noscruf – in your dreams, stubbly boy

as i wrote about the cosmos hitech fetish viral microsite just a couple of days ago, here is another one: noscruf.org – “national organization of social crusaders repulsed by unshaven faces” telling a more detailed fictional story.

“created by gillette as part of a viral campaign to promote its new electric razor, the fictional organization ‘protests’ men who go unshaven (encouraging them to use the new razor, of course). the campaign is classic viral. it uses humor promote an otherwise ordinary product and catchy, tongue-in-cheek video clips have been seeded on youtube to make it easy to watch and pass along.

“what if all women stop shaving? […] itchy, scratchy, prickly […] you want to get close to me and you don’t wanna shave? in your dreams, stubbly boy!”

that’s the way viral microsites normally work – make a cheesy/arty website, tell a funny/good story, spread the word out (called “seeding”) and create some buzz … summarized briefly.

it’s not an easy job for advertisers/marketers nowadays to gain people’s attention but viral marketing is surely the “2.0 way” to do it. but the idea comes first and creative ideas mostly don’t appear from nowhere, it is still hard work and i appreciate gillette’s witty effort – even if i’m not going to buy their electric razor.

viral microsites are just a small part of what viral marketing really is and i would like to explain it more detailed (i wrote my diploma thesis about it) but i have to get back to work right now and try to write more about the theoretical background in the future – post by post.

(via womnibus weekly / subscribe for womma newsletters)

[tags: gillette, noscruf, viral, viral marketing, viral microsite, campaign, womma]