Sylvester Stallone Blows up YouTube

Sylvester Stallone has taken to YouTube to promote his new movie, The Expendables. I won’t be queing up to see the film, but this is worth a watch as it’s a great example of a YouTube takeover – Stallone literally destroys the site.

The page looks exactly like the normal YouTube page except with a slightly blurry font and without the standard YouTube functionality – i.e. you can’t pause the clip, comment, etc. The best thing about this in my opinion is how the guys in the suggested videos panel interact with the main video. Stallone ordering you to ‘share’ the video at the end was also a nice touch.

Some recent YouTube takeover’s you might not have seen:

• Samsung 3D created the first YouTube takeover game
• Nintendo Wii Wario Land – Shake it
• Launch of Google Chrome

A Hell of an Interactive Pizza Ad

What could be more appetising for a pizza advert than zombies, blood and gore?

Called “Deliver me to Hell”, this “interactive zombie movie adventure” is more Dawn of the Dead that Four Star Pizza. You have to help Hell Pizza guy, Steve, deliver a pizza on the other side of town. You are given options in the video with new segments playing depending on the decisions you make. If you help Steve get to his destination in one piece you are entered into a draw to win a years supply of pizza.

Despite the questionable acting and the busty blonde who obviously has to shed down to a vest top whilst running for her life, this is one of the most entertaining pizza ads you’ll have seen in ages. It is also a really good example of making a pretty standard competition much more engaging.

Is it weird that this makes me miss New Zealand!?

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly PR Behind the BP Oil Spill

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest offshore oil spill in US history. BP have finally managed to put a temporary cap on the well which has spewed out between 94 million and 184 million gallons of oil into the sea.  The flow of oil is now stopped for the first time in 87 days. During that time, BP has been giving us all a lesson in how to make a bad situation worse through bad PR.

A review of what BP are doing on- and off-line to deal with the crisis… Continue reading »