Nu-Advertising

Celebrity Apprentice is over and done with. But there are still various bad tastes left in my mouth.

One of them is the taste of "viral video". The company All wanted the teams to make viral videos to get the news out about their detergent blah blah blah. The video with Jesse James at least had a bit of the spirit of what could become a viral video (people love midgits partying with Jesse James) but of course it comes across as forced (although not as completely loopy as the other video which was just some cowboy's idea of a dirty joke).

I can't even find any real versions of the videos on YouTube to post for people that want to see them. I apologize.

But what made me the angriest was that companies try to apply the old maketing strategies to the YouTube and internet frontiers. If that worked, people would just be watching commercials on YouTube. Guess what, that already happens, but more often than not, its a fluke, or just because something was particularly hilarious or embaressing about the ad. Not because the marketing was spot on and because the demographic was pandered to... and especially not because the product was properly branded.

I was skeptical that people could intentionally make internet friendly ads. Ads that were conciously in the spirit of weird online videos, and still promote a product or company... but I might be wrong.

Here are a couple of videos that were put together as online viral video advertising.






Neither of those could be put on any television channel before 3am and after 6am. Both are brilliant. They take their subject, point out something ridiculous about them and play it out to amazing levels of irony. YouTube fucking loves irony.

While I'm not sure that the clients for these advertisers understand exactly what they are being put through, I think its great to see people taking chances into something entertaining, than shoving another billboard / tv commercial / magazine ad / banner ad (web and phone) / product placement into my face. Less irritation is more better.

Susan Boyle: Unmarketable to Marketable

Like most guys, I enjoy sports, fart jokes, and ignoring my feelings.

But when I watched this, tears welled up in my eyes and I was overwhelmed with... whattya call those things? Right--- emotions.

I had read a little bit of a story in the New York Times and my first reaction was "I've seen uglier" and my second was offense that an older, homely lady being able to sing, was news. But then I saw the video, and unless she turns out to be a closet racist / serial murderer, she might be the most lovable reality television star in history (which, now that I think about it, doesn't really say much, but still, she's goddamn lovable).


She has the best singing voice I have ever heard from anyone. There's just something about hearing a singer that hasn't gone through the Pro Tools ringer that adds that extra dimension of emotion that can't be faked.

And now I need to go play some Mad World to try to reclaim my masculinity through as much senseless violence as possible.