The Week's Best Viral Videos & Marketing Lessons - Fails Edition

Well, for those of us in the online video world, the Earth stopped momentarily yesterday when YouTube announced their new redesign. The majority of the early reaction appears to be negative, which is to be expected with an overhaul as big as this one. But one thing ought to bring joy to those who hate the new YouTube design: the redesign doesn't really affect embeds, which means this column of the week's best viral videos will be entertaining and free of that nasty "new YouTube" so many of you seem to hate.

Now let's get to the videos...

Clever Brands

Fiat scored a hit this week with international audiences (even though the clip isn't in English), and they did it by cleverly illustrating how some cars can come off as a little... sexy:

Natural Light, affectionately known by fans as Natty Light, took a couple fans up on their idea to send some of the beer into space. The resulting 4-minute making-of video detailing their adventures has gone on to grab 145,000 views in just two weeks, and my guess is it made a much longer lasting impression on viewers than the traditional beer commercial would have.

The NFL has taken a pretty straightforward approach to online video, simply taking their traditional television commercials and porting them online. I wish they'd get a little more outside the box--or better yet, open up the NFL Films archives on YouTube--but at least the videos they put online are funny, which is more than I can say for most brands.

Samsung skewers gadget junkies who are after the next big thing:

Ron Paul must think he has a serious chance at the Republican nomination, because he's taking aim at the current frontrunner, Newt Gingrich, in a new online video ad:

The John Carter trailer looks like one part Avatar, and one part Star Wars... too soon to tell if that's a good thing or a bad thing:

Stunts, Dares, & Spoofs

Almost all daredevils are a mystery to me. I don't know how they take the risks they take. But there's no crazier daredevil in my book than the basejumper. But while I'd never do it myself, I sure am glad someone does it... because the imagery is gorgeous:

Two guys write ridiculous fictional grocery lists for each other, and head into Target to harass employees Tom Green-style. And it's pretty hilarious:

If you follow the NFL at all, you'll get a kick out of this fake Kyle Orton video where he talks about the struggles he's had this year in the wake of the Tim Tebow story:

God bless the folks at TNL, who lovingly compile the web's best "fail" videos every month for a compilation... here's November's biggest fails:

Short Films

Fan Films are becoming more and more common, most likely because it's become easier and easier to find quality affordable gear. Here's a GI Joe Fan Film called "Operation: Red Retrieval":

If you ever doubted the notion that everything looks better in slow-motion, please allow Phantom Cocktails to change your mind:

Here's a mind-blowing piece of work from Corridor Digital called Brush With Death... very clever concept with top-notch execution:

The SoundWorks folks are back with another behind-the-scenes short film about movie sound. This time, it's The Sound of the Muppets:

The history of the world in stop-motion (it's also a music video):

Grab Bag

Here's a fun series called 60 Second Adventures in Thought from the Open University--this video has all 6 of the 60-second lessons combined into one video:

Some friends of entrepreneur Amit Gupta got together to help raise awareness regarding his need for a bone marrow transplant:

Television news reporters and anchors mess up all the time. After all, it's live TV, right? They're bound to have accidents. And then someone is bound to come along behind them and put several similar clips into one giant News Anchor Fail video:

One of the saddest videos I've ever seen came out this week, and it's called How To Lose $2400 In 24 Seconds:

So you like fast rappers, eh? And clever cover songs? How about both in one song, the lightning fast Weird-Al-style "Look At Me Now":

The Germans take miniature work very seriously, and I'm glad they do:

Improv Everywhere is back at it for the holidays with a mall-Santa-themed musical performance: