What The Fox Say? How Twenty-First Century Fox Bought The Best Viral Marketing Opportunity -- Ever

If the fox could speak, he’d be talking about this feat of opportunistic viral marketing.

Fox Broadcasting Company, one of the television divisions of Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ:FOXA), bought the rights to the hit “The Fox” just days after the campy Norwegian pop song went viral.

“We did indeed make the promo and struck an agreement for the rights to use the music,” Gaude Paez, a spokeswoman for Fox, told International Business Times in an email Sunday night. “The promo was actually finished within five days of the original song going viral (but we needed time to get the music cleared, of course!).”

The song, released on YouTube by the Norwegian comedy group Ylvis, features a deadpan seriousness as the singer recites different animal’s calls – “Cow goes moo, cat goes meow” – but devolves into scrappy yelping and banter when declaring, epically, “What the fox say?”

Fox bought the rights to the song, which has blazed a “Gangnam Style”-like path through pop culture over the last few weeks. Now, a commercial with clips from different shows on Fox’s roster, including “Family Guy” and “American Idol,” is featured on the company's video channel with the song playing in the background.