Shark Week: It’s the Super Bowl of Shark-Related Television Programming

How can you tell when a cultural phenomenon has really hit the big time? When advertising executives start asking each other, 'Okay, now how can we use this to sell shit?'

Think Star Wars. Think the Super Bowl. Think Justin Bieber. All of these phenomenons are used to sell you (or your kids) stuff you may or may not need.

Well guess what, everybody? Shark Week has now officially hit the big time. This year marks the 26th anniversary of the bitiest week in basic cable programming, and now we're starting to see advertisers come up with campaigns designed specifically with Shark Week in mind.

Sure, we're not in Summer Olympics territory yet. So far the Shark Week marketing has been of the viral variety—i.e., confined to Vine and YouTube. But it's still a pretty big sign of the cultural impact Shark Week now has.

What am I, Willis, talking about, you wonder?

Well, there's this Vine created and tweeted by Tide with the hashtags #TidePower and #SharkWeek:

Then there's this Vine created and tweeted by Volkswagen with the hashtags #VWSharkWeek, #VW, and #SharkWeek:

And of course there's this YouTube ad from The Weather Channel advertising its coverage of hurricane season—an no, TWC and Discovery are not owned by the same company:

Pretty crazy, right?

Now, if you'll excuse me I have to go buy some laundry detergent.

H/T – [AdWeek]