Viral equals a positive message. There can be good viral campaigns and bad viral campaigns. The reputation crisis which detonated this past weekend which was witnessed by just about every single mom-blogger existent in the blogosphere gives us the bad version of it.

For those of you who happened to be away from your computers, here’s a quick sum up. The McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of J&J, launched an offline/online campaign sending what was obviously, the wrong message to current and future moms.

The advice to moms: “take Motrin to ease the agonizing pain caused from carrying your (innocent and beautiful) baby on your back all the time”

The reply from moms- 48 hrs. after campaign was put online: “How dare you, Motrin!”

Within hours both Twitter and YouTube were flooded with anti-Motrin remarks and anti-Motrin videos. Every single mom in the blogoshere made sure her voice was heard by the people back in McNeil Consumer Healthcare. Take a look at how the online reputation crisis for Motrin was like over the weekend:

Motrin eventually pulled the ad and offered their sincere apologies, as still displayed on the Motrin site.

The Motrin case serves as more than valuable evidence that social networks have an immeasurable potential and really do work. As a colleague of mine says, social media really brings ‘power to the people-we better think twice before publishing any kind of message up on the Web’.

Most importantly, companies today should have a very clear idea who their messages are intended for and know exactly what their target audience is and not just assume that ‘moms feel pain from wearing their babies’.

Come to think of it online video has become the new form of entertainment for many and now with concrete user-generated content initiatives such as Al Gore’s Current TV, they appeal more to the masses cause its basically attainable by anyone and everyone, moreover, it gives an opportunity to be a part of something.

In addition, what’s even better about this modality, which TV has never been able to offer, is being able to have on-the-spot interaction with people within your community, or other surfers and other networks in general. Its the beauty of online video; it can be virally spread, easily, by giving viewers the choice to diffuse, comment, share and spread the ‘brand’ to the internet universe. It’s an advantageous way to maximize your budget since you can reach vast audiences, at a relatively lost-cost.

I actually wanted to show you something I ran into while taking a stroll along cyberspace. What caught my attention was that this type of art, ‘street art’ has been known for ages. We’ve seen it represented in the form of graffiti just that this type of ‘art’ conveys a different message to that of just plain words sprayed painted on a wall. In fact, street art, as the name discloses, is indeed an art. And sometimes it can be overseen, but thanks to the innate social nature of the Internet, artists such as BLU, an Italian street animation artist, have been able to step out from behind the scenes and indulge us with creations such as these:

I just think its brilliant how the artist managed to bring his art to life by incorporating it with the online aspect of it. This individual’s work is no longer stagnantly sitting on a wall, instead, its out there, seen and enjoyed by everyone and shared amongst friends, which is exactly how I came across it.

What I’m trying to say is, nowadays you can exploit just about anything through online video advertising. From an individual basis to mass products to just about everything that exists today; it can all be massively and effortlessly diffused wherever, targeted to your exact audience, exact demographics…its all about becoming ‘digital’, and it will certainly continue to grow and evolve.