In early 2007, “Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out” was uploaded onto Youtube. The six-minute clip features a bride (Jodi Behan) who is so unhappy with her hairstyle on her wedding day that she starts to cut her own hair. Within two weeks, the clip had been viewed over two million times and had reached the news media. A lot of debate erupted on whether this clip was real or in fact staged. After a month, the origins of the film were revealed. The whole thing had been produced by Toronto’s Capital C advertising agency to promote Unilever’s Sunsilk haircare prodcuts. Several more fake films had been planned but with the success of the first bridezilla, Sunsilk was able to use the phrase ‘wig out’ in their ad campaign.
This was an extremely successful use of YouTube to promote a product to customers. The term used is viral video. A viral video consists of a video clip that gains popularity through the process of internet sharing. This particular ‘wigged out’ video was initially only sent out to approximately twelve people. Internet celebrities are also created and promotion for products or music found in the clip is also found to gain popularity. John Griffith of Capital C advertising agency in Toronto stated,
It didn’t matter to us whether people believed it or didn’t believe it – just as long as they were watching it, sharing it with their friends and talking about it,
in regards to the Sunsilk viral video. However, promoting the Sunsilk product didn’t prove to be nearly as popular as the six minute video itself.
Jamile Badran
Jordan Laurin
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