Why FAIL is viral
A little while ago I wrote about the ingredients of a successful viral. The FAIL blog is a perfect example.
Using the acronym S.U.C.C.E.S, the FAIL meme is viral because it is:
Simple: once you’ve seen one FAIL picture you immediately get the idea.
Unexpected: Each picture shows something going unexpectedly wrong.
Concrete: Lots of the FAILs are action shots, capturing the exact moment of the FAIL. And they’re so obvious that you can instantly see what the FAIL is all about.
Credible: Since each FAIL is a photo, the FAIL is indisputable!
Emotional: There’s usually pain, stupidity, lunacy, loss or embarrassment involved which makes for good fun.
Stories: Each FAIL tells a story of something going wrong.
So there you have it. But what will the next big viral meme be?
Tom wrote this on 28.04.08 –
It's filed in the Interesting, Social media box
On April 28th, 2008 at 10:25 pm, Hendrik responded:
The final S could be “Shopped”: a lot of FAIL pictures are photoshopped.
On April 29th, 2008 at 8:15 am, Tom responded:
yes, good point!
On April 29th, 2008 at 10:37 am, AJ responded:
RIP Jeremy Beadle …
On May 1st, 2008 at 1:54 pm, Matthew Hill responded:
Credible? Indisputable? As Hendrik says, some are Photoshopped — it’s naive to assume any photos we see these days are reputable and representative.
Some corkers in there though! :-)