Earlier today, a blogger I follow on Twitter posted a picture of back-to-school Crocs she purchased for her son. Crocs sells shoes for fall? Who knew? I was excited to see that she also posted a link to a back-to-school promotional video the company put on YouTube. Wow. More than 900,000 views. I took a look, as these are precisely the kinds of initiatives we’re working on with our clients. It’s an animated, oftentimes trippy portrayal of how back-to-school Crocs cure the end of summer blues. Imagine my surprise when the words, “They ain’t got no holes, but I swear they’re still Crocs.” Never mind that the video later calls school miserable. Now I know a video that insists on sanitized messaging won’t go viral and certainly won’t resonate with youth. But while this video has a lot of views, it doesn’t seem to win over kids. Take a look at the comments to see what I mean.

Just after I saw the Crocs video, I noticed the debacle over JC Penney’s “I’m too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me” shirt. Of course, this item caused a major stir on social media channels and the company pulled the product and issued an apology. I never saw the product on JC Penney’s site, but the description that came up on Google said something like, “Who has time for homework when you have to check out the latest Justin Bieber album…”

Maybe I’m being naive or simply too stodgy. But I hope a brand’s ability to connect with today’s youth and respect for intellect are not mutually exclusive.

An article in this week’s Advertising Age profiles Isaiah Mustafa, the “man your man could smell like,” who appeared in a television spot for Old Spice.

Mustafa played for the NFL for four seasons, but didn’t realize fame until he teamed with Procter & Gamble on a campaign for the brand’s body wash. The spot debuted during the Super Bowl (see the irony?) and has become an Internet sensation, garnering more than 6 million views on YouTube.

I’ll admit I hadn’t seen the spot or heard of Mustafa prior to reading Advertising Age. The spot is hilarious and he’s certainly easy on the eyes. According to the article, the PR “bonanza” wasn’t planned. Mustafa has been on NBC’s “Today,” the “Ellen DeGeneres Show” and the “CBS Early Show.” He’s apparently scheduled to be on “Oprah” next week. The article’s author, Jack Neff, suggests the buzz is of “…Snuggie-esque, if perhaps not yet iPad-esque, proportions.”

The success of this campaign is clearly not just about Mustafa; he was a relative unknown. It’s about Mustafa’s appeal combined with super-clever creative and an ad slot that cost between $2 and $3 million. While the exposure is enviable to be sure, is Mustafa an iPad-in-the-making? Highly unlikely. But the investment is definitely paying off for P&G in the form of buzz.

(Note: P&G’s share of the body wash market was slightly down in the four weeks ended February 21, according to the article.)

Clients and prospects often ask us how to create a viral campaign. It’s a tough question to answer because as soon as you start “trying” to be viral you’ve likely done just the opposite. Some of the best viral videos were never intended to be as big as they became. Think about the wedding entrance that made its way into the storyline of The Office or the Mentos and Diet Coke “experiments.”

There’s a new video making its way around the Web today from a company called Grasshopper, which markets virtual phone systems for entrepreneurs. I found out about it when a friend of mine (who’s also a reporter at Fast Company) posted it on Facebook. I subsequently saw that it’s been featured on The Huffington Post.

In one day, the video has garnered nearly 200,000 views on YouTube. It seems well on its way to going viral. Why does it work? A spoof of Jay-Z and Alicia Key’s wildly popular “Empire State of Mind,” it pays tribute to the New Dork instead of New York. It’s well produced, clever and speaks directly to what makes entrepreneurs tick (in this case, I am their target audience).

This is the kind of “advertising” that people are responding to in 2010 – Grasshopper has shown through this video that they get the world I’m living in and they want to entertain me as much as they want to inform me. I may just give them a call.