A video of Heart Evangelista‘s boyfriend, Daniel Matsunaga, allegedly kissing a girl inside an elevator surfaced online on social networks. It was later picked up by PEP and other bloggers. As of this writing the video (and various copies of it) on Youtube garnered around 90,000 hits. The buzz though was killed when Heart Evangelista said in an interview that “Daniel knew what he was doing” and it was later doused completely when the actor himself said it was fake and that it was just a campaign for a brand called Veet.
Here’s the video:
Video outed too early?
The big question now is did the campaign work? Was it “viral” enough? I think the content was great. It was controversial and definitely would have hit a lot more blogs and media outlets. In fact had they played their cards right they would have the celebrity media in the palm of their hand since Matsunaga was constantly described by Heart as a faithful boyfriend. However Heart’s comment as well as Daniel’s confession pulled the plug on whatever viral power it had. We won’t probably see it go beyond 1M hits in the next week or so. In his interview with PEP it was revealed that the video release wasn’t properly coordinated with Matsunaga so he was caught by surprise when friends and family started giving him calls. He didn’t have a ready answer to say to his immediate circle.
Here’s an excerpt from the article:
“I apologize, if there are problems. Pero, this is, I hope, understand of everybody, that this is just endorsement for Veet. This is just a teaser. Everything was just fake, you know? There was no kissing scene. So in the end, it was just the purpose of letting everybody know about it,” paglilinaw ng Brazilian-Japanese model-actor.
Layunin daw kasi talaga ng bago niyang endorsement na magbigay ng teaser para sa nalalapit nitong promo. Gayunpaman, humingi pa rin ng paumanhin si Daniel sa mga naloko ng isyu.
“That was not my purpose, of course, that was just the teaser of Veet. Part of the promo. And, well, it was just one-day shooting, really like simple, wala nang kissing scenes. And, well, just professional, just professional job,” saad niya.
Noong Lunes, January 24, unang pinag-usapan ang video na lumabas sa YouTube at iba pang video-sharing sites. Hindi raw agad makapagbigay ng paglilinaw si Daniel na gimik lang ang video dahil sinisikreto muna ang bago niyang endorsement.
“Pero ngayon, puwede [nang pag-usapan]. So everybody knows already. Alam na lahat that this just a teaser, and I had no intention to hurt everybody,” sabi niya.
Noong ginagawa raw ang campaign ay alam na ni Daniel na ikakalat nga ang video sa Internet. Ngunit nagulat pa rin siya sa reaksyon ng mga nakapanood nito.
Paliwanag niya, “Well, it was Monday, I woke up, and people already calling me, like what’s going on, what did you do? I did not even know that it came out.
“And I was like, ‘What did I do?’ Like, ‘Oh, did you see the video? Check Facebook, Twitter.’ Wow, it came out. Maraming text na galing sa kaibigan ko.
“Yeah, I got caught by surprise that there were a lot of bad comments in the videos, pero I just try to avoid it, of course, and then, everything was nice in the end.”
What do you guys think? Did they do the “reveal” too early?
Hehe. I think it was viral enough. I don’t usually follow celebrities…I didn’t even know who Daniel Matsunaga is until I got curious enough to click the video.
It’s the same with Globe’s Pokwang “scandal” the timings were off and I feel that the viral vid (Pokwang) backfired since the product reveal was too late that everybody thought the whole thing was true. At that point, I’m assuming people got pissed that they’ve been had, particularly if they tweeted, retweeted and posted the viral vids on their walls and such and had people talk and badmouth the actress.
Methinks our viral vids are a tad too sloppy still. It needs more refinement to really tie it up with the brands that they (viral vids) endorse and create a positive interaction with the viewers.
I think it was too early. The potential was not maximized, the reveal – too premature.
I think digital marketers in the Philippines have yet to really master the skill/art of buzz marketing. The Globe, Cebu Pac, and this were great concepts not entirely maximized to its fullest potential.
I still could not find the connection between Veet (a hair removal product) and this viral video. The disconnect made us feel that Daniel had his comments published to save face and cover his… while Heart came to his aid to douse speculations of unfaithfulness (and perhaps seen as a martyr here). Typical showbiz denial. I wonder what the official stand of the company producing Veet is?