New 2008 Buick Model Makes Bootleg Premiere

A division of General Motors Corp. admitted to posting a faux-bootleg video on YouTube of their newest 2008 model, the Buick Enclave, a crossover utility vehicle. This was the carmaker's first taste of the viral marketing phenomenon. The instant hit immediately showed up on popular automaker sites such as Jalopnik and Autoblog who posted links to the video.

Another star, golf-pro Tiger Woods was in the video as well on the golf course, approaching the car, and playing in front of it. The never-before-seen video was a 60-second clip full of wobbly camera shots, grainy images, and poor quality sound according to an article on monstersandcritics.com. The video can be viewed below.



The meaning behind the bootleg posting was to create excitement for Enclave's world introduction at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month (Nov.28), David Darovitz, Buick spokesman told the Detroit News.

It also engaged readers with numerous comments.

One Jalopnik reader, "captain slow," said:
"viral works great when the product is exciting, eagerly anticipate, and has pent up demand. this product is the answer to the question no soccer mom bothered asking...it's just not exciting except as the punch line of a joke

so two buicks walked into a bar...."

"We wanted to do something different," the spokesman, David Darovitz, said. "The idea was to make it look like a video stolen from an advertising shoot. We knew we weren`t going to fool anybody. We just wanted to do something different that would create buzz."

The idea is a prime example of why Google will probably find more profit making ways out of its open-source posting site, YouTube. Many brands, mentioned in previous posts, such as Chevrolet, Subway, and most recently the movie ",Borat," have abused the site for generating buzz and consumer appeal, for no media placement cost. I think Google will catch on and find a way to charge fees for such a promotion. Until then though, I think we will see more brands utilizing the free high reaching site to promote products and services.