A lame MySpace page proves how wrong we snobs can be.

A month back, I watched a somewhat-clever British ad where a young girl runs away from home after getting knocked up by her boyfriend — a walking cactus. The TV spot is for Oasis, a flavored drinking water.

I wouldn't have thought twice about it, except I noticed the main character had her own page on the MySpace social network, filled with fake video diaries about her oppressive parents.

Skeptical, I checked it out and wasn't surprised to see that "Cactus Girl" only had four MySpace friends on her patently uninteresting page. (Note the disclaimer to the left of her photo: "You know this is an ad, right?")

Instead of mocking the campaign as a mindless use of social media, I decided to give it some time. Revisiting it this week, I find Cactus Girl and her angsty videos have attracted more than 400 MySpace friends and thousands of video views. Most surprisingly, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

It's times like this that social media snobs like myself have to admit that we don't know everything, especially when it comes to the mega-popular but often-kinda-trashy MySpace.

A fake profile page! For a character in an ad! And there was absolutely nothing interesting about it, either. The people behind it (progressive ad agency Mother, I assume) obviously just cobbled it together quickly and set it adrift.

But no, people liked Cactus Girl. Most importantly, they knew she was fake — and didn't care. Sure, there are some people complaining, but check out this sample of comments on her MySpace videos:

• "I think ur amazing. Hows the baby coming along?"
• "cool to see you have myspace ;)"
• "i love the oasis ads, i think you're great :)"
• "I never truely understood that advert and the true meaning, but I guess that's what makes it special. Good luck with cactus boy!"
• "lool man cactus gurl rox! and soo does cactus kid nd oasis"

I realize these aren't the most high-minded insights in the history of western civilization, but the viewers were intrigued enough to say something. (Or more to the point, they were inspired to say something other than "FAKE! ur lame lol.")

So let's go ahead and tackle the inevitable marketing questions: What were the results? Is it a success? Are 400 MySpace friends a lot?

With a case like this, you have to say it's an unqualified success. The MySpace page and related videos took very little effort and almost seemed like afterthoughts to the mainstream TV ads. Wheil 400+ friends might not seem like a popular uprising, it's a whole lot better than the zero friends Cactus Girl would have had without the page.

It would be nice if Oasis did more with its social media presence to keep fans interested, but even without that, it looks like I can't fault them for trying.

Interesting note: According to this writeup, viewers could vote on how the storyline should pan out in the TV commercials. Not sure if that happened already, but I found this link to the third ad in what was supposed to be a three-part series.

Comments

[Scott Hepburn]

Call me a cynic, but I'm curious how many of Cactus Girl followers and commenters are authentic consumers. The comment luvfest makes me skeptical...I wouldn't put it past an ad agency to have staffers post comments, even create fake profiles for fake consumers. Something about the teen/tween speak (U R Cool, etc.) seems manufactured...

[David Griner]

Yeah, valid concern. I clicked through several of the profiles, and they seemed legit. And there's definitely no shortage of txtspk on MySpace.

Considering how little effort they put into the page itself, I just doubt they'd go through the considerably greater effort to fake commenter profiles.

[Peter I.]

I just question the actual impact of this. I could create a profile for a pet rock, spend the rest of the day doing friend requests and have 400 friends by Monday morning. I don't know if they went about it that way but I question whether these kinds of activities have any impact at all. Why do you really want to interact with a drink on a social network and how does that push you closer to buying the drink or telling your friends about it. I think that far too often these kinds of marketing activities are justified through numbers that don't really reflect any impact for the brands. You're right though, it's hard to fault them for trying.

[Andrea HIll]

>Interesting note: According to this writeup, viewers could vote on how the storyline should pan out in the TV commercials. Not sure if that happened already, but I found this link to the third ad in what was supposed to be a three-part series.

According to BrandRepublic (http://www.brandrepublic.com/Campaign/News/828370/Cactus-Kid-star-Oasis-campaign-Mother/), it's the 4th ad that people can vote on.

[Marsha Collier]

I think you're right. There is a real snobbishness in the social media elite. Buzz is buzz. If you found it, others will. Whether all friends are valid or not, it draws attention to the brand. That IS the point, yes?