Archives for posts with tag: YouTube

Scarface the School Play

April 2, 10 //
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As in the case with most viral videos, this elementary school production of “Scarface” is too good to be true.

Masterminded by LA director Marc Klasfield, the video has drawn over two million views on YouTube to become this week’s top viral sensation, and has spawned a fair amount of controversy from viewers who were shocked by the seemingly real school play. Using an odd, G-rated version of the script (“You motherfudging son of a b!”), the kids run through the final scene of “Scarface,” complete with a popcorn pile of cocaine and a bunch of toy guns.

The YouTube comments are priceless, as internet denziens scold the imaginary parents and teachers behind the play…our favorite? “The parents have to be very ignorants or be Idiots, to allow childrens to play a dirty roll like that… Wake up parents, we have better things to teach our childrens.”

Klasfield is no stranger to viral video — looking at his resumé with his production company, Rock Hard Films, he’s also filmed an MC Hammer-themed flashmob for A&E that might not be as awesomely bizarre as his interpretation of “Scarface,” but no less silly and re-watchable.

Source: NY Daily News

Iamamiwhoami

January 29, 10 //
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It appears that if you really want to get your music video seen, it’s best to not tell anyone who made it.

Enter the iamamiwhoami viral video series, featuring surreal imagery and dark, atmospheric electronic beats. So far, three videos have been released, each without any credit to the artist behind the music or the visuals. There have been a number of guesses (Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor, The Knife, Lady Gaga, Klaxons, Christina Aguilera[?]), but with no proof one way or another.

All we know is, they’re pretty awesome, and we’re excited to see where this viral series goes!

Guesses in the Trent Reznor camp have some weight to their claims, considering Reznor’s use of viral marketing for his Year Zero album, but everything at this point remains a guess. The Knife seem likely, considering they’ve emerged from hibernation with their avant-garde opera about Charles Darwin, “Tomorrow In A Year”, and of course, Lady Gaga has been heading towards the deeply strange over the course of the last year, so she’s in the running as well.

Our personal hope is that Taylor Swift has a dark, twisted side that we’ll see at the end of this viral campaign. Fingers crossed.

Go to iamamiwhoami’s YouTube page for the two other videos.

More local commericals

January 20, 10 //
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We found a three-part musical odyssey on good ol’ YouTube today.  Luckily, it’s Steve Winwood-free, and it was commissioned by car dealership owner Cecil Myers.

His voice is tuneless, yet somehow totally endearing in its flatness, like Lou Reed, except Cecil’s selling you Mitsubishis at a reasonable price.

The first installment is a relatively cutesy uke track, complete with a lady on a boat.

If you think you had Cecil pegged, THINK AGAIN.  Homeboy then proceeds to bring it down home and down with the homies, as it were:

As for the rap, it threatens the “Wet Pets” rap previously posted on our blog as the most innovative fusion of rap music and local basic cable television commercials.

I don’t know if this was a pitch for Cecil to “reach the kids” from a local video company, or music is just in his heart, albeit music that’s more or less never in tune.

No thanks, Jabbawockeez

January 7, 10 //
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Sometimes we’re stuck doing enough work that we forget to make our rounds on the blogosphere, so it’s been a while since we’ve checked out one of our favorite blogs, Yes Yes Y’all. Excellently curated, designed and updated, the blog regularly collects both our favorite videos (Loofa Time) and our favorite music (The XX, Nosaj Thing…).

So we weren’t surprised when we found another gem posted about a week ago by YYY:

Thanks to MTV’s “America’s Next Best Dance Crew,” we forgot that breakdancing can actually be kind of great, especially when paired with a simple weird concept and an eye for eerie parallels in cinematography. Maybe we just fell off the breakdance boat after the Ice-T MC’ed pinnacle in “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” or maybe saying that we didn’t like breakdancing because of MTV is saying we decided to hate food after watching too much “Iron Chef America.”

Either way, this video is what we’d imagine the dance-off in “Beat It” would feel like, if you were neckdeep in Kubrick films and psychedelics. Cold, crisp, and really rad.

still obsessed with miracle whip.

November 3, 09 //
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I don’t want to harp too much on the currently much-maligned Miracle Whip ad that has been on the blog twice already, but something about this video is eating at my brain. My girlfriend began playing devil’s advocate about whether or not the video was effective, and my mind opened up and entered a new world of post-ironic new web marketing.

Were Miracle Whip right all along???

I still want to say no — just because a video gets watched, doesn’t mean a campaign is successful. Miracle Whip, with these videos, are looking to attract a new audience using earnest value statements, and trying to connect their brand to ideas of individualism, rebellion and youthful exuberance. Recalling that Miracle Whip is a mayonnaise brand, this is a silly idea, as I’ve never thought about how my sandwich condiments reflect who I am as a person, with the exception of grilled onions — they show my creative side. Miracle Whip took a general marketing concept, attaching personal values to a product, and twisted it into the first 30-second spot to feature potato salad AND DIY Brooklyn rooftop parties.

But again, let me reiterate my crippling fear that Miracle Whip are actually totally right and because I’m posting about it on my blog, they have succeeded in a viral marketing coup, because I’m now their source of word-of-mouth online mayonnaise buzz. To be fair, is their bizarre “We Will Not Tone It Down” Obama-esque declaration for their mayonnaise brand any different than the surreal Absolut Vodka ads done by Zach Galifinakis and Tim and Eric? Yes, but no. I laughed out loud at both, and even though only one was funny on purpose (I think), I found myself sharing both with everyone I knew. Did I secretly not want to tone it down???

Perhaps the Miracle Whip campaign is truer to the spirit of raw “viral videos” like Keyboard Cat or other “accidental” viral videos — its sharability is spontaneous, unplanned and perhaps more authentic. So did Miracle Whip get me in on their marketing plan by accident? Is my self-proclaimed internet savvy no match for Miracle Whip’s brilliant advertising techniques?

I still say no — at the end of the day, the advertisement created by Miracle Whip doesn’t get me on board with the values they are trying to associate with their product, and that’s where their video fails. And although it has “virality,” this isn’t a viral video, it’s an advertisement, and advertisements are supposed to connect customers with a product. When I buy mayonnaise, no matter how many times I Twittered their ads, I’m probably still buying Best Foods.

And although I have now posted two rants about Miracle Whip’s new advertisements, I won’t be hunting for their tangy zip in my grocer’s mayonnaise sections.

Because I’d really prefer it if they toned it down.