Viral ads get some rules

Do you remember the YouTube video showing 4 cell phones popping corn. I sure do. In fact a told some friends about it and they got all bent out of shape because they thought their cell-phones where frying there brains (popcorn pops at 300f).

Well it turns out is was just a viral ad and had nothing to do with the truth. Because of it’s popularity it has come to the attention of the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Today they released a statement that said this (PDF auto download page).

The statements basically states the following:
“In non-traditional media, to the extent that advertising claims are communicated, advertisers are required to substantiate those claims with competent and reliable scientific evidence,” said the statement.

So now if you plan on creating a viral ad please be aware that your content must not make crazy false claims. Of course you can still do cool things, but now you will have to vet the content a bit more.