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Abercrombie & Fitch: Call Me Maybe

Sure, their lip-syncing is out of time and dancing a touch awkward but Abercrombie & Fitch’s video ‘Call Me Maybe’ has a host of online admirers. The ad – featuring male models from Abercrombie & Fitch’s flagship stores and filmed on camera phones and spliced together to look like one music video – manages to be sexy and make use of a well-known internet meme.

The Carly Rae Jepsen hit is the most covered song on the web at the moment, with dancing sports teams, singing politicians and even some remarkably talented Corgis creating their own YouTube renditions.

Plunging into the meme pool for inspiration is not easy for advertisers to pull off. When an idea becomes popular enough to be imitated, web users feel a sense of ownership over it, resenting any brand that tries to exploit it. However, Abercrombie & Fitch timed this clip perfectly, waiting until the joke was widely established in the mainstream media but still very much a part of the web zeitgeist.

Ones to watch: Viral hits from this week

Adidas: What Will You Take?

Adidas turns up the marketing volume highlighting its position as official London 2012 sponsor with this ad featuring key athletes such as Tom Daley and Jessica Ennis.

Nokia 808: PureView From Above

Nokia’s latest handset features what it claims is ‘breakthrough camera technology’. This six-minute video tracks an attempt to photograph the Earth from space.

Samsung: All The Best – Man Like Me

Samsung has teamed-up with The Streets frontman Mike Skinner to help emerging band Man Like Me. The video, created by Jam, features the band members talking about their daily routine.