A picture of the Internet
as drawn by Bushra Hasan from Community Middle School (Can You Draw the
Internet?)

The Internet is pretty
big. Bigger than most things in fact (sort of) and there’s an awful lot of
really interesting stuff going on all the time that people should probably know
about. That’s why, fresh from hearing “Have you seen this…” or “OMG I can’t
believe that video where…” far too
often, the team at NSFWK have
decided to compile a weekly trend report on what’s going on in the palatial thingamajig
that is the World Wide Web.

Every week we’ll take a
snapshot of the UK’s most popular videos, top search results, most shared
images, most used hashtags, and most popular new apps. It’s focused mainly on things that have originated and been made specifically
for the web. There will be branded stuff on there, but not just TV ads that
have had loads of media wanged behind them; that's not really in the spirit of
the whole thing.

You can download the report (with links) here - Welcome to the Internet – 21/11

We’ll also be accompanying it with some
comment and context to set it all in place. Well, we wouldn’t let you get off
lightly, would we?

This week has a couple of talking points,
firstly the popularity and success of ‘Fenton 4GEE remaster’, a video created
by EE to educate people on the how fast their 4G network is. What we commend is
the fact that EE references the source of the original content, something
countless other ads haven’t done in the past. All too often content, ideas, and
premises are ‘borrowed’ from online without ever referencing back and
acknowledging the source. Whilst EE benefits from referencing, as the creative
doesn’t really work without it, let’s hope that this habit continues and puts
to rest lazy creative types stealing things from online.

The second point is something that we’ve been
noticing for a while and anybody with half an eye on Twitter’s trending topics
will have no doubt spotted as well: the top trending topics from week to week
are totally dominated by prompts and discussions around TV shows, showing the
dominance of second screening in today’s front rooms – apparently a nearly
quarter of us are doing it (Deloitte, 2012). But it’s not just the programmes…
With people primed and ready to comment on what they see, it’s never been
more important to make sure that people have something to say about your ad. And
that doesn’t just mean throwing a hashtag on the end frame. As we like to say,
“Move me, dude”.

That’s that for this week. We’ll be back next
week with no doubt more animal videos and people being stupid. If you have any
comments we’d love to know.

I was delighted to discover, while reading Sean Howe's Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, that there was a minor Marvel supervillain in the '70s called Viper, who came from the world of advertising.This bitter and twisted Madison Avenue malefactor was invented by maverick writer Steve Gerber, the creator of Howard the Duck, and first appeared in Captain America #157. His origin sounds like just the kind of circumstance to provoke a psychopathic vendetta against humanity.

"For years," shouted The Viper, "I labored in anonymity selling other men's products, making other
men's fortunes, laying waste to values and the environment of a nation
from the privacy of my office… now I've left that grey flannel world behind!" (Indeed, he swapped grey flannel for green lycra, as you can see above.)

Physically, Viper was a good hand-to-hand combatant,
quite agile, and possessed the normal strength of a man his age, weight,
and height who engaged in intensive regular exercise. Mentally,
Viper's intellect was calculating and without mercy. Besides
advertising, Viper also had some skill in chemistry, allowing him to
create his venom. 

It was lucky that he had chemical / poison skills on the side because presumably on its own the ability to craft a pithy headline or kern some type would be a power insufficient to enslave the free world.

As well as crying "Vengeance!" the Viper was prone to delivering such lines as, "We have a saying in the advertising game, Captain
America! You might do well to remember it: Never turn your back on the
competition!" Wise words, though rival agencies don't usually stab you in the back with venomous darts. At least, not literally.

In their
secret hideout (below) The Viper and his evil allies plot against
Captain America. Viper decides to call an old friend on Madison Avenue and have him devise an ad campaign for "the un-selling
of Captain America". The objective of the campaign is to convince the public that
Captain America is a glory-grabbing vigilante, despoiling the name of
America. The Eel describes this as a nutty idea. (Big talk for a guy whose superpower is the ability to spawn in the Sargasso Sea.) But Viper admonishes him, "Wait and see. Never
underestimate the power of advertising. For the majority of the public all they know is what they read in the papers or see on television! I've hawked absolutely worthless products wth tremendous success." Proving Viper's point about the influence of the press, Eel interrupts, having read
in the paper that Captain America is now in Virginia visiting his
girlfriend. So the three of them decide to "shove the grey flannel tricks" and achieve superior ROI by simply killing Captain America to death the old-fashioned way.

Viper and his gang fail either to kill Cap, or to get their ad campaign off the ground. In the end, Viper is killed by Madame Hydra who tells him that now she will take the
name Viper for herself. Viper replies, "Uh…won't that cause confusion
in the marketplace? I mean I'm the Viper too…" But his "glib capitalist tongue" (presumably forked) can't persuade Madame Hydra. She tells him to shut up and establishes brand leadership in the serpentine category by eliminating the competition.

Great stuff. This suggests an interesting plot direction that could spice up the next season of Mad Men: Don Draper (no stranger to secret identities) is bitten by a radioactive newt and becomes Newtman, able to do whatever a semi-aquatic amphibian can…