Viral e-mail marketers are discovering what traditional TV, print, and radio advertisers have known for years: humor, like sex, sells. So a handful of them are trying to tickle consumers' funny bones
with e-mail jokes that they hope will be forwarded from friend to friend. Such viral marketing has been growing for several years, but recently it has taken off thanks to rising penetration of
broadband high-speed Internet services. New digital technology has helped marketers craft even more elaborate and entertaining pitches, according to ad experts. One successful example was launched
earlier this year by the jobs Web site CareerBuilder.com, when it launched a Web site that let visitors construct a humorous video e-mail featuring a chimp with a customized message. The e-mails were
meant to drum up pregame hype for two Super Bowl TV ads the company was running featuring chimpanzees jumping around an office. CareerBuilder.com sent introductory chimp e-mails to between three
million and four million registered CareerBuilder.com users, with instructions on how recipients could construct and forward their own chimp-mail. Now, five months later, the monkey e-mails are still
circulating. So far, CareerBuilder.com says, 44 million monkey e-mails have been played and more than 6.5 million unique visitors have logged on to the site.
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