Quick Diversion for Short Attention Spans

I'm a big fan of stop motion animation, but it can get old after awhile. I clicked "play" on this video expecting to bail out (like I usually do) after a few seconds. But the simplicity of the concept combined with the infectious sound of Choo Choo La Rouge's "Here Come the Guns" (the guitar-work has a definite Boston sound) made me watch it all the way through. I know I'm not the only one who looks at the total time on a YouTube video and makes an instant judgment based on the length. Thirty seconds to a minute? Sure, I'll watch. Over two minutes? Better be good. Over five minutes? Not watching.



Which reminds me of the trend of late where agencies throw crap up on YouTube and label it an "ad" or a "commercial" when it is really a long, self-indulgent "film" that could only air on YouTube. That's not an ad. That's a naked attempt to be "viral", which, as we all know, works best when it happens by accident. But you go on and listen to your social media consultant/guru who claims he can create a viral video for you that will be seen by millions. When you ask him how he thinks this will affect sales, listen carefully as he explains that it's not about sales, it's about "brand awareness." Everyone's going to be talking about your fake surfing video in the city river, then when they need a wetsuit or a surf-board, your name will be "top of mind."

Seen at Sullivan's blog.

More of my ill-informed opinions on viral here.

Chrome is Shiny and Attractive

I finally tried it - Chrome, Google's browser. Like when Google first came on the scene with their simplified and clean search engine and blew the Yahoos, AOLs and Alta Vistas out of the water, I expect Chrome is going to make a dent in the IE, Safari and Firefox shares of the browser market. It will take awhile, but I think it will happen. I made the switch because Chrome is far better at supporting iGoogle widgets. Does that make me a full-on Google disciple whose personal history, future earning capacity and very soul all belong to the Illuminati and Big Brothers of Mountain Vista? Yeah, probably.

Just saw this nice spot as a pre-roll over at Hulu.

Adobe® - Clay - Same Difference

Put down your fancy electronic crayons and scissors, boys and girls. Watch some old school claymation. This is from 1953 and was the forerunner to "Gumby," created by the same guy.

Wow. Some Kind of Award for This Thing Right Now

(Or as mtlb astutely notes on Twitter: Watch it before it becomes ruined for a JC Penney ad.)

It's the simple things.



Via Captain Andrew "Sully" Sullivan.

Now I Get Twitter

I've been sucked into the Twitterverse Black Hole through work-related necessity. I joined as a student of social media, and I've communicated through it on a few jobs. Mostly, it's a place to read witty tweets by snarky ad people or find out what some guy I've never met ate for breakfast this morning. Until tonight, I didn't understand Twitter's true power.

One of the people I follow is Justus Johnson of Plaid. Tonight, Justus tweeted this about what he was watching on TV.


Now, I know my cable has a built-in guide, and I know I can go to any number of sites that will list for me what is showing in my area, but this is much easier. I wasn't going to look that show up on any guide. Instead, I had the random chance, the unplanned catching of a show I'd been thinking about and wondering whatever happened to. Because Justus saw it, I saw it, ABC got another viewer, and I got to witness why this show doesn't make the rounds much anymore.

Wizards, warlocks. Santa is an outlaw, chased by toy-hating Nazis. Santa as an abandoned Moses baby, left on the doorstep of some family named Kringle. Grows up to defy the Nazis and deliver toys to kids who are needy. Nazis raid houses and confiscate toys, then hold a town-square rally where they burn all the toys and laugh as the town's children cry. Santa (Kris Kringle) locked up as a criminal. Kris' girlfriend gives the reindeer some drugs and they fly. Kris leads his people to the Promised Land (the North Pole), where they practice the works of Jesus, giving to the poor and needy, making life brighter for all the world.

Wow. It's been a while since I watched that show. Thanks, Justus. And long live Twitter.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

The stuff you accidentally find on YouTube is 95% crap, 3% OK. This falls into the undefinable and missing 2%. I was searching for a horrible ad for Big Bob's Flooring Outlet when this came up, from Shoepie.

When Snowmen Go Bad

You know those PSAs done by municipal TV stations? (The same stations that broadcast the county board of commissioners Tuesday night meeting in its entirety.) The spots are almost always sappy, stupid and have really poor production values.

This one is better than most and comes from Springfield, Missouri. It was apparently one in a series called "Character Ed," designed to teach kids to have a good attitude, along with other positive character traits that will cause them to get walked on later in life.

This is the January edition, with happy snowman and grumpy snowman contrasting the right and wrong ways to approach a hard task. Watch after the end, as the makers stuck on an alternate ending. City employees having fun. Who would've thought that was possible?