Harry Shearer, who brought you the Katie Couric clip reel, is back with not-for-air footage from Laura Ingraham, the Fox News fill-in who scored her own show in June that is, uh, already finished. "Jesus, God in heaven," Ingraham can be heard saying, in between complaining about the proper spelling of the word "the" and yelling at a "Jessica" about how "ridiculous" some of their screw ups have been. And where's Tom? And don't come in her ear.
Not only is storm chasing a rabid hobby, but it's a career subject to the same "professional jealousy" as other industry where dollars and reputations are on the line! In, in language we can understand: Opportunities for gossip that's rife scandal!
As a doctored tornado video — supposedly of a Nebraska tornado last week, but more likely of a a Kansas tornado filmed four years ago with some haphazard editing — made the rounds to some 2,000 websites and 60 digital customers through distribution from Associated Press, blame is being thrown about every which way.
The AP blamed Andy Fabel, who they paid $295 for the video, for faking the clip after fellow storm chaser Dan Robinson of Appalachian Skies Media called foul. But Fabel insists the footage isn't doctored, and that he's being accused of faking it because people like Robinson are jealous of his "success." CONTINUED »
The Associated Press has pulled video footage of a Nebraska tornado that touched down last week after its authenticity has been questioned. The footage is, likely, taken from a Kansas tornado filmed four years ago, with the clip flipped horizontally, sped up, with power lines added and trees removed. The AP had paid storm chaser Andy Fabel an astronomical $295 for the clip. They will likely want their money back. [AP]
And so it is, the return of the viral video onslaught. This spot, so obviously from Adidas (promoting its Ajax shirt), is shot in the public square in Amsterdam's Leidseplein district. We're only about six days in, so don't judge the video's mere 60,000 views as a measure of success, or failure, just yet. But it's a clever video, and we enjoyed watching it, and it's the type of thing worth emailing to your friends or posting to Fark. And most importantly, it doesn't leave you looking stupid as you try to guess whether some fanboy orchestrated the whole thing, or a guerilla marketing agency.
It's hard to tell where the parody of morning shows like Today and Good Morning America ends and the parody of Nancy Grace begins. But so long as you spend your tax rebate cheque at Home Depot and start stimulating this here economy, does it really matter?
Oh this is just brilliant. "Project Make McCain Exciting: Gray Ambition," a mash up between Madonna's "Vogue" and the Republican presidential hopeful's talking points, is exactly what Internetphobe John McCain needs to reach the progressive Web savvy set. Funny, because it's also what Madonna needs to reach conservative crowd.
China has given the OK to 247 video-sharing sites to resume operations after shutting them down earlier this year. Curiously not making the cut? Tudou.com, Youku.com and, yes, 56.com. [Variety]
As we've noted before, we're growing increasingly suspicious about viral videos. That one with the wild animals? Not yet proven to be a corporate marketing stunt, but we're just waiting for the reveal.
And so arrives this clip. Easily, it could be footage of a friend performing a stupid human trick. Or, as the cynic inside us suggests, it's a spot made by the National Elevator Industry trade group looking to show how safe, and fun, escalators can be.
The advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi won a Cannes Bronze Lion this week for this 60-second J.C. Penny spot. So very clever, viewers concluded! The ad, which features a teen boy and girl timing themselves as they get dressed and undressed, then lying to the girl's parents about what they planned on doing in the basement, might, to some, encourage teen sex. Racy! Which is why, in fact, J.C. Penny never approved the ad — and expected it to die on the cutting room floor. It didn't, and S&S submitted it to Cannes. Now, execs at the retailer are, supposedly, furious over the spot and the attention its getting, which is the reaction any responsible mega-corp would need to have. Except if said execs are actually any good at their job, they're going to put their feet on their desks and congratulate themselves over the endless brand impressions they received from all the free publicity and their ability to come across as hip to the teen market they so desperately court, all while maintaining deniability.
The film Watch Out, the trailer of which is posted here, tells the tale of Jonathan Barrows (played by MySpace, um, "sensation" Matt Riddlehoover), a man who literally falls in love with himself. He loves his smile. He loves his hands. He loves his torso. And yes, he probably loves the X-rated parts of himself too. So much so that he enters a sexual relationship with a blow-up doll of himself. It reminds us of that Ryan Gosling movie Lars and the Real Girl, except with this movie, you can't tell whether it's going to be absolutely terrible just by looking at the trailer, [via K212]
We've spent many instances of clicking "publish" discussing viral marketing or, as it's known in some circles where buzzwords don't annoy, "murketing." From Levi's uploading a video to YouTube featuring young people jumping into pants to LG's not-exactly-secret-but-very-creepy spot for its Secret phone, the trend of paying very little for a video spot that reaches a much wider audience than a TV spot ever could is a growing one.
Auto maker BMW and its agency GSD&M understood this quite well, which is why they spent a few bucks on a five-day shoot to produce a half-hour mockumentary, in the style of This Is Spinal Tap, about a Bavarian's town attempt to launch a new BMW 1 Series, via ramp, from Germany to the United States.
When the clips began popping up in February, it wasn't long before most everybody called bullshit on them, and linked the spots, part of a campaign called "Rampenfest," to BMW. The car company, however, refused to acknowledge it was behind the project. More so, they even went the additional step and "created a Web site for the fictional events planner, Franz Brendl, and the fictional Bavarian town of Oberpfaffelbachen. Several characters, including the faux film maker, got their own Facebook profiles."
Now, the Wall Street Journal issued a postmortem on the stunt, which argues BMW could've faced significant backlash for its unconventional – though, these days, all too conventional – attempt at reaching younger consumers, by refusing to own the spots when they were found out. CONTINUED »
How long until the Parents Television Council summons a firestorm for over this "viral" spot for LG's new Secret phone? In the ad, a good-looking creep peeks out from his apartment window to capture, using his chic new Secret phone, a lovely sleeping lady next door, who just so happens to be wearing a revealing nighty that she squirms around in. Sure, it's ends up being – spoiler alert! – a dream sequence, but this is the sort of thing they build Law & Order: SVU episodes around.
Click below for LG's less stalker-y alternative clip for their phone. CONTINUED »
This advertisement, airing in the UK and promoting Sure Girl deodorant, was yanked form airwaves when the Advertising Standards Authority there received 21 complaints.
Viewers weren't upset about young girls dancing to a sexually provocative Pussycat Dolls song — they were upset the girls were dancing in an old VW van without seatbelts.
Nevermind that Unilever insisted the ad was filmed in a stationary van, and that the movement of the vehicle was from the girls dancing. Because who doesn't climb into the back of their parents VW while it's sitting in the garage to bust out to some pop singles?
It's with great sadness that we can no longer watch videos like this one – entitled "People's encounters with wild animals in daily life" – without immediately jumping to the conclusion that it is a fake and, worse, that it was put together by a creative marketing agency with a product to push.
These viral videos, named for their inclination to spread like the nasty crap that'll force you to the ER at 4am with a burning sensation, are now becoming the territory of corporate America. And lately, these murketing efforts have simply stopped making sense.
Sure, there are the obvious videos, like the one where young people are taped finding various ways to jump into a pair of jeans, courtesy Levi's. And then there's the other end of things, like that "office freakout" video that had almost nothing to do with the project it was promoting (the movie Wanted).
So who's behind this one? It could be the work of somewhere that makes sense, like the San Diego Zoo. Or maybe it's a Frisbee company. (You'll have to watch the video to understand that.)
The now-infamous video of the "security camera catches office freakout," which was exposed as a fraud almost as quickly as everyone assumed it to be, turned out actually to be a viral gimmick for the new Angelina Jolie movie Wanted, from Timur Bekmambetov.
So how does this clip, which shows a cubicle sufferer absolutely lose it in front of his coworkers, fit in with what the movie is about?
Because, as some Russian translating reveals, the movie is about escaping your everyday life, just as the loon in the video wants to. Ehhhh, that's a stretch.
At last(?), the mystery behind the videos of cell phones supposed popping corn, which has been seen nearly 2 million times, is solved: It's an ad. For Cardo Systems.
Surprise!
Oh, murketing, that buzz word describing the stunts pulled by Levi's, Coor's Light, and Nike, which produce stunt videos, post 'em on YouTube, and wait for viewers to eat them up. Unlike TV spots, the clips are cheap to produce, free to distribute, and find audiences in the hundreds of thousands and beyond with a creative that people want to watch.
And: We fully support them.
Parking your car sure can be hard. Even if you have a license and have done it before!
Getting the word out about a nifty feature on one of your cars can also be tad bit difficult. Because people are inundated with THREE HUNDRED MILLION marketing messages a day!
So Volkswagon – or so their "guerilla" video clip would have you believe – went around a parking lot in Brazil and applied stickers to all the cars sporting dents, dings, scratches, and scuffs, alerting them to a standard feature on the VW Polo: the parking sensor.
It's the most basic marketing pitch in the history of all marketing: You've got a problem, we've got a solution. And also, if you want those stickers removed properly without leaving that crappy film when you rip them off, you should head to your local VW dealership, 'cause they're probably the only ones who are going to be able to do that for you.
Shallon Lester, the CONTINUED »
When one thinks "straight-to-DVD," images of The Hottie and The Nottie might come to mind. Actually, that movie did open in theatres, grossing a blockbuster $27,696 its opening weekend. But it's all the same.
But here's one straight-to-DVD project you can get behind: The Onion Movie. The fake news network brings you "crucial stories," like an industry recall of motor vehicles with neck belts, which cause decapitation. And a cameo from Steven Segal, who is finally in on the joke that his acting chops carry a certificate from The Freddie Prinze Jr. School of Acting, cement this as a must-pirate DVD.
Though she scored a victory in Puerto Rico, what we'll take away from Hillary Clinton's weekend are photos like this one, and videos like the one at left.
Way to represent, New York.
