When the video titled “Worst Trek Fail Ever” was first released on youtube, it instantly received more than a million views. News outlets reported on the video, and there was an online craze to figure out what happened to the girl afterwards. Then in the following week Jimmy Kimmel Live, an American late-night talk show, released the original form of the video featuring Jimmy Kimmel indicating the clip was a prank for youtube viewers.

While this incident ended as a fun happening, the talk show did receive a lot of attention from all over the world that had watched the video through different online media channels, such as youtube, facebook and twitter. This was a mere example that showed how much power social networking service, abbreviated as SNS, holds in today’s world of marketing. Having more views on youtube means having more ‘power’ in the sense that it could instantly spread throughout the world; and for this reason viral youtube videos are popularized by today’s marketers as a means of drawing attention and advertising different products, services and ideas.

I personally enjoy watching viral youtube videos because they are almost always funny, disregarding the fact that it could contain some form of advertisement to which I might be unconsciously exposed to. Yet, it is important to be aware that any online website can be viewed by anyone, including those who are vulnerable to and should be protected against marketing of any products. If a child watched one of RedBull’s viral videos and felt the desire to buy its high-caffeine energy drink, I would easily classify this marketing strategy as being unethical. That is, there must be restrictions on the extent to which these public videos could be used as a means to reaching the customer.