car ad went viral by accident

[Longinus]

Thought I had to share this on this forum.

Last Thursday morning I put an ad online to sell the ugly old BMW of my girlfriend. I made some ironic remarks about the car that it was a pussy magnet and so.

One day later I checked the ad and saw that it had 12000 visitors in only 24 hours (other ads have +/- 200 visits the first 24h). A few hours later, it want much faster, shared on facebook more than a thousand times, newspapers wrote an article about it, I was contacted to do an interview, which I did.

Here's the ad on the first day:

Here are the newspaper articles:

Title translated: "Sneaky boy uses hilarious arguments to sell decayed car"
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=dmf20141024_01339461

Friday afternoon, it was the 2nd most read article of the newspage

another:
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/959/Bizar/...lste-autozoekertje-wie-wil-deze-rat-BMW.dhtml

http://www.autofans.be/nieuws/fun/30199-dit-episch-bmw-zoekertje-tovert-glimlach-op-je-gezicht

And also the interview:

Right now the ad has almost 200.000 views, I had to remove my phone number because I got phone calls all the time. Anyway, the car isn't sold yet

 

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[Bananas]

Thought I had to share this on this forum.

Last Thursday morning I put an ad online to sell the ugly old BMW of my girlfriend. I made some ironic remarks about the car that it was a pussy magnet and so.

One day later I checked the ad and saw that it had 12000 visitors in only 24 hours (other ads have +/- 200 visits the first 24h). A few hours later, it want much faster, shared on facebook more than a thousand times, newspapers wrote an article about it, I was contacted to do an interview, which I did.

Here's the ad on the first day:

Here are the newspaper articles:

Title translated: "Sneaky boy uses hilarious arguments to sell decayed car"
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=dmf20141024_01339461

Friday afternoon, it was the 2nd most read article of the newspage

another:
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/959/Bizar/...lste-autozoekertje-wie-wil-deze-rat-BMW.dhtml

http://www.autofans.be/nieuws/fun/30199-dit-episch-bmw-zoekertje-tovert-glimlach-op-je-gezicht

And also the interview:

Right now the ad has almost 200.000 views, I had to remove my phone number because I got phone calls all the time. Anyway, the car isn't sold yet

Congratulations on your accidental viral ad!

Now, us English speakers also enjoy funny ads, and would love to read what is so great it went viral and resulted in an interview.

Please translate your ad into English so we can laugh too!

 

[Longinus]

Sure, I'll translate:

FAQ:
Q: What are those dirty spots on the bonnet?
A: Varnish that is decayed, only on the bonnet.

Q: What about that little rabbit on the front and that strange tape on the side?
A: After the bonnet started decaying, we made a rat-car. Did we succeed? Absolutely! No-one on the streets understands the concept! You can easily remove the tape, but also hides ugly spots (no rust though).

Q: Why the heck should I buy this car?
A: Because ratlook is almost a new trend again! Girls don't want no more smooth boys with a new 3-series with payment plan of 5 years, they rather want somebody with an as-decayed-as-possible car. Find out yourself! Only disadvantage is that you can transport only 4 chicks at a time. For sale because I have a girlfriend now.

 

[Thoelk]

Hi from East-Flanders here.. Also an HR-professional who wants to 'escape'!
I saw your ad this weekend and had a great laugh, how funny that you're actually on TMF as well!

Nice to find some fellow-tmf 'ers in the area!

 

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[Longinus]

Hi from East-Flanders here.. Also an HR-professional who wants to 'escape'!
I saw your ad this weekend and had a great laugh, how funny that you're actually on TMF as well!

Nice to find some fellow-tmf 'ers in the area!

Very nice! We could hold an official TMF Flanders meeting now! I'll check out your posts tomorrow to see what's keeping you busy.

 

[smarty]

Another testimonial that people love being entertainment and love to escape from reading the same boring news or ads every day. Congrats. Now you may use a similar formula to promote any product - who knows, you may cash in some big bucks.

A similar one

 

[Longinus]

Another testimonial that people love being entertainment and love to escape from reading the same boring news or ads every day. Congrats. Now you may use a similar formula to promote any product - who knows, you may cash in some big bucks.

A similar one

Indeed, I made this ad in 10 minutes and still can't understand so many people find it that amusing, but I also received negative reactions from people who thought I was serious

This Volvo-ad is hilarious.

 

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[Ikke]

Very nice! We could hold an official TMF Flanders meeting now!

The very south of holland (midden brabant) here, so not to far away if a TMF meeting is planned.

 

[PeeVee]

Thought I had to share this on this forum.

Last Thursday morning I put an ad online to sell the ugly old BMW of my girlfriend. I made some ironic remarks about the car that it was a pussy magnet and so.

One day later I checked the ad and saw that it had 12000 visitors in only 24 hours (other ads have +/- 200 visits the first 24h). A few hours later, it want much faster, shared on facebook more than a thousand times, newspapers wrote an article about it, I was contacted to do an interview, which I did.

Here's the ad on the first day:

Here are the newspaper articles:

Title translated: "Sneaky boy uses hilarious arguments to sell decayed car"
http://www.nieuwsblad.be/article/detail.aspx?articleid=dmf20141024_01339461

Friday afternoon, it was the 2nd most read article of the newspage

another:
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/959/Bizar/...lste-autozoekertje-wie-wil-deze-rat-BMW.dhtml

http://www.autofans.be/nieuws/fun/30199-dit-episch-bmw-zoekertje-tovert-glimlach-op-je-gezicht

And also the interview:

Right now the ad has almost 200.000 views, I had to remove my phone number because I got phone calls all the time. Anyway, the car isn't sold yet

I love it. Funny but keep there is a hidden lesson here that applies in business. Sometimes you write such a (funny) story or headline that it gets people to click and read for the entertainment but fail to buy. This happens on Facebook a lot. Ads that grab your attention so you click on them, but you wouldn't buy because you didn't even know thats what they wanted you to do before you clicked. Find the balance of the story and the benefit and why they should buy and you are golden.

I love the story, funny shit. Reminds me of a similar craigslist post I heard about here on the forums.