Life-sized Angry Bird game is a smash hit

There are some video games that have that little extra something. It's the something that whispers in your ear to play for 'just another 5 minutes', causes you to put off cleaning the car until you 'beat the boss', and makes you itchy when you haven't played in a while. When T-Mobile decided to make a real-life version of the exceedingly popular Angry Birds game, they cashed in on that little extra something for an outdoor stunt that truly hit it off.

Starting out as a little iPhone application, Angry Birds got famous on its simple game goal: to knock as many pigs and buildings down as possible by flinging birds at them (you heard right, this is the combination for a seriously addictive application). The human-scaled version of the game was constructed by T-Mobile in Barcelona where participants could launch the life-sized birds using a smartphone. "With our biggest range of smartphones, you can join the fun wherever you are" – it works, but it isn't the strongest link to the T-Mobile brand. However, looking at the video (and how its spreading like crazy via YouTube), you can see how popular the stunt was… so does the strength of the brand link really matter?

The Green Room Verdict: Another striking example of how fun games can get the attention of the public, with a video that has tons of viral potential. Although the spectacle doesn't have a particularly strong link with T-Mobile, this is part of what makes the viral video work. It is not an obvious advertisement, nor is it fake. It's a brief, memorable video that is easy to share… which is a formula that T-Mobile has had success with in the past (remember their Royal Wedding spoof?).