VW Advertises on Knockoff YouTube Videos to Tout Original Auto Parts

Banners on 'homage' clips click through to real thing

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To promote Volkswagen's original auto parts, Brazilian ad agency AlmapBBDO slapped banners on popular homemade YouTube clips—mostly spoofs, parodies and wacky foreign interpretations of songs—directing viewers to the original songs by the original artists. "Don’t accept imitations. Prefer original parts," the banners read. The effort apparently generated 125,000 views and 500 clicks for every $100 spent. Surely 99 percent of those clicks were intended to make the damn banners get off the screen and stop blocking the memes.

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