MANHATTAN BEACH–As traditional advertising continues to become more and more irrelevant, “viral” advertising has surged in popularity. Although the exact definition of “viral” has never quite been nailed down, clients and agencies all over the world are always searching for a new way to do something “viral”. Well, according to Manhattan Beach ad agency G&M Plumbing, they’ve found it. Says co-creative director Mickey Taylor, “We’ve created the first “viral” print ad.” Pressed to elaborate, Taylor said, “We created a two and a half minute video of a print ad and then posted it on YouTube.” (Click here to see the viral video.)

Asked how, exactly, that translates to “viral” advertising, co-creative director Glenn Miller answered, “What do you mean? It’s going to be on the web. It seems that for a lot of marketers, “viral” means just putting your commercial on YouTube. We figured, if you can put a commercial on YouTube, then why not put a print ad on there, too. This opens up a whole new avenue for consumers to interact with marketing messages”

G&M hopes people will start passing the “viral” print ad around like crazy. An anonymous source at the agency said, “We hope it’s the next “Lonely Girl”. You know, the first print ad will get passed around, then the whole web will be chomping at the bit for the next one. This could be huge. There could even be blogs about it.”

After just a couple hours on YouTube, the “viral” print ad had already gotten 8 views. Said a G&M spokesperson, “8 views already? This thing is blowing up.”