Pepsi gets revenge on blogger who revealed its ad to be a fake, with an awesome REAL ‘Test Drive’ sequel
Video data compiled by the VAN team.
Top trending viral ad campaigns:
Back in March last year, Pepsi scored a massive viral win with its hilarious Test Drive prank video. The ad featured NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon, disguised as a potential customer and taking an unsuspecting car salesman on a terrifying joy ride. It clocked up over 40 million views, becoming one of the most shared branded videos of 2013. Unfortunately for Pepsi though, one rather eagle eyed blogger spotted a few inconsistencies with the video and pulled the whole ad apart, publicly declaring it as a fake.Travis Okulski, contributor to popular auto blog, Jalopnik, was very vocal with his opinions, writing a scathing article about the campaign and giving several media interviews claiming that everyone involved were actors and it was actually a stunt man driving the car. Obviously Jeff Gordon and Pepsi were a bit annoyed. So much so, that one year later they decided to get their own back with a stunt that even Okulski couldn’t claim was a fake.Also trending this week is a thought provoking promotional ad for world famous acrobatic group, Cirque du Soleil. Narrated by popular YouTuber, Ze Frank, the video offers an insightful and moving take on the importance of trust, delivered through a mesmerising acrobatic performance.It’s interesting to see Ze Frank, who is best known for his True Facts series, getting involved in a commercial project and it marks an increasing trend of popular YouTube content creators working with brands on promotional campaigns.
Elsewhere in the listings; an amusing new ad for Snickers shows that Godzilla can actually be a pretty fun friend (as long as he’s not hungry); Pizza Hut has unveiled an interactive concept table that could change the way we order take out; and Lipton has partnered with the Muppets in a new global campaign to get the world drinking more tea.
At number two, Jean-Claude Van Damme continues his quest to become the most epic man in the world in a brilliant zero gravity spoof of his splits stunt.
Also worth a watch this week… an awesome rap music tribute to Breaking Bad; amazing footage of a baby pelican learning to fly and an amusing look at how humans would appear if they started acting like cats.
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