In what could be the latest Ray-Ban viral promo campaign

Jan 16, 2010 11:36 GMT  ·  By

It’s a known fact that YouTube can pluck a regular Joe or Jane out of obscurity and make them famous, even if only for 15 minutes at best. The same seems to be the case with a guy named simply Matthew, who uploaded a video of him getting a rather unusual tattoo on his face: the outline of a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses, as the Telegraph can confirm.

In the video, Matthew is seen with his girlfriend in a tattoo parlor. As the tattoo artist is about to get to work on his face, he asks him whether he’s sure about what he’s about to do because, once there, he can’t go back. Matthew is sure: he wants the outline of a pair of Ray-Bans on his face and he’s willing to live his entire life with an etching of that on his face. Said and done – at the end of the video, Matthew is seen smiling, telling the camera how “awesome” his new tattoo is.

“The Californian man, known only as Matthew, is filmed having the black ink tattoo resembling a pair of Ray-Bans drawn onto his face while his girlfriend looks on. The clip on video file sharing site YouTube has attracted almost 500,000 views since it was posted earlier this week, but some viewers have questioned whether the film is a hoax,” the Telegraph writes. As it turns out, those who think this is actually a hoax may not be that far from the truth.

Apparently, Ray-Ban owns a production company named Never Hide Films, which, as anyone can see, is the same with the one that posted the video of Matthew getting the tattoo. As per the Daily Mail, it’s clear this short film is part of the company’s latest viral campaign. Should that really be the case, then it’s crystal clear the campaign is a hit, judging not only from the number of views of the video, but from the comments and media interest in it as well.

“The sunglasses company has formed a production company called ‘Never Hide Films’ – complete with its own YouTube channel – that has to date produced 20 viral videos. The video entitled ‘Guy has glasses tattooed on his face’ is just the latest in Ray-Ban’s viral campaign. ‘By keeping their finger on the pulse of what’s cool, unique and attention grabbing, Ray-Ban has turned their video series into a viral video factory, and now has the track record to prove it,’ the blog The Future of Ads has written in a post devoted to Matthew’s video,” the Mail writes.