Sports Stunts Mix Viral Video With Advertising

This new viral video from Pepsi (h/t to PR Daily) turned up on the Pepsi YouTube channel late last week (it’s already gotten more than 1.5 million views) with an invitation to viewers to check out the Diet Pepsi Facebook page for “more behind the scenes action” from Beckham’s advertising shoot for the soft drink. Clever way to drive traffic. And David Beckham is quoted saying that the stunt was real, so there’s the residual media coverage that also came with the clip.

The video follows in the footsteps of last year’s Gillette viral video starring tennis champ Roger Federer, who, while filming an ad for the company, smashed bottles off of the head of a crew member. Pepsi one-ups Gillette by actually having Beckham drink a Pepsi on-camera.

It used to be that the stunt itself was the ad. Remember the “Mars Blackmon”/Michael Jordan ads for Nike?

Or, more recently, this Tiger Woods ad, also for Nike.

But with viral videos, brands are giving customers, who may have DVRs that bypass traditional commercials, a little something extra. The brands are also getting some extra bang for their big spokesperson-spending dollars with these videos, which are collecting massive amounts of eyeballs online.

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