Have you seen it? Probably you have - you and over 2.6 million other YouTube viewers. A bride - an hour before her wedding - has a screaming meltdown and cuts off her hair. It’s like watching a car crash in slow motion - horrible, but you can’t look away. And if the viewership keeps up, soon it will have been seen by more viewers than Bon Cop, Bad Cop.
In a turn of events reminiscent of last year’s “Lonely Girl” story, it turns out that the bride is aspiring actress Jodi Behan, from Toronto, Ontario. One bridesmaid is played by her sister, Jessie.
At first, it came out that the video was planned by performance artist Ingrid Haas. But about four hours ago, Sunsilk Canada issued a release that stated the video was their project, (Created by Harbinger?) ‘created to dramatize that “bad hair” is one of the challenges faced by young women, many of whom have experienced their own “wig-out” moments.’
There was nothing in the video, posted by “wigoutgirl” that tied the video to Sunsilk. So on the surface, it may not appear that the video was successful. But considering that Sunsilk has chosen to come clean at the moment of highest media coverage might suggest otherwise. Had you heard of Sunsilk before? Now you have.
Pehaps the intent was to create a “wigout” platform from which to launch a wider campaign. Perhaps it was simply buzz generation that can now be capitalized on. Either way, it has served to generate buzz to an incredibly successful degree. Will this buzz be a good thing for the company? Is “all publicity good publicity”? We should find out over the next few days. It’s definitely an issue to keep an eye on, as progressive companies continue to experiment on marketing’s edge.