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Introducing Mr. Elvinem #elvis #eminem

 

For my viral post, I wanted to create something original that would connect with as many people as possible. I also wanted them to be so engaged with the post that they felt compelled to like and share it.

With this logic in mind, my first thought went to celebrity memes. These people and their likeness seem to go viral almost weekly and I thought it would give my work the best chance of doing so as well. (i.e. Drake’s Hotline Bling, Beyoncé’s Super Bowl face, Tina Fey’s child running, etc.)

The connections and reach of celebrities seems to invite viral posts. Their large-scale audience also presents a more defined route of success for ordinary people, like myself, to create highly engaging and viral content. So my final product affectionately known as Elvinem or the king of rap&roll was born. Eminem is an absolute lightening rod for controversy, and for this he has always been able to garner massive amounts of attention as an artist, father, and businessman. He is smart enough to know that more eyeballs on him equals more lucrative and marketable ventures for his brand. This is important to my project because given his constant media attention I can only assume that my content will be evergreen in nature, or make sense for years to come. I already know that Elvis content is evergreen and will be understood for decades to come because of his continued resonance power fifty years since his passing.

Giving my post the best chance for long term relevance will allow the content the greatest chance to have a life of its own and retain its meaning years after its creation. So, it was my intention to ride on Eminem and Mr. Presley’s coattails and more specifically play off of Eminem’s reputation of braggadocio in my image. Eminem has famously labeled himself a rap god, so morphing his image with the king of pop seemed to match his persona. Also, choosing a funny head shot of Mr. Mathers gives the audience the permission to find the picture funny and to not take it too seriously. The point of this post is to make people laugh and I wanted to make that abundantly clear in my creation of the mash-up. I also consciously chose to use a very memorable image of Elvis Presley because I wanted to make sure that the audience could recognize him without his face or name put anywhere. That is also why the caption references Elvis’ nickname as the “king of rock&roll” just to reinforce his presence in the mash-up.

Mash-ups have previously been effective on various occasions. An example of a successful mash-up is the photo of Kevin hart and Shaquille O’Neal with switched faces. The mash-up struck a chord with consumers because it was so creative and jarring, but also had enough familiarity that audiences felt “in” on the joke. It was like making a joke about two of your friends. Everyone knows Kevin Hart and Shaq, so the ribbing seemed like another way for people to connect with them personally by sharing jokes, albeit at their expense. It is my hope that Elvinem (my post) will strike a similar chord with audiences. Due to the relative global recognition of these figures, I can only hope that the joke at their expense will result in a highly engaging piece of content.