Stayin Alive

Yet another adventure into the great internetopia has led our Social Media class to Viral Videoland, a place where anything is possible. 

Anyone can create a sufficiently edited video and post to the web with a little knowledge and a a lot of creativity (and even the creativity part is flexible). 

With these powers, I too have created a video. The internet is rife with user-creator tools that will help even the most inept internet user create something that any and everybody will want to see. I used Sprout Builder to create my video, but the choices are limitless. Unfortunately, a lot of the sites are still in beta and things are constantly evolving on the site so it might be hard to stay consistent. Sift through the bad to get to the good.

While sitting in my room, listening to my re-mastered Bee Gees vinyl, I realized that people are fighting to stay alive each day. This could be made easier if sexually active individuals would get tested and get tested often. Tests are affordable, easy, and results are possible within 2-3 days.

You can find out more at www.tx.tstd.org

Stay Alive. Get Tested.

Got Guerilla Marketing?

Poor Steve. Frustration gets the better of this businessman, and Cisco Interrated Communications gets a fabulously affordable marketing and PR campaign.

This video has all the aspects of great guerilla marketing. It's not a typical ad, and it looks like it is actually happening. The view from the security cam and the reactions of the people in the hotel make it all seem surreal. Where is Iain you ask? Who knows, but Cisco Integrateted Communications will show you how to prevent something like this from happening. Though you might not know that from just looking at this ad. The very end of the video flashes a website: www.donthaveameltdown.com. You have to go there to see just what this short is about, but eventually it will lead you to Cisco. This trail of virtual breadcrumbs is what's new in marketing. Don't let the name fool you, guerilla marketing isn't something to be feared. Take advantage of it. People have been bombarded with tacky Taco Bell commercials for far too long. It's time to think outside the TV Box and create something that is truly attention getting. I'm all for a little guerilla tactics to get a good point across, and so is Cisco.

Never Gonna Give, Never Gonna Give.....

"You never think it will happen to you. Then it does, and you can't believe you fell for it," says Amy Shypailo. 

Amy Shypailo, 21, recently became yet another victim of a sometimes cruel -- but always entertaining -- internet meme. 

Amy Shypailo was Rick Roll'd.

The Rick Roll is no new phenomenon. However, it's effects are considerably long term. It can take a Rick Roll victim years to recover. Once that vaguely familiar synth beat enters the brain, and that velvety baritone voice fills your earbuds, it may never leave. 

I have shared this story with you because Rick Rolling is touted as a simple Internet Meme [a neologism used to describe a catch-phrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the internet] when in reality it is much more than that. 

Rick Rolling is the result of someone's creative abuse of the video sharing network You Tube. However it does not end there. Rick Rolling quickly spilled over into real life. Red-headed men in trench-coats and black dress shoes popped up in public places, regaling the crowd with stirring renditions of the 80's tune. The internet meme literally came to life.

Rick Astley must be more than happy that someone did for free what a PR professional would be paid thousands of dollars to do. Someone made Rick Astley relevant again. 

Still not clear on what Rick Rolling is? Don't worry, one day it WILL happen to you. If you need a more explicit definition of the term, wikipedia does a pretty good job of laying it all out there.