DISQUS

Christopher S. Penn's Awaken Your Superhero: Why The Rick Astley YouTube Rickroll Matters

  • Rick Astley · 1 year ago
    You wouldn't get this (kind of post) from any other guy. I just want to tell you how I'm feeling. I've got to make you understand...

    ...that Rick Rolling really is a social phenomenon, and YouTube pulling this sort of stunt overall helps them. For the people who get it, they're thrilled! For the people who don't get it, what's going to happen? They're not going to use YouTube anymore? Unlikely.

    Although marketers will look to these numbers and salivate, they're just going to have to try to keep going viral.
  • Christopher S. Penn · 1 year ago
    FYI, there was a really anonymous comment here earlier that was deleted.
  • AdPuppet · 1 year ago
    Very nice insight there...

    Big media is probably interested in the views only, but the other metrics are pretty darn interesting too. As of this comment, there have been 3.7 million views / 12,899 ratings / 28,874 comments / favorited 4,973 times.

    I wonder if anyone has tracked the stats on an hourly basis. Now that would be VERY enlightening...
  • 1timstreet · 1 year ago
    You are on to something there but also think about the flip side of it. Imagine if you were one of the featured videos and you had a viral campaign planned for today? Ouch!
  • Speedy · 1 year ago
    Well apparently, Rick Astley isn’t the only former singer celeb being rolled. MC Hammer has now fallen victim to the craze, as people are now getting “HammerRolled”.

    A website located at http://HammerRolled.com explains this version of the good ‘ole Rick Roll.
  • Dan Klass · 1 year ago
    "MC Hammer has now fallen victim to the craze?" Victim? A 20+ year old song/video just got watched by 6 million people. I think careers that have been largely dead for two decades could easily be resurrected as a result.

    Seriously, look for the Astley (and then Hammer) song to suddenly start appearing in commercials. He is set to tour in a nostalgia-fest with ABC and other 80's acts. I think ticket sales just went way up.
  • Sara · 1 year ago
    Chris - Just found your blog and I'm loving it. I think you are right on the money with the Rickrolling. With a huge space like YouTube it's no surprise that big-time advertisers would be wanting a piece of screentime.

    According to a Harris Interactive poll done a little over a year ago, most YouTube viewers say they would spend less time on the site if videos included advertisements. However, if the big guys used things like music videos and television shows they would get the same (or better) effect without the overt sales push.

    On top of that, our generation (I'm 29) is so nostalgic about the popular culture of our youth and teen years. It would be really easy to tap into that further than is already being done.

    Dan - it's interesting that Astley is set to tour soon. Perhaps ABC is a few steps ahead of us. Maybe the whole thing was a publicity stunt disguised as an April Fools joke.

    Sara