Remember that day around a year ago when a certain video glorifying the dark side made it big? Like 30 million views big? When was that?

Oh, right. The Super Bowl.

It remains to be seen whether Volkswagen’s 2012 ad will pull off the same kind of popularity. In the meantime, the company has been hyping folks up with a pre-game ad for their game ad. Yeah, that’s a thing people do. And it works: the teaser has over 10 million views. It ties last year’s Star Wars theme in with this year’s canine theme.

Our bet for the Super Bowl? The new ad won’t do as well as the old one. It’s up online already and it lacks lil’ Vader’s charm. But the jury’s still out, so for now let’s enjoy the tried and true teaser. And click through for the game day ad if your interest is piqued.

Let’s be honest, here. PSAs don’t often make for interesting ads. Aside from a few graphic and shocking anti-drinking and driving spots we can think of, most of them don’t exactly race up the viral charts.

But the British Heart Foundation ignored that bit of common sense and made a hugely entertaining ad that explains, of all things, how to correctly perform hands-only CPR. You know Vinnie Jones, big time tough-guy actor from films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels? He brings out his whole thuggish schtick to encourage viewers to, for lack of a better term, man up and learn how to perform CPR.

Far too many people are afraid to get involved when someone needs CPR. But whether it’s because they don’t know the technique, they don’t recognize when it’s needed or because they’re simply uncomfortable with mouth-to-mouth, Jones’s PSA efficiently cuts through their concerns. It’s punchy, memorable, and has already picked up over 1.4 million views on YouTube alone. That’s a lot of eyes for a potentially life-saving PSA to reach, and many more people have seen it on other sites and on television.

It seems that some kudos are deserved here, so bravo to the British Heart Association for a great ad.

Is there anything better than a good book? Sitting back with the hard, cold plastic, pressing the buttons, the smell of the electronics… wait. Seems like e-reading is never going to be quite as romantic as paper.

And that’s the argument this week’s viral video makes: there is nothing as good as a real, solid book. More than that, it’s an argument for traditional brick and mortar retail. As we move more and more of our life toward intangible things, do we stop to consider the magic we’re losing?

Here’s a little of that magic, captured on film.

Sometimes a promotional partnership makes so much sense that you have to wonder why it hasn’t happened earlier. So it is with the team up between Crystal Dynamics and Geocaching.com for the promotion of Tomb Raider, an upcoming reboot of the classic game series.

A little background: Tomb Raider is a game that’s ostensibly about exploring the world and seeking out lost treasures. Geocaching is a popular pastime that sees participants trading GPS coordinates to secret, hidden caches that they can find and track. These often contain small trinkets that are passed around through the geocaching community, making it the the next best thing to a massively popular global treasure hunt.

So Crystal Dynamics, Tomb Raider’s developer, is planning a treasure hunt of its own to build up excitement for the launch of its game. The hunt will be organized through Geocaching.com, reaching the millions-strong geocaching community. And Groundspeak, the backers of Geocaching.com, will get a chance to promote the site and latest photo-based adventure project, Geocaching Challenges, to the gamers anxiously awaiting Tomb Raider. It’s a match made in heaven for a promotion that’s sure to be wildly successful.

And just so we don’t leave you without a video this week, here’s a brilliant one for LG’s new TV line that’s best presented without comment. Just make sure to watch the whole thing:

Here’s a few buzz words that have dominated the viral video stage for the past few years: social, crowd-sourced, and the Super Bowl. All good ways to build some serious viral buzz, and all present in Pizza Hut’s latest campaign. Oh, and one other thing it has that tends to be pretty popular on the Internet? One-upmanship.

You’d think Doritos would have driven the crowd-sourced Super Bowl ad thing into the ground by now, but we’re finding this Pizza Hut campaign oddly refreshing. Here’s how it works: the chain has posted an ad for the campaign featuring a lengthy jingle as performed by a young musician, complete with printed lyrics. Fans of Pizza Hut can try to top the ad by taking those lyrics and recording themselves singing them, either via webcam on Facebook or uploaded to YouTube.

Not only will the singers of the six best renditions have a chance to compete to record the song for a massive television audience, but the first thousand eligible entries will get a coupon for a free $10 pizza as part of the $10 Any Pizza promotion the chain is marketing with the ad.

In return, it gets thousands of viral opportunities to make us hungry – from the original track, which actually sounds quite nice and fresh, to the videos entrants will share with their friends in hopes of garnering votes, to the final ad airing in the pre-game show. Clever indeed.

(via Mashable)

Christmas is a musical time, so as we head off for our own holidays let’s share a little musical joy.

We have two takes on holiday music, both at US shopping centers. The first is a part of T-Mobile’s always-impressive Life is For Sharing campaign (though it seems to have dropped that tagline for this particular video). Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and Musical Director Paul Mirkovich brought together an amazing surprise performance at Woodfield Mall, one that makes a fantastic video. Just when it seemed that flash mobs were going completely stale, we’re given one of such scope and glamor that it will be a challenge to surpass.

The song is also the perfect uplifting anthem to bring a little joy to these last few busy days before Christmas. No lie, it brought tears to our eyes.

The second video we want to share with you is smaller, older and far less popular, but if you’re up for a laugh it’s a great watch. Normally offbeat local advertising can be totally cringe-worthy, especially when it involves hip-hop. But something about this Fairlawn Plaza holiday ad from last year just makes us smile. It’s presented with just the right amount of self-effacing humor that it’s positively charming.

Justin Bieber has a huge following, so pretty much everything he does is sure to go viral these days — after all, that’s how the teen sensation got his start. But pretty much everything he does is targeted at teen girls, and you might not think he has the power to attract any other eyes.

You’d be wrong, because the newest video promoting his SOMEDAY fragrance is reaching a whole other demographic. It’s aiming for the fathers of the girls who love Bieber, but it’s catching quite a few views around the periphery. While the young man seems downright earnest in most of his stuff, he’s more than a little cheeky here.

It’s part of a broader campaign that points back to SOMEDAY’s website. Dream Shot asks fans to snap photos of themselves and upload them. The photos are then slipped into the videos, which users can share on all their favorite social sites. It’s clever, but somehow this ‘Dear Dad’ video is getting most of the attention. Check it out:

You know how games like Farmville are very, very popular? They’re also incredibly successful from a financial standpoint. Zynga, Farmville‘s creator, brings millions of dollars in every quarter.

The way they do this is by selling currency in their games, currency that can be used to speed up game’s timers or buy special virtual items for the games. Whether or not it’s a practical way to spend money, plenty of folks do it and love it. But what if you could get your social game on while giving money to a much better cause than lining Zynga’s full pockets further?

Brilliantly, someone’s taken that idea and run with it: the RSPCA. They’ve created an animal shelter simulation for Facebook, and set it up with the same popular monetization model that works so well for Zynga’s game. The best part is that RSPCA Rescue Shelter is a good game. Not that Farmville isn’t, but often games made for a cause don’t quite make the fun cut. This one does. And with any luck, it will inspire people to buy plenty of PAWS, with proceeds all going to the RSPCA.

Now, we don’t want to leave you without a video to take a break with this week, so here’s a terribly cute German ad for McDonalds, created by DDB Tribal Group:

The holidays can be an emotional time. From crowded shopping centers to family engagements, there is plenty to stress about. But there’s also joy, sometimes in the smallest of places.

John Lewis’s Christmas ad this year is a sweet take on those emotions – frustration, impatience, and finally joy. Make sure you keep the tissues nearby when you watch. This one’s a tearjerker. 3 million views can’t be wrong — just, as always, stay out of the YouTube comments.

There’s something about Christmas that makes it special, especially when you’re young. Something often missed in holiday preparations and marketing, something that gets trodden on when Christmas is a matter of annual routine. That something is delight.

Delight is waking up first thing in the morning and emptying out your stocking. It’s the first time you ride with your parents to see a light show at a house in the wealthy part of town. It’s meeting Santa when you’re finally old enough to understand that he’s magical and not just a stranger in a red suit. And it’s almost impossible to recapture once you’re old enough that you’re the one buying the ornaments and filling the stockings.

But Starbucks has managed to capture a glimmer of that delight with its holiday marketing, using technological tricks that seem almost like magic. If you’re a Starbucks fan, take your smartphone and download the “Magic Cup” app. Then point your camera at Starbucks holiday cups, bags of coffee and signage around the shop. Augmented reality is a total gimmick, but the holiday season is gimmicky by nature. That’s no reason to enjoy it.

This video will spoil the fun of discovery, but it’s worth a watch if you want to see what they’ve done. I particularly like the collection aspect of the app — already I’m wondering where to find the other four characters I haven’t seen yet. Sure, the magic cup might be boring and rote by this time next year, but right now I’m completely delighted.