A Tiger Woods update for the conspiracy theorists.

When I wrote the other day about how EA created an ad in response to a YouTube user's video, several people raised a valid question: Was this all rigged?

I was praising the ad as a great example of a company (or at least its ad agency) paying attention to what people are saying about their product — in this case, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008 for the XBox 360. But skeptics (both here and on AdFreak) wondered if the YouTube video was planted by the ad agency as an intentional setup for the Tiger Woods "walk on water" spot.

So I decided to try something crazy. I asked the guy who made the video.

Here's the response I got from Bryan "Levinator25" Levi:

"So about a week ago an Ad agency sent me a message via YouTube and told me they really liked my video. They said they had thought of a cool Ad they could use it for. I really didn't think much of it until they contacted me through facebook as well. So I emailed them back and they explained to me the idea. They told me to call them to make an agreement and I did.

"I never really knew how awesome the ad was going to be and how much credit they were really going to give me. I specified on the phone that I wanted my name to be on it and they surely listened."

There you go. It sounds like Bryan even got some money for the use of his video.

There is a downside of all this for Bryan. With viewers suddenly flocking to his previously obscure video, he's been peppered with insults from commenters who feel he got "owned" by Electronic Arts.

I'm sure EA never thought their ad would come across as an insult, but it goes to show that you should never underestimate the bloodthirst of trolls.

Oh, and one quick housekeeping note: There won't be a Cool Tool of the Week today, as I've been scrambling to get out the door for a few days. But I'll try to make it up to you next week when I'm back in action on Wednesday.

Comments

[Szczepanik]

Griner just pwned the skeptics.

[Chris Wilson]

You can't take the comments on YouTube as the voice of all those who have watched the a video. Seems like there is a minority on the site (probably 1%??) that is heavily active in commenting on videos, and from my observation, many are negative. Just read some of the other comments. A lot of them aren't even related to the video at all.

I still think this is a win for EA. The new video has been viewed 4x's as many times as the old one in just a short amount of time.