Even Procter & Gamble is looking to push the envelope with viral marketing, and has already underwritten online campaigns for mainstream brands like Folgers coffee, Crest toothpaste and Febreze fabric
spray. Perhaps the most provocative effort is a playful new campaign for ThermaCare heat wraps that asserts that men can suffer from menstrual cramps.
Known as "Men With Cramps," the
campaign is backed by an estimated $1 million budget. It includes two special Web sites, a fake documentary and video clips, all purportedly the work of an imaginary institute that is studying the
imaginary problem of "cyclical nonuterine dysmenorrhea" --i.e., men with cramps. The humorous approach of putting the shoe on the other foot arose from research that showed that women wanted men to
understand more deeply what it meant to have menstrual pain.
Major marketers believe they can take greater risks online because Internet users tend to be younger and more accustomed to
irreverent humor. Among other blue-chip advertisers running such viral campaigns are American Express, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor, General Electric, MasterCard, Nike, Office Depot,
PepsiCo, Unilever and Wendy's.
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