Combine the power of the internet for instantaneously sharing content with the web-savvy population that use it, and you’ve got yourself a competitive viral marketplace, with companies vying for that latest ‘must share’ piece of marketing genius.

CarrieChloe Moretz as Carrie

The creative team behind Carrie’s promotion – the upcoming reboot of the cult classic starring Chloe Moretz – had the idea of rigging a coffee shop with the required props to make it look like Carrie’s telekinesis was a very real thing. A woman gets angry at a guy for spilling her coffee, and, well, you can see the rest in the video below.

But this isn’t the first viral marketing prank, and it certainly won’t be the last. Here, we take a look at some of the more memorable candid averts, and compare them to the Carrie coffee shop video.

Coca Cola, despite being one of the more dangerous and all-encompassing corporations on this dilapidated planet, have managed to carve out a reputation of airy delight and happiness, no doubt imparted by marketing campaigns like this. The Happiness Machine features a vending machine giving out infinite Cokes, flowers, glasses and laughs.

When Ronaldinho was at the top of his footballing powers, Nike had a stranglehold on the beautiful game. A combination of the two entities was inevitable, and this viral vid had the best thing going for it: people couldn’t figure out if it was real or not, leading to a massive online and word-of-mouth discussion. Gold dust for any marketing executive.

Will it blend? That is the question Blendtec asked the public, but they weren’t looking for an answer per say; rather, they knew the public wanted to watch stuff get blended up. Slow-motion Footage combined with expensive phones being torn apart in a really powerful blender made this a video worth sharing, putting this particular brand of blender into the mainstream.

The Godfather of movie virals has to be The Blair Witch Project, which instilled that golden question (again): is it real? Loads of people asked themselves that, fully engaging into the legend that was Blair Witch. The fact that the film was great didn’t hurt its reputation either, but it’ll always be remembered for that innovative marketing campaign.

For us, Blair Witch takes the biscuit when it comes to viral marketing, especially bearing in mind it was done way back in 1999. But all of the viral ads mentioned deserve credit for their innovative use of the sharing generation to spread the word about their product.