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Viral Chart highlights – David Beckham launches new underwear range for H&M

By Mel Peck

February 14, 2013 | 4 min read

Last week The Drum Viral Chart, powered by VAN, was packed full of commercials for the US Superbowl, but as the aftermath of the game has finally started to subside we’ve seen some of the top brands move down the list to make way for a couple of new entries.

Trending this week, and entering the Viral Chart at number 2 is an ad from a little known American company called Shortline Dental, featuring popular interweb star, Sweet Brown. For anyone who somehow managed to miss the meme sensation's online debut back in April last year; she rose to fame following a particularly animated interview with a local news station after her apartment block caught on fire.

Of course, there is nothing YouTube loves more than fodder for a good old parody mashup and Sweet Brown soon became the subject of a string of trending remixes.

Following in the footsteps of the likes of Samsung and 4GEE, which both based ad campaigns on popular virals last year, the small family run business enlisted Sweet Brown to promote their dental services, clocking up nearly 4 million views in less than a week and catapulting the previously unheard of company into the viral limelight.

Also new in the chart and taking the number one slot in the most shared branded listings is the latest ad for H&M, featuring a scantily clad David Beckham tearing through the streets of LA in an attempt to retrieve his missing clothing from a car, (cue lots of shots of the football star running about in his pants and somehow managing to get even more naked in the process.)Despite being billed as a short film, there’s nothing about the format of the 1.4 minute spot to set it apart from any other standard ad campaign, but with famous names like Beckham and Richie on board, H&M has a pretty sure fire viral hit on its hands. David Beckham has also taken over the brands Twitter account, answering questions using the hashtag #AskBeckham that are directed to @HM.

Moving on from what’s been trending in the world of advertising; two words sum up what’s been trending in the world of user generated content this week – Harlem Shake! Just when Gangnam Style mania is finally starting to subside it looks like a new dance sensation is sweeping across the Internet.The craze started earlier this month after YouTuber, Filthy Frank, posted a clip of a couple of lycra clad guys dancing around a room to the tune of Harlem Shake by New York-based DJ Baauer. Unlike Gangnam style there’s no specific choreography as such, just a bunch of people going crazy to music but the video became an instant viral hit, spawning a string of increasingly elaborate interpretations, many of which have gone on to become even more popular than the original. According to YouTube around 12,000 Harlem Shake videos have been posted since the start of the month, collectively being viewed more than 44 million times.We had to filter most of the Harlem Shake videos out of the UGC chart otherwise the whole line up would have been dance spin-offs but here’s a playlist of some of the most popular clips.If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, here is the original video that started it all…

For the full round-up of top trending videos this week check out The Drum Viral Video Chart, powered by VAN or follow @JoinVan on Twitter for the latest viral updates.

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