It’s not just the swine flu that’s going viral these days. Three videos from “The Fun Theory,” an initiative of Volkswagen’s to promote healthy living, amassed almost 2.5 million views on YouTube since going viral only six days ago. More impressive is that they had to reach us all the way from Stockholm, where ad agency DDB Stockholm put together this excellent campaign.

As Mashable points out, VW uses almost no direct brand placement in any of the videos, opting only for a small logo at the end. But there’s actually more. All those black screens with tight white lettering? We see you, VW, and we see what you’re doing. Only Apple uses those two colors as well as the German automakers.

The videos reminded me of the great Grand Central Freeze put on by ImprovEverywhere a couple years ago in New York City. Both campaigns worked under the pretense that you have to influence people on a personal level before you can extend your brand.