Sylvester “Sly” Stallone has jumped on the YouTube takeover bandwagon with a promo for his new film, The Expendables, in which he literally destroys YouTube’s website during an interview with Shira Lazar. As of late, more and more brands are breaking out of the box to promote themselves on YouTube. Samsung released the first ever YouTube takeover game in June, and Cadbury recently released their own branded, round YouTube players. Stallone and The Expendables are next in line with this super exciting, super surprising interview, in which Stallone not only takes over YouTube but completely destroys it.

As you can tell from the screenshot below, The Expendables promo on YouTube looks just like the regular YouTube page. However, you’ll notice that the page doesn’t have any of the regular YouTube functionality (Pause, Play, Comment, etc.) and if you watch the clip you’ll see quickly that it isn’t anything like your regular YouTube video. Things get out of hand, and quick, and it’s super fun to see.

After you watch the promo, check it out again. This time pay attention to the guys in the recommended YouTube clips on the right side of the screen. Did you see them the first time?

The Expendables have also done a good job of helping the promo go viral by adding a great share feature, giving users the option to share with friends via email, Facebook or Twitter. Stallone reminds fans, in his super badass way, “Don’t forget to share.” I shared it, mostly because I was terrified!

I think that these YouTube takeover promotions are absolutely fantastic. I love seeing the unique ideas that different brands are coming up with and how they are taking the YouTube interface to the next level to promote themselves. What do you think of The Expendables promo? How do you feel about these sorts of YouTube promotions in general?