Bob Dylan launches viral campaign for hits collection

The viral campaign, designed by Ten4, allows recipients to put their own words on the cue cards and send their edited video onto friends. When the viral arrives in people's inboxes it comes with the message: "Bob Dylan has a message for you" in the subject line.

The original video was in fact the opening segment of D. A. Pennebaker's film 'Don't Look Back', a documentary on Dylan's first tour of England released in 1967. The video was shot in an alley behind the Savoy Hotel in London where poet Allen Ginsberg makes a cameo in the background.

The viral also contains links to the official album website, links to buy the album and the DVD as well as information about the original video for 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'.

The marketing campaign is likely to delight some Dylan fans, while others will be further disappointed. One-time protest singer Dylan has been under fire from fans in recent years for some of the commercial deals that he had done.

Last year he appeared in an ad for Apple's iPod cross-promoting his album, 'Modern Times', the first in five years. Two years ago he signed a deal with Starbucks to exclusively sell some of his rarest tracks in its coffee shops.

The year before Dylan fronted an ad campaign for lingerie brand Victoria's Secret. The ads showed Dylan cavorting with scantily clad models to a remix of his 1997 song 'Love Sick'.

Charlie Stanford, the senior marketing director of international catalogue marketing group at Sony BMG, who was behind the idea, said it was intended to connect Dylan with a younger audience.

"We wanted to try to connect with the younger demographic," he said.

The Dylan collection is due out on October 2.