Brian Lane Winfield Moore, an everything sort of freelancer, recently devoted his talents to re-creating a series of classic WWII posters to incorporate messages that have to do with today’s social media platforms and issues, including Google, Wikipedia and Reddit, among others. So what makes this amusing, modern-day series of propaganda material blog-worthy? Well, for one, it’s Moore’s ability to take classic, old school marketing artwork and infuse clever, to the point messaging that talks about some of today’s more prominent online/social media issues, whether it’s the issue of sharing MP3s, net neutrality, or the potential impact that twittering has on our society.
The other aspect of Moore’s campaign that’s interesting to note is though there hasn’t been much self-promoting of the eight posters he created, the Flickr account hosting the art has been seen by well over 100,000 guests (fast approaching 115,000 on the date of this blogging) since they were uploaded nearly two weeks ago.
So how has this little site generated so many views? Believe it or not, it’s been mostly through the promoting of the site’s link on other Web sites. A quick Internet search of the phrase “WWIII Propaganda Posters“ (the name of Moore’s Flickr account) provides a snapshot indication as to just how many other sites and blogs, just like this one, are out there promoting this specific line of Moore’s work.
The WWIII Propaganda Posters campaign isn’t true viral marketing, but it’s benefiting from many of the social media tools that are used in this marketing technique—blogs, tweets, etc. This “word-of-mouth” promoting has led to the site’s increased popularity and the promotion of Moore’s work all across the Internet.
Check out previous articles on the Austin & Williams’ Outcomes blog to gauge a better understanding of viral marketing and social media networking.