In a move that is intuitive yet innovative, Cricket Wireless achieved internet fame by making use of a trend that's already taken strong hold of online audiences. Its real-life adaptation of the Unexpected John Cena meme is at the top of the viral video chart, having racked up 14.3 million views in the last week. In The Unexpected John Cena Prank, fans of the wrestler were invited to an audition and asked to introduce him in front of a camera -- to their surprise, John Cena himself burst through the backdrop to the tune of his intro music.
UNICEF takes second place on the chart with a more serious campaign, which asks viewers, "Would you stop for this little girl?" The video shows passers by checking in on a well-groomed unattended girl, but ignoring or even chastising a little girl who appeared dirty and disheveled.
Ad Age's Viral Video Chart, powered by Visible Measures, focuses on brand-driven social video ad campaigns. Each campaign is measured by True Reach, an MRC accredited metric that includes views from brand-driven and audience-driven social video clips. The data are compiled using the patented Visible Measures platform, a constantly growing repository of analytic data on hundreds of millions of videos tracked across hundreds of online video destinations.
Note: This analysis includes all publicly available video views on branded video content. This chart does not include movie trailers, video game campaigns, TV show, or television network promotions. View counts are incremental by week.
**Indicates percent change in views compared with the same period the week before.
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