VIRAL MARKETING: CONCEPT, EXAMPLE, and FAILED CAMPAIGN (2025 Bonds Australia + 2017 Kendall Jenner Pepsi AD)
Viral Marketing: Concept, Example, and Failed Campaign
Ellen Su
Integrated Marketing Communications
Department of Fashion Business: LIM College
Viral Marketing Assignment
Professor John Keane
16 May 2025
Abstract
This paper discusses the effects and purpose of viral marketing, how it helps businesses generate buzz, and gives examples of successful campaigns versus unsuccessful ones. The example given of the successful campaign is Bonds, an Australian undergarments company. Bonds utilized viral marketing by selecting Robert Irwin to model in its short-form videos and photoshoot. Robert’s celebrity status generated millions of dollars worth of media coverage across Australia, the United States, and Europe. The example given of an unsuccessful campaign is Pepsi’s 2017 TV commercial, featuring Kendall Jenner. Kendall handed a police officer a soda, then the protesters happily cheered for Kendall. The scene depicts her resolving the protest about social issues with one small gesture. When a marketing campaign fails, word-of-mouth shares messages of backlash. When it works, word-of-mouth shares compliments and good reviews.
Viral Marketing: Concept, Example, and Failed Campaign
The concept of viral marketing is for businesses to create a gigantic outreach through social media platforms and encourage eyes on the brand/product. Businesses generate a chain reaction from their consumers. Thus, the message about the brand or products will be shared with other people on social media. Viral marketing increases the engagement rate and gains traction among the target audience. When a marketing campaign goes viral, hundreds of thousands, even millions of people, view it, and many will react to the campaign to share their ideas!
Viral marketing relates to word-of-mouth communication because people talk about trending brands. The reaction sparks curiosity about the brand. Viral marketing is formulated to be compelling content: easily shareable and interesting. For example, a viral marketing campaign aims to be funny and amuse target consumers so they feel inclined to pass along the message and share the content on social media platforms with their community of friends, family, and others. The free distribution of viral marketing relies on the actions of the target consumers. Viral marketing is free, similar to word-of-mouth communication. Word-of-mouth communication is achieved when people share marketing content with their networks, discuss the campaign, or advocate for the brand.
An example that used viral marketing successfully is Bonds, a Business-To-Consumer company dominating the undergarments industry in Australia. Bonds’ recent viral marketing campaign featured Robert Irwin, son of the late, famed wildlife expert and TV host Steve Irwin. Robert Irwin has garnered mass attention and media coverage over the past month, after Bonds’ successful underwear photoshoot and video campaign. Robert posed in Bonds’ briefs while balancing wild animals on his body, such as a tarantula and a snake (Bonds Australia, 2025). The Instagram pinned post on April 3, 2025, Robert’s campaign has over 60k likes, compared to 90 likes on April 2’s post of a woman modeling Bonds Sweatpants while sitting next to a suitcase (Bonds Australia, 2025).
Bonds has 344k Instagram followers, 98.5k TikTok followers, 6.8k YouTube subscribers, 8.8k X followers, and 932k Facebook followers (Bonds Australia, 2025). They create short-form video content of people modeling Bonds underwear and editorial photos of models wearing Bonds items. “Irwin’s campaign earned 7 percent more in media exposure than the brand generated in the entire year of 2024” (Botelho, 2017). Bonds’ short-form videos of Robert Irwin went viral on TikTok and Instagram the day the content was released. The reaction led to $8 million in media coverage of Bonds in its first week (Botelho, 2017). Bonds increased their American consumers by selecting a popular, young figure to model in their marketing campaign.
An example of a company that encountered problems using this technique is Pepsi, because their 2017 Kendall Jenner marketing campaign failed and faced severe backlash from Americans (D’Addario, 2017). It was criticized for trivializing the important social issue of police brutality against Black Americans in the United States. “A recent wave of high-profile ads have used easily-understood, vaguely political messaging to transmit the idea that to buy a given product won’t just make you happier—it’ll make you more virtuous: (D’Addario, 2017). This quote explains why people reacted angrily to the ad. The scene depicted a group of people protesting several matters. Police were on the other side, facing the protesters. Kendall walked over to a policeman to hand him a Pepsi can, then everyone began laughing and smiling (Business Insider, 2017). The protesters looked like they were partying on the street, and their signs did not have actual slogans. The signs showed peace sign drawings, which some Americans viewed as a mockery of real social issues (D’Addario, 2017). The crowd cheers after Kendall gives the soda to a police officer.
Large companies often utilize viral marketing to spread the word about the positive impact of their products or services. The campaign fails if people reject it, criticize it on social media, or if it garners hate instead of compliments. Bonds succeeded at viral marketing by placing a famous figure with minimal controversy at the center of its underwear campaign. Pepsi failed because they did not realize their ad would be viewed as a cheap mockery of protesters who advocate for solutions to social issues. Pepsi apologized shortly after the ad was released, saying they “did not intend to make light of any serious issue” (D’Addario, 2017). Businesses must sufficiently research their target demographic, values, and social issues to create compelling content. A failed marketing campaign causes backlash toward the company, wastes money, and spreads a negative perception of the business’s reputation.
References
Bonds Australia. Instagram. (2025). https://www.instagram.com/bondsaus/?hl=en
Robert Irwin. Robert Irwin. TikTok. (2025). https://www.tiktok.com/@robertirwin?lang=en
Business Insider. (2017, April 5). People are so outraged by this Pepsi ad starring Kendall Jenner. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4CCkUVXHBQ
D’Addario, D. (2017, April 5). Time Magazine. Why the Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad was such a glaring misstep. https://time.com/4726500/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner/
Botelho, R. (2025, April 24). WWD. Robert Irwin’s underwear campaign earns $8 million in media exposure and boosts Bonds on TikTok.
https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/robert-irwin-underwear-campaign-bonds-miv-1237102594/
