Animated film producer Pixar has surreptitiously released a fake vintage TVC featuring one of the characters from its upcoming movie Toy Story 3 as a part of a viral marketing campaign.

Created to look like an ’80s-style advertisement for Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear, the TVC has spread through social media networks and has been viewed on YouTube over 650,000 times.

The TVC has elicited mainly positive responses from consumers despite it not making any references to the movie itself.

Yahoo! Movies writer, Mike Ryan, has commended the idea as a unique way to market not only the film but its new characters.

“Pretty convincing stuff. The distorted sound, the flickering video, the noise on the bottom of the screen – all tell-tale signs of an old commercial uploaded to YouTube from a long-lost VHS tape,” said Ryan.

Christina Warren from Mashable has suggested that the campaign is indicative of the direction that brands are taking in regard to creating buzz around products online.

“Disney and Pixar have heavily marketed the film across different demographics, but there has a been a strong viral push to grab the attention of people in their mid-to-late twenties. For that reason, creating an ’80s-esque toy commercial makes a lot of sense, because we’re a generation that is obsessed with recollecting our past and relishing what once was,” explained Warren.