Monday, March 10, 2008

Shifting from 5th to 2nd

I did that once. Weeks after buying my first manual transmission I was getting off the highway and accidentally shifted from 5th to 2nd gear. Needless to say, my eyeballs near popped out of my head. And, dear friends, that is what I am going to you. I'm going to pop those peepers right out of your skull. I will also ease up on the drama...it is unbecoming of me.





My point is that I am shifting gears in this blog. We will still be moving in the same viral marketing direction but at a different pace...a more fun pace. Are you sick of my car metaphors yet? Me too.





This came about because I recently discovered the G4 network. And specifically, a program called 'Attack of the Show'. This program features all kinds of gadgets and innovations from the high tech world. Basically, news for geeks. One of the show's segments is called 'Around the Net' where they highlight the days top 5 viral videos. I am going to present these videos and add my own comments about each one. In the immortal words of Flounder from the movie Animal House - "Isn't this great?"





March 10th, Monday


5. Street Fighter II Hall of Fame Commercial

Maybe I am showing my age, but I don't get it. This video is not amusing to me. I was not into Street Fighter nor modern G.I. Joe's. I was into this kind of G.I. Joe:
(Ohhhhh.....yeah)
But for those of you into this kind of thing, I can see how this video could trigger fond memories and may make one re-interested in both brands.

4. LOL Colon Hyphen Right Parentheses
Wow! Look how far our new internet lexicon has taken us. Right back to Johnny Cash in the '60s. I believe they said this guy is 69 years old (no jokes please...that's gross) and boy is he hip. What made my laugh the most was that he is obviously somewhere in middle America and has probably just gotten out of that sweet RV where he drinks cheap beer and writes stupid songs without the fear of his tyrannical wife forcing him to get back to the Wal-Mart where he greets customers.

3. Magpul Industries SHOTSHOW
FRIGGIN' AWESOME! If it was not for viral marketing I would never have known this product existed. Only in the U.S. of A. could a solution be found to one of my greatest fears. Dig this. You are helping you father work on the engine of a Dodge Charger at midnight and suddenly those damn commies invade, ala Red Dawn style, what do you do? I used to stay awake at night trying to solve this riddle. But somebody smarter than me has it all figured out. God Bless America.

2. Puppies Get Revenge On Marine
I have mixed feeling about this one. But anyway you slice it...I don't like it. The original video is gruesome and awful, but what is the purpose of this video? Is it to make light of a bad situation? Then that is in bad taste. Is it to shine a hard hitting lefty view on the subject. Well...you failed. I now hate St. Bernards and Dalmatians.

1. New Speed Racer Trailer
WHY?! Obviously this trailer is promoting the new Speed Racer movie. And as far as viral marketing of the project goes...they did a good job. It was on the G4 network embedded in a show. But the original show was a campy, badly animated Japanese Anime. Does this really need to made into a movie? I can buy all the episodes on DVD for $19.99. Really, people?
So who wants to go see it with me?

1 comment:

Vienne said...

So you're ... 45!? JK!! :-D
Do you ever watch CNETTV.com? That Molly chick is really funny! I love their coverage at CES (where they show all the cool gadgets and such) and the Detroit Autoshow. I guess this doesn't really have to do with Viral Marketing, on the other hand, if they talk about cool enough stuff, people, then people will pass the video along. Now, if you were CNET, or any other web publisher, would you invest on the "Forward Video to a friend" component, or would you bet that they will mostly copy/paste the link to their friend? I guess the question is, which method do people depend on to uh...virally pass things along?