Viral video consequences

"Viral" has a certain meaning for us amid our spate of H1N1 warnings, but in marketing, the concept refers to getting your message consumed and extended via sharing among users on social networks. Facebook and Twitter matter, but e-mail is still a primary way we set viral messages in motion interpersonally.
A Danish organization learned something about this recently when a fracas erupted over a video "hoax" uploaded to YouTube. Check out the video and some of the reaction.
Some people are asking, "What were they thinking?" Others are saying, "They were thinking there's no such thing as bad publicity. In viral terms, this thing was a monster hit."
What say ye?

Cool Digital Strat Comm

OK, this is really fun. Look at the innovation from marketers at Holiday Inn Express. They found a way to tie into the interest and energy about the primary campaigns with an interactive branding message. You can highlight a candidate and find out how much he or she would have saved by staying at their hotels instead.
This is edging into an area of interactive that tries to get users to play games to keep them on a site and attending to a message. It happens in news too. It also emphasizes viral, not paying to get a message out but making it interesting enough to get people to forward it for you (much as I'm doing here).
Is this effective? Would you share it?