Here’s a kind of random question; What’s up with the marketing for The Change-Up? No, I’m not referring to those posters seemingly designed to insult both women and babies but rather the decision to have both stars, Jason Bateman and Ryan Reynolds, repeatedly talk about how stupid the plot is.

So you’re trying to get viewers to know about the launch of Fox Crime, a Spanish channel dedicated to series like Dexter and Law and Order. What’s a memorable way you can get the name to stick in people’s heads? Well, if you’re the ad agency, Bungalow 25, the answer is simple; you dress up a mannequin to look like a dead body, sink it in a popular scuba diving location, and let it scare the ever living crap out of some divers.

As marketing execs have attempted to make their viral marketing progressively more and more outrageous, it was inevitable that someone would go to far. That’s just what happened in Los Angeles this past week as a fan-made memorial dedicated to the late singer Elliott Smith was defaced all in the name of selling tickets to an upcoming concert. Unsurprisingly, some people aren’t too thrilled.

For some fairly inexplicable reason, the 2010 Census – that Constitutionally-mandated accounting of the American population that has happened every ten years since 1790 – has become a whipping boy for anti-government activists. Michele Bachmann, a member of said government, told Fox News that she wouldn’t fill out her form because of how “intrusive” it [...]

Why is CNN trying to go viral in an ad campaign targeting Adult Swim viewers? It can’t be to sell their iPhone app – can it? For those too busy or important to click the link, the ad purports to be from two guys (pictured here) from Muncie, Indiana, whose iPhone app idea, Zap News, was stolen by CNN.

This is the kind of viral marketing that executives dare not even dream about. In fact, while outlets like Gawker have come under fire for their use of sponsored content like Bloodcopy, the folks behind AMC’s “Mad Men” are reaping huge PR dividends for free. Their personalized icons have swept over Twitter like a nuclear daisy.