After my post last week on OK Go’s sensational viral video, I wanted to follow up with another interesting piece.

During the Super Bowl, this commercial ran:

A classic example of a great, jam-packed Super Bowl ad with old-school effects.  But many were convinced there was either CGI or some editing tricks involved.  Eager to find out for himself, Tech guru Leo Laporte actually contacted the agency behind the piece, Wieden + Kennedy, and got to the bottom of things:

So not only did Old Spice get the expected impressions and return off the Super Bowl spot, BUT because of the nature of the ad and the online public, received millions of additional hits off online views and community discussion.

Remember – something is viral only when it causes you in the MOMENT of consumption to go “whoah, I have to forward this to (insert friend, family member, boss, etc).”  The incredibly funny and the incredibly shocking are good places to start, but the “how did they do that” route also works, as demonstrated here.