Viral Video is Dead. Thanks for the Memories.

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Marketers have the tendency to take things that people love, exploit it, and rip out its soul.

Viral Video began as an expression, an outward signal of a relationship with a brand. 

Then it became a vehicle for attention, not entirely stripping the product of its soul, but the producer grew mindful of a profit beyond self expression.

http://media.revver.com/broadcast/27335/video.mov/13970

But, now, a "viral video" has become less an assertion of the individual, but an opportunistic grab for attention or money.  It has quickly, at the hands of feeble-minded marketers, devolved into just another intrusion, just another version of shady salesman trickery, an illusion of brand evangelism, rooted in the hunger for fame or money.

http://www.jumpcut.com/media/flash/jump.swf?id=3CD2F090597511DB98FA2EF149F8C96D

So, let's leave the viral video terminology for the shysters, the me-first marketers playing the numbers game.

But for those of us concerned with fostering true brand evangelism, how about we stop conflating these expressive gestures with those looking to exploit more cheap space.  They are not the same.  The buzz around viral video will only turn off our biggest fans, and poison our brand relationships.  So, to me, Viral Video is dead, like any other pompous agency-suit buzzword.  Long live the brand evangelist.  Let's leave 'em alone, let them do what they do best, and be there with open arms when they need us.