We all know about viral marketing. Or at least we should. By 'we' I mean the people in this class. Cloverfield used fake MySpace pages for its characters and fake company websites vandalized by fake protest groups for months preceding the opening of the J.J. Abrams film. The Dark Knight had many different sites including "I Believe in Harvey Dent" and "Rory's Death Kiss" floating around the internet advertising jokers and political promotion. And most recently District 9 ventured off the internet and onto the streets using "Humans Only" posters on bus stops and bathrooms to advertise the sci-fi film.

Now the viral marketing idea is being used in a somewhat different manner. Not that the television phenomenon "Glee" needs any help in promoting itself in the United States and Canada, but in the past couple weeks I have been seeing YouTube videos of different flash mobs in countries across the ocean in an attempt to promote the series.

Flash mobs are sometimes used in protest, to confuse, or sometimes just for fun, for instance silent discos. Using the flash mob to promote, in this case is very entertaining because it uses the musical performance appeal of "Glee" and brings it, unexpectedly, into real life. Though sometimes the meaning behind a flash mob can be ambiguous, the promoters who organized this flash mob wanted "Glee" to be the obvious force behind the impromptu dance party.

The advertising goes even further than the small amount of people who were actually present, as the mob was obviously filmed by a crew in order to be placed on the internet. Any "Gleek" would likely stumble across this video and then pass it around. Its high amount of views would likely put it on the front page of YouTube and others will see it and show it to their friends. It's an incredible way of advertising using live performance that is also uploaded to the internet to promote a television show. Enjoy the Rome Flash Mob here:



Photo via AxTragedyxFilled on DeviantArt

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