UTSports pwns bloggers with its Eric Berry viral video campaign

So yeah, that first Eric Berry for Heisman "viral" video? You remember, the one I ripped in part because it couldn't be "viral" if it wasn't embeddable? It's embeddable now. And no, I really don't claim any credit for the fact that UTSports uploaded the thing to YouTube soon after I complained about it. I'm now quite certain that they always meant to make it distributable and just hadn't gotten around to it at the time I wrote my post. Anyway, here it is:

You'll recall that we were not fans of that video. I myself was uncharacteristically harsh:

The LoveBerrys? Really? And yeah, I get that it's supposed to be like those freecreditreport.com commercials (I hope), but . . . Berry is not a product to be sold by jingle. If a song must be used, the singer should be screaming, yelling, or rapping. Not making you want a lollipop.

Well, gut me, clean me, and mount me on the wall because I bought the whole thing hook, line, and sinker. You see, it was all part of the plan, as evidenced by the second video, which was first shown at Neyland Stadium at halftime of the Western Kentucky game:

Yeah, it was a joke, and we fell for it, and for that I say in all caps, "YAY!" This was quite the opposite of a failed attempt at a viral marketing campaign; it was brilliantly conceived and well-executed. Tennessee did it with self-effacing humor and did it in two stages, which made it all the more worthwhile.

You punked us, and I couldn't be happier. Well done!

So whatcha got next week? Our guard's up, you know.

;-)