There are no legal limits on the number of quotation marks you can put around prose in this marvelous age of irony. Otherwise, our
homey "Jen" Aniston would be on her way to the "pokey" by now after the two and three-quarter minute Smartwater video that went "viral" yesterday only a day after it posted. Okay, I will stop. Aniston
stars with her patented 40-something adorableness in a viral video that sends up the viral video craze itself. Clipboard in hand, she admits that in "this day and age" it is impossible just to sell a
product straight. Now it needs to "go viral." The distinguishing aspect of this viral video is that of course it tells us it is striving to be viral.
Rather than just constructing a
one-giggle in-joke, the video pulls off the self-awareness well. Aniston breaks into a viral video's redubbing antics to start us off and introduces herself as "Jen Aniston," a clever bit of business
that establishes trust in the speaker and the conversational tone that makes the rest of the send-up work. She can't "just tell you that smart water is the smartest best tasting water that is out
there. I have to make a video that turns into a virus." Her nearby "internet boys" (cue the nerds) correct her. Cute pets, dirty dancing babies and a kick to the nuts ("apparently that is worth
100,000 hits") ensue. And of course the "Internet boys" have to suggest that they name this click through grab Jen Aniston's "Sex tape," because that is worth more traffic even than a kick to the
nuts.
The lesson here is that you can be irritatingly self-reflective in an ad if the parody aspect is executed seamlessly. But what is most striking about the ad is that while it satirizes
the conventions of viral video, the essence is traditional. It has genuine humor, including a self- effacing pop culture reference. A parrot calls Aniston "Rachel" and tells her he likes the
hair. And dirty dancing babies. Come on, that is ikky funny. But most of all it has a trustworthy celebrity endorser who sells the package, ironic remove and all. Although we miss "Jen's" buff
midriff in that last run of Smartwater print ads.