ADVERTISING AGE — Danone countered a vicious viral attack on its Actimel yogurt brand in Argentina by fighting rumors with -- other rumors. As marketers struggle to find new ways to protect their brands from social media onslaughts, Danone is re-writing the playbook with its Creator of Rumors (Creador de Rumores) digital effort. But it didn't start out that way. A few months ago a viral e-mail circulated in Argentina, directing people to a web page that described supposed facts about Actimel, such as that the probiotic yogurt brand was addictive, destroyed the stomach's natural flora and could harm childrens' health. Other blogs quickly picked up the story, and the damaging stories were soon the top ones returned in online searches for Actimel...

BRANDWEEK — Last year, those Evian roller babies skated their way into the pages of the Guinness World Records as the most viewed online ad, now with what the company claims is more than 100 million views. Even though the viral video had little offline promotional support in the U.S., its mass appeal won top honors from Time magazine as the No. 1 TV ad of the year and recognition on TBS’ Funniest Commercials of the Year. It became the fifth-most popular video on YouTube. One achievement it didn’t pull off? A boost in U.S. sales. Evian lost market share as sales dropped 28 percent in each of the first two quarters although it reduced those declines to 26 percent in the third quarter and 19 percent in the fourth, according to Beverage Digest...

ADVERTISING AGE — This week on the viral video chart, LG suggests people think twice, Google wants people to think Chrome and Cisco hopes people can't stop thinking about its security with a faux infomercial promoting its SIO to Go iPhone app. And sneaking in at the 10th spot, U.K.'s Drench spring water hopes people latch onto its jazz-playing hamster band. It's also the week for several long-running campaigns to reclaim their superiority. Evian's "Rollerbabies" returns to first place -- its 13th week in that spot and its 23rd straight week on the chart. And T-Mobile's "Dance" returns to the chart, marking its 29th appearance...

ADVERTISING AGE — What's more popular than "Roller Babies"? The world's largest Slip 'n Slide. Microsoft's "Megawoosh" campaign has successfully displaced Evian at the top of the Viral Video Chart, with almost 2.3 million views. Other newcomers include the "Acrobuttocks" campaign, a spoof on Levi's "Guys Backflip Into Jeans" and Ray-Ban's "Guy Catches Glasses With Face" virals, in which people catch laptops between their butt cheeks; an Avril Lavigne-starring perfume promotion (celebrity still sells); and "Bikini Cinema," a campaign for 1690 Swimwear...

ADVERTISING AGE — Perhaps it's the summer weather or vacations beckoning, but this week's Viral Video Chart showed little movement from last week's. All the campaigns should look, well, familiar -- they were all on the chart last week. DroptheWeapons.org's "A Different Ending" saw 105% growth to jump into the No. 2 spot. The choose-your-own-ending campaign out of a U.K. antiviolence organization aims to show the consequences of knives and guns. Evian's rollerskating stuck it out in first place, with 5.3 million views -- still head and shoulders above the second-place campaign -- despite views dropping 56% from last week. And it should be noted that Cadbury's "Eyebrow Dance" marked its 19th consecutive week on the chart...