Recently there's been a lot of YouTube firsts, and today I've just spotted another. This one promises to take me to a "hot sexy party". As a 23 year old female in the city, I like hot sexy parties - my life is full of them. In fact I do very little else.
In a similar vein as the Desperados party that had everyone gushing over on YouTube, Perrier have created a new party. Unlike the Desperados party which integrated your Facebook contacts to personalise the event, Perrier's is a bit different. It's a Facebook first and the concept's a bit cool. As each new person watches the videos, you slowly unlock the party. I like this. It even has a thermometer to show the progress. Every new hundred thousand visitors unlock the next section, and get you closer to the hot sexy party.
On the other hand, unlike the Desperados YouTube takeover which asked me if I wanted to have a male or female party, in this one I'm forced to watch women in what's reminiscent of a Magnum advert. I suspect I'm not the target audience. Interestingly, women aged 25-34 are the main consumers of bottled water - and males aged 18-25 are the fastest growing. As my male colleague who sent round the link said: 'I want to see what happens when they get to 10000!'
Despite the fact that the ad feels a tiny bit alienating (albeit a bit slinkier than the normal Perrier efforts) my main complaint is the focus on hot and sexy. If mineral water's to cool us down and make us refreshed, I'm not convinved that a stuffy-looking underground lair is the best place to convey it, even if 1 million views does invariably lead to a burst of water soaking everyone.
Claire Tayler is a social media writery type, who tweets @getdancey blogs and has more than a passing interest in keyboard cat and venn diagrams.