Virgin Mobile’s ‘Blinkwashing’ campaign

Marking a new trend in digital marketing, Virgin Mobile has released a viral ad campaign on Youtube which allows users to switch between 25 videos that make up the ad film, by simply blinking.

Created by advertising agency Mother New York, the ‘Blinkwashing’ ad uses face and motion detectors enabled by a webcam to detect blinks and navigate between the different versions of the ad.

rehabstudio, the creative technology agency behind the ad, explained on its website how the ad works:  ‘Every blink prompts a player to switch between 25 wildly different videos, all of which share the same time-coded script, meaning that each video picks up precisely where the previous one ended. Every user gets a completely personalised experience, every time. Trippy.’

The cheeky campaign features a colourful mix of characters in vivid dream-like imagery, including a feasting king, a weather girl, a breakdancer, a pancake-eating gorilla, a priest, and a clown in a bar.The ad forms part of a larger ‘retrain your brain’ campaign launched by Virgin Mobile in March this year which relies on neuroscience to convince mobile users to switch to their network and data plan. 

To watch the ad, hook up your webcam and for once, if you blink you won’t miss it.