The video that Diesel produced for its worldwide Dirty 30 Anniversary party tours the blog world today. And is fun. As Greg points out, it might not be super in line with their global marketing strategy, but that’s the great thing about viral marketing, it’s an ice-breaker that makes your consumers and prospects talk about your brand. Think Ray Ban, Levi’s and Cadbury’s.

You won’t start your weekend smarter thanks to this post, but hey, at least it should put you in a good mood to kick it off. Fallon has re-worked the award-winning ad to Total Eclipse of the Heart. Super efficient. Airing tonight on Channel 4 (UK) for the finale of Big Brother (I can’t believe they still have that show on!)

Weezer’s video of the song “Pork and Beans” is all about Virality. And it is viral itself, because it gathers just about every YouTube superstar out there and if you are one of the millions of people who saw these blockbusters, you will find it funny. You can download the video here if you’d like.

Go stupid, go crazy seems to be the moto. This is the kind of stuff that either impresses us or makes us laugh, not done with actors but with real people. The formula seems to work with either spontaneous or enacted videos.

Viral videos are a consequence of the liberation of the web, which began with the creation of free platforms that allowed the mass creation of written, composed, filmed, photographed work. Today’s users spend millions of hours viewing stuff other people uploaded. Maybe it is just a matter of human nature. We like to laugh at crazy stuff, at the ridicule. We even laugh at our own mistakes and life’s bloopers.

This is an ever growing spiral of user-generated information, and it’s getting better. Users are finally seeing what they really want and the one way information flux era is behind us.

And this is helping the Web in becoming more like us and a better place to hang around.

Short background: a user posted a video on YouTube of what seemed to be a glitch in the Tiger Woods ‘08 game, allowing the player to stand on water. AE posted that video response. Genius.

It’s safe to say the online advertising realm has accepted the use of viral video as a regular tool in their digital arsenal. But what happens when a viral campaign goes too far and induces fear? Slate examines an interesting case of a series of videos by Cardo Systems doing just that. Featuring cell phones popping popcorn, the videos have managed to create a mini-hysteria due to old fears that cell phones cause cancer. Another result has been over 10 million views to date. Although viral is not supposed to induce a halcyon reaction, is the outcome of Cardo’s campaign such a bad thing? Does negative PR from a viral campaign equate to bad PR when the conclusion is increased traffic and attention? You tell me.

Be the first one to upload a movie of the unboxing of an highly-expected new gizmo and the YouTube video will spread in the blogosphere faster than bedbugs in a Williamsburg loft. That one is actually efficiently funny.

Do the events and characters depicted in this hilarious video look familiar? Yeah, me too.

And it’s pretty hot. Watch the behind-the-scene footage online. If you have the attention span of a goldfish, more info in my previous post.

When I was a kid in France, brands and TV channels were competing every year to hammer me and the rest of the population with their own one-hit summer song. I guess that some smart art directors would travel to South America during winter to scout local bands with potential mass-market success and fly them to Europe to record the promising tune in studio, before touring popular cheezy music shows. Oh and just to make sure that you have been exposed to the song, an excerpt of the music video would be broadcasted by the sponsoring TV channel between every single show, every hours or so.

Orangina and TF1 gave us the Lambada in 1989 and sold 3.5 millions albums, France 2 sponsored the Carrapichio; that’s how we over-dosed Los Del Rio’s Macarena, Ricky Martin’s 1-2-3-Maria, Bellini’s Samba De Janeiro, Las Ketchup’s Asereje and so on…

Ten years later, Converse does the same trick, but for hipsters. To celebrate the brand’s Century, they put together the talents of Pharrell Williams, N.E.R.D., Santogold and Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) to create an original track, “My Drive Thru” that you can download for free on the brand’s website. And you should. It is sooooo good that I’VE BEEN PLAYING IT NON-STOP IN THE PAST WEEK. The “Three Artists, One Song” campaign will be promoted through Converse print, outdoor and online advertising and the music video will be released sometime this summer.

Converse has been embraced by an amazingly diverse group of musicians and artists over the years,” said Geoff Cottrill, Chief Marketing Officer of Converse. “As we celebrate the brand’s first century, we thought it would be fun to bring together Pharrell, Santogold, and Julian, to create new music together that bridges the styles they are known for. The results are everything we hoped for and we’re excited to add ‘My Drive Thru’ into the mix of music that fans will listen to this summer. We are also providing a platform for a number of emerging artists from around the world. The music industry is changing and this partnership is about the music and sharing it with fans for free.

And there is probably more to come. When you browse the Converse website, the 3 contemporary geniuses are surrounded by a wider and even edgier selection of emerging musical talent from across the globe, including MGMT, Bradford Cox of Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, YACHT, Kid Sister, Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, Frank Carter of Gallows; Does It Offend You, Yeah?, and Sophie of Care Bears on Fire.

Converse, you can keep showing me your love anytime, my iPod is begging for more!

The Internet is listening: Netflix will keep profiles up. Why did they even want to take them down in the first place when every single site tries to become a social network?

One day, someone smart in an ad agency will use the Image Fulgurator for one of their client and receive a Cannes Lion. As described by Mr Kottke:

The Image Fulgurator is an ingenious device that detects the flash from nearby cameras and quickly inserts a message onto whatever is being photographed so that it shows up in any photos being taken.

Bored at work? Still playing that penguin launched circa 2004? Update your bookmarks and try the Hedgehog Launch. Every-one talks about it.

And finally, a useful information today: Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. At last, your flash micro-sites won’t be ignored by the giant crawler!