Viral Marketing and the Crypto forum, page 1

As a big fan of anything unexplained, mysterious or (especially) cryptozoological, I find the paranormal very interesting.

As a big believer in the possibility of something we have yet to discover I, like the rest of you, lap up something which is convincingly showing us something Above the Norm.

Now, times arise when, in order to make profits, companies use a type of advertising called Viral Advertising.
If you don't want to read the Wiki article I will spell it out: Viral advertising is a way of marketing a product by first generating hype for the product (by creating blogs, images, videos, pages etc etc), then getting people to spread it, and then finally revealing the product to a stunned and receptive market.

Viral advertising is an extremely entertaining thing. Some of you may have participated in the LOST Experience, which was a type of in-world advertising in which you gained a more in-depth knowledge of what the heck's going on in that show (I still don't know).
It is a revolutionary way of selling something, by doing practically nothing. Companies make a video, show it off, people say to their friends "Geez Dwight, there's a video of a huge puppet walking through downtown Iceland." (an actual video, dig around).
Dwight has a look, and laughs. Then he calls his friend and says "Oh my god that is too funny. Hey is it wearing jeans? What are those? Levi's."
And the campaign is complete.

Now alot of you may have recently seen the so-called Fallen Angel video on youtube depicting some filmmakers stumbling across some large, white feathers then finding a bald man hunching over in the bushes who turns to the camera.
YouTube has had a sudden influx of videos relating to fallen angels.
The first is the above one.
Number 2
Number 3 (though it does look cool
Number 4
and I think this is also connected.

Or if you have been around a little longer (or been through the forums) you will have seen my Killing the Colossus thread, in which I decided I had had enough of a campaign and was aided by a few of my peers here in taking it apart. It was actually marketing for the videogame Shadow of the Colossus.

As fun as these campaigns can be, they are a disruption to the board, and (I think in the Angel's case) possibly offensive.
I am not in anyway trying to dissuade members from posting links to something viral, they are often extremely well made and as I said before, entertaining. What I am doing though is saying very loudly...

BE CAREFUL!

Just because it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and smells like a duck, there's no reason it's not a platypus.
I refer of course to the newest addition to the boards, The Winged Indian Girl. Now it does appear to be real, and many members have posted extremely convincing evidence for her actual existence. However, others have posted just as convincing evidence for its fraudlence. Prominent among these is Byrd who said

In India, and particularly in the rural areas, babies born with strange anomalies become celebrities. Remember all the reports of babies being born with monkey tails (they aren't true tails with bone and muscle) or with extra limbs being associated with certain gods and taken to temples and so forth? A winged girl is someone who would be noted at birth (not hidden) and would still have thousands of people coming to visit her.

Common sense, and very true. A winged child in a rural part of a country which suffers from several unfortunate problems would have been recognised form birth and either become a revered member of society or shunned - however news of her existence would have gotten out.
While this saga still has to play itself out, we will see what we shall see upon its conclusion.

Continue to have fun and seek the truth, but in doing so you will be confronted by falsehoods. SEEK! Follow links attached to videos, put usernames into Google, use the title of the vid in Google.

Peace out, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!