When he debuted the moonwalk on the Motown Special. It's hard to imagine in today's YouTube world, but it was a sensation. I remember going to work the next day and everyone was talking about it. My coworker had a new invention called a VCR and actually had it on tape. We watched it over and over again. It seemed superhuman. It defined entertainment. — Helene Rubinstein
My Lord, he is a wonderful mover. He makes these moves up himself and it is just great to watch. I think he just feels that way when he is singing those songs. I don't know how much more dancing he will take up, because singing and dancing at the same time is very difficult. But Michael is a dedicated artist. He dreams, thinks of it all the time. You can see what the result is.
Today is my birthday, but there are much more interesting/exciting/sad/shocking things developing:
Michael Jackson just died
Farrah Fawcett died earlier today
Vince Carter got traded to the Magic (I know that's not as huge, but still!)
Understandably, all this breaking news has transformed Twitter into a very large water cooler tonight. Lots of tweets. Interestingly, according to one Twitter expert's search script, approximately 15% of all posts on Twitter mention Michael Jackson at this time. That same person said tweets about Iran or the swine flu never topped 5%.
Wonder what that says about the King of Pop's iconic place in our culture ... and possibly our somewhat skewed priorities.
“SAN FRANCISCO (PRWeb) June 12, 2009 – Ambergris Films LLC today announces the optioning of a screenplay that has its roots in the popular online social network Twitter. KILLER GREEN is a horror film that mixes cultural icons such as diners and serial killers with news ripped from the headlines such as biodiesel cars and the unscrupulous practices of outlaw doctors.
In February of 2009, a group of users on the social network Twitter had an almost joking conversation about a movie based on a bio-fuel and a killing spree. The project was dubbed “KILLER GREEN” and author David Niall Wilson started typing a script. Since the idea was born on Twitter, Wilson typed the script in scenes and promoted each scene with his account. Each scene was published on his website under a Creative Commons license and broadcast to the Twitter Community. The following grew. After the completion of the screenplay, Wilson signed an option with Ambergris Films LLC. Nearly every part of the deal was transacted via Twitter, save for the signing of contracts. Pre-production started on the project in June, and many images from our production designer Jeff Ensslen are available on the KILLER GREEN website, http://www.killergreenfilm.com.
Many notable Twitter users donated their names to the screenplay, including Internet marketing gurus Chris Brogan and Greg Verdino.”
Brands these days are utilising the massive worldwide audiences of social networking and video sharing sites like MySpace and YouTube to create "viral" video ads. Viral video ads, so called because they spread like a virus on the internet, are made to catch people's attention with something out of the ordinary, something totally crazy but totally cool. Many times people won't be able to tell if they are real or not cause the videos tend to be grainy and shaky amateur styles- making you believe they were filmed by some random dude on the street. Most of the time the brand behind the ad is not overtly mentioned in the video but rather hidden somewhere in the background. The idea being that the video will be viewed by so many people (go viral!) that eventually someone is bound to do some research and figure out who's behind it.
The whole point of these videos from the brand's point of view is to try to ingrain their own brand in pop-culture, to make themselves relevant and stand out from the pack. They are able to create a sense of community through the shared excitment of the video's viral effect. People feel like they are a part of a secret tribe of sorts and they can choose who they want to join. In other words, the brand is basically saying to their audience "Look, we know you, we undertand you, join us, be a part of our tribe, why you say? well check this out- we are cool too". Whether it all translates to sales is another story, but hey when you're getting millions of hits on your viral video ad that can't be a bad thing right?!
Check out a few cool examples below of viral videos. The Quiksilver video had something like 10 million plus hits. Pretty crazy.
Ecko tagged George Bush's Air Force One in this one! Viral video ads usually look budget, but I think this one cost Ecko a fair bit of cash to make.
These two guys played the world's largest Space Invaders game- on a office building. It's not really an ad (unless Space Invaders is trying to make a comeback), but it is super cool. I wonder who's going to take this idea and run with it?!
