 / personal brands.
What do you think about this?
Here's my recent post about it. http://stefanomaggi.blogspot.com/2008/12/aggregate-and-target-what-happens.html

Hi BL,

Thank you for making me smile. This video was a hoot. This video is so cool.

I can not believe JC Penny pulled this off without totally messing it up.