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The PETA strategy

Let’s take an objective, closer look at PETA’s concept, and touch on the controversy later. Firstly, the campaign is centered on the idea that vegan men enjoy certain “benefits” in the bedroom, and to illustrate this point, PETA has put forward the notion that their girlfriends and partners may be at risk of injury:

The main video parodies campaigns by other charities that raise awareness of domestic abuse against women, which is where much of the controversy arises. Taking the idea further, PETA created a series of video clips of actors portraying the partners of overly amorous vegans. While the main video has the production values of a TV commercial, these nine bonus “testimonials” have a distinct low-budget “filmed at home” appeal that specifically targets the YouTube audience. Together, these extra clips have received 75,000 views.

To complete its viral strategy, PETA launched a website called bwvaktboom.com, which everything mentioned above points to. Here we find all the testimonials, tips for BWVAKTBOOM sufferers, and most importantly, the charitable equivalent of what we in Inbound Marketing call a lead capturing device. In this case, it’s a mailing list registration form for information on how to live a vegan lifestyle.

Does it all work?

It’s hard to say without knowing the exact goals of the campaign, but as PETA is a non-profit organization, we can assume ROI isn’t measured in dollars. If the goal is one of awareness, 2 million views and all the media controversy is bound to have raised the profile of both PETA and veganism, and generated plenty of YouTube referrals to bwvaktboom.com. If even 1% of those 2 million viewers went on to sign up for the vegan information, that’s still 20,000 new email addresses, many of which can be considered “qualified leads” in Inbound Marketing terms and therefore receptive to future communications.

By these measurements, the campaign could well be judged a success if PETA was adhering to the “no such thing as bad publicity” adage. This is likely; PETA must have known that the concept would be controversial and risk painting its organization and veganism in a bad light.

With so many arguments for and against the campaign, and many aspects to the debate, it’s impossible for us to cast judgement upon the controversy without stating an opinion. Still, for all its success, one can’t help but observe that BWVAKTBOOM was a low brow marketing tactic from an organization with high ideals.

What the public says

Rather than hit the streets to ask public opinions, here’s a small sample of responses from YouTube viewers…

PrimalEarth says: “I don’t understand the reaction of all you meat eaters. Actually, the girl Jessica in the video comes across as an empowered woman totally in control of her life who knows what she likes and wants more.”

Aussie19862 says: “The problem isn’t that it’s offensive, it’s the pure rank hypocrisy of PETA’s attention-seeking sexing up of violence against women to sell an anti-violence message.”

IrishVeganBoy says: “Well done PETA! Already the video has nearly 2 million hits, and now almost 2 million people have heard the word VEGAN which has not been achieved on any pro-vegan video I have seen. Like it or lump it, sex sells and this is a great fun way to bring attention to a serious cause.”

SpanglySpam says: “Honestly, I couldn’t care less about the debate on veganism/vegetarianism/meat eating – but at what point is this kind of advertising even remotely OK? Sort yourselves out PETA. This is at best unfunny, and at worst makes light of domestic abuse.”

And finally…

“Haha my name is Jessica and I’m a vegan! Unfortunately, I haven’t had a vegan boyfriend yet so I can’t confirm what it says but I hope its true! I will report ”

Good luck on the vegan manhunt, Jessica!

Other recent controversial viral videos that just work

“Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus” is up to nearly 20 million views in the six weeks it’s been on YouTube. Like BWVAKTBOOM, it works because some aspects of its premise are controversial, but there the similarity ends.

“Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2” is quite inspired. Clever marketers use the abhorrent reactions of mothers who are, very earnestly, speaking out against the product. However, the target audience is one that wants to play a game that is horrifying, and definitely not something their mothers would like. The game itself is controversial, and perhaps so too is fooling the mothers into thinking they would be discouraging anyone from buying it.

Getting your own viral video

Read Filling Rooms with Facebook Fans – Inbound Marketing Case Study to see how we used Facebook to create a viral Social Media campaign without the controversy.

If you’d like a campaign based around YouTube, get in touch with Versio2 today – we’d love to discuss your ideas!