• by May 10, 2004

FORD'S VIRAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN THAT'S NOT UP TO SNUFF (ACTUALLY, IF YOU THINK ABOUT, IT ACTUALLY IT IS) - The Riff's seen some pretty disturbing videos come through its inbox over the past year - cats caught in ceiling fans, pigeons fragmented by major league baseball pitchers in mid-flight - but a new viral marketing effort purported to have been created by Ford agency Ogilvy & Mather tops them all. What makes this video so chilling, is that unlike other videos that supposedly show freak harrowing, occurrences of animal traumas, this one was concocted for the purposes of marketing a car.

The video begins with an orange tabby pussycat strolling through a bucolic suburban neighborhood when it comes across a small blue car - a Ford SportKa to be exact - parked in a driveway. When the car's sunroof mysteriously opens automatically, the feline leaps onto the hood and pokes its head into the open sunroof to see what's inside. The sunroof immediately begins to close, trapping the cat by its neck and within an instant, decapitates it. It is truly horrifying, as the cat's lifeless torso slides off the car.

According to urban legends site Snopes.com, the authenticity of the video still is subject to debate, but the latest iteration has Ford blaming Ogilvy for "going ahead with a concept the client didn't approve and proclaiming shock that the concept was fully developed into a finished spot anyway (and then somehow 'leaked' to the Internet)."

The site said Ford's European operations and its Ogilvy team considered, but rejected the concept for the viral campaign, but that an alternative version showing a pigeon crashing into the sunroof was chosen instead.

"It was done as a proposal somewhere deep down in the bowels of the agency," Ford said. "As soon as we saw it we said absolutely not. We are appalled - this is not something we want to be associated with."

The automaker and the agency reportedly have ordered a full investigation into the matter, and a spokesman said assured that the video kitty decapitation was computer generated and that no animal was harmed, reported Snopes, adding, "However, some cynics have suggested that nothing 'backfired,' and Ford got exactly what it wanted - an effective 'viral marketing' campaign that attracted a good deal of attention to their new SportKa model through the controversy it generated."

According to Europe's Brand Republic site, the campaign "has been the most written about piece of advertising during the past month." When the Riff ran a Google search about the campaign, it generated 514 references.