BUZZ NEWS

Bush under Attack: PopJam’s Sock and Awe Advergame

Posted on December 17, 2008
Jessica Hartstein

You can’t have missed the big buzz about President Bush’s farewell visit to Iraq this weekend—TV journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi took aim and threw his shoes at the President during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. A combination of the journalists’ bad aim and Bush’s expertise at ducking flying objects saved the president from any potential harm. In case you haven’t seen the clip:

This act has made the journalist an overnight hero in anti-Bush territory. Even Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got to watch the clip on TV and chuckle at his long-time foe escaping a shoe to the head, saying he was glad the president was not hit, but praising the courage of the journalist.

The short video clip itself has been a hit worldwide—we’re talking some serious buzz. How serious? Let’s compare it to Obama’s historic victory speech on election night, which in and of itself was a buzz sensation. After 3 days, Obama’s speech had reached 10 million views. A month and a half after the speech, the speech has received 62,000+ comments. A quick comparison was done just 48 hours after the Bush flying shoe incident went digital. Only 48 hours after being released, the video had already generated 10.7 million views and 93,000+ comments. Here’s a little diagram to show the difference in video views 48 hours after the two recent buzz sensations:

As this is becoming more and more common these days, people/companies are playing off the buzz to generate visitors to their site. In other words, spin offs have started. Our favorite is an advergame for PopJam, a soon-to-launch comedy site that promises to “make you LOL like you’ve never LOL’d before.” The Sock and awe advergame lets you take a stab at throwing shoes at a moving Bush. The advergame has a viral component so that you can share it with friends and offers you the chance to get pinged when PopJam launches. What a fantastic way to get the PopJam name out and a true sign of the company’s reactivity. Ready, aim, throw.