The characteristics of existing interactive videos

Interactive video is a technique to merge both interaction and linear film video. There are many different types of interactive videos, including; Customizable, exploratory and conversational online interactive videos. Customizable videos allows the user to adjust some variables and then can be customized to the user's particular preference. Exploratory videos allow the user to look at an object such as a piece of artwork from multiple angles almost as though the user was looking at the object in real life. Conversational online interactive videos allow the users to interact with a video almost as though the user was actually having a conversation with the characters in the video in real life.

I watched four different viral videos, two of which were viral adverts and two of which were just YouTube viral videos. One stood out the most for me and that was a viral advert made by Dove self-esteem fund called The dove evolution. This advert began with a regular woman with no make-up on, bad skin and her hair wasn't done. She looks straight into the camera and they speed up the video whilst a range of people are around the woman, putting make-up on her and doing her hair. They then show how they edit the woman's face on Photoshop, making her look flawless but also making her look like a complete different person. They end the advert with an edited version of the woman on a billboard with people walking by and admiring her 'beauty'. The reason behind this advert was to create awareness to teenage girls that believe the women they look at in magazines and believe are much nicer than them are actually made to look like that even though they are all just as 'normal' as everybody else.

A lot of teenage girls have a very low self-esteem because of the models they see in the media such as magazines, billboards, adverts and so on. The models look flawless with a perfect shaped body and amazing facial features causing males to look at other girls in a different way making those girls feel bad about themselves, constantly wanting to lose weight, constantly studying their flaws and neglecting their beauty and I believe it's because of the media. The only reason I don't like this advert is because it's been made by Dove, a company that makes a range of skin creams to make women look younger. I believe their fund is extremely hypercritical and although they have made adverts using women of different shapes and sizes, they still have the women wearing make-up which completely over rights the point of the advert itself.

Overall I did like the advert and the message it portrayed, although I didn't like the founders. I think I may have understood the concept of this advert much more, knowing a different company had made the fund. The characteristics of existing interactive videos are portrayed in different ways and there are also quite a few differences between them.

I found this viral advert on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U