While not selling any one specific product, the two were created to raise consumer awareness of the sponsoring firm. According to ClickZ, visiting the Elf Yourself site 'has become an annual tradition that people look forward to'. Elf Yourself allows visitors to upload images of themselves or their friends, see them as dancing elves, and includes options to save or share the video. This backlash further increased due to Cooks Source's response which showed a misunderstanding of copyright and an increasing agitation to the original writer of the article.
See also: List of viral music videos § Ads and campaigns