In early March, Kenneth Cole hinted at the potential value of using online viral video campaigns to support important social issues such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Well, it looks like Greenpeace has employed precisely this strategy to support its activist campaign against Unilever, a company that Greenpeace accuses of wantonly destroying Indonesian rainforests for the palm oil used to create Dove soap.

What's interesting is that the Greenpeace "Onslaught(er)" video about Indonesian rainforests is based directly on the Dove "Onslaught" video that Unilever created to help sell Dove soap. Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty" is generally considered to be one of the greatest viral advertising campaigns in recent memory, so Greenpeace is actually engaging in a form of Web 2.0 jujutsu, using Dove's (i.e. Unilever's) very own strengths against it. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out over the weekend, the Greenpeace campaign has been so massively successful (over 250,000 views in less than a week) that if you type "Dove" into the YouTube search box, the first search result is the Greenpeace viral video, NOT the Unilever viral video!

I've uploaded both videos for a little side-by-side comparison. What do you think: Has Greenpeace gone too far in parodying Unilever for its own activist aims -- or is it a case of anything goes on the Web? (If you don't think this Greenpeace video goes too far, how about this video of Indonesian orangutans attacking Unilever's offices?)