Do look Directly at The Sun..

As Rupert Murdoch's recent war against Google gathers momentum, those in the trenches are deploying creative bombs in order to recruit troops from the key, youth market.

The Sun's most recent digital ad is a quirky spoof piece, carrying an important message: lay down your technologically advanced, digitally-enabled information provider, and haste ye back to the newspaper. Why? Quite simply because the newspaper- in this case, The Sun- is older, more traditional and therefore, it knows best. Ultimately, come back to what you know, it makes sense.

The creative focuses upon spoofing the recent Apple iPhone ads, using the The Sun newspaper as the central motif in place of the iPhone. The ad contains many elements which appeal to the important youth market: technology, humour and spoof. Of course, Murdoch's boys are trying to appeal to this demographic because they are arguably the biggest digital consumers and persuading them to step away from digital content is really going for the jugular. So, what best way to reach out to, the sometimes aloof, youth market than to tie everything that they love together, and then flip it. The ultimate aim of this endeavour is to win over this huge market, thereby taking the right steps towards reversing the worrying trend which is keeping Murdoch awake at night: the normalisation of the online newspaper.

Fun, ironic, nicely executed and swiftly passed about (on 2nd December the ad was ranking as number 3 on the Viral Video Chart), the ad produces that important 'smile' factor which you get when something is intertextualised well- which this is.

However, that aside, it cannot be ignored that the ad is asking a lot: not only is the ad trying to persuade today's youth to revert back to paper copies of The Sun- it is asking them to use their handhelds less!! Good God, whatever next? Asking them to turn their iPods down on public transport?!!

Will the ad work and help save Murdoch's empire? Perhaps not. Nevertheless, the ad is cool, funny and popular. If nothing else, it reminds us that The Sun's dry sense of humour remains, even in uncertain times. Also, on a final point, managing to raise a smile out of today's youth is a notable achievement.