YouTube Ups Censorship

Like many online communities, YouTube allows users to police themselves for the most part. This strategy works great assuming the majority of viewers have an understanding of morals and artistic merit at the same time.
Traditionally, any video can be “flagged” by a YouTube user if they feel it violates the terms of service. An actual YouTube staff member then views the video and decides if it is to be limited to viewers of 18, removed or left alone. Recently however, YouTube has changed the flagging system into a more detailed and seemingly stricter flagging policy.
While the removal of copyrighted material, pornography or graphic violence is understandable, videos can now be removed for being “Suggestive, but Without Nudity” or classified as “Other Dangerous Acts” along with 15 additional categories.
“Suggestive but Without Nudity”? This seems rather vague and could be applied to probably 80% of YouTube content. One such victim of this flagging was the user “CiamMusic” for the UK band, CIAM. Their music video clip for “Egyptian Animal” featured two androgynous/animal cartoon figures running set to music. Keep in mind this was not live-action, but a moving graphic of two figures. The only thing remotely “suggestive” could be that they had nipples. Still, the last time I checked we all have nipples- even animals. Even cartoon animals apparently.


It seems, however, that these policies don’t apply to everyone, particularly YouTube Partners. YouTube Partners receive a small portion of YouTube’s profits for their content and in turn create substantial views for the online giant. One example of this nepotistic treatment is the NoGoodTV channel.
NoGoodTV seems to feature only suggestive material. Their videos routinely contain scantily clad women, interview playmates, suggestive dancing and cursing. In fact, NoGoodTV’s recent upload of Endeverafter’s “Baby Baby Baby” music video contained violence, sexually explicate actions and poll dancing strippers- all without so much as an over-18 warning.

The internet belongs to no single nation, no single social or political group and certainly no single set of morals. YouTube is one of the loudest voices on the internet and has responsibility to provide an unbiased view of censorship.
All YouTubers are equal, but some YouTubers are more equal than others.

Another Viral Layer

Like an onion, any good viral campaign has layers. Unlike an onion, they shouldn't make you cry. The Farah McDaring/ The Incredible Machine campaign has accomplished just that feat, but has even got the general public in on the act.
The latest video titled Farah Asks "What's in your Bag?" has received several great responses from vloggers including this little gem below.

The Buzz About The Bumblebeez

Sorry about the title of this post. I couldn't help myself.
But here's an interesting piece of viral video by the Bumblebeez. One wonders how many kids will be drawing on their arms and bellies in response. Kudos to the band for not indulging in any super model fantasies here. The raw feel is much more unique. It just shows that not all ideas have been done before ;)

Farah McDaring brings you "The Incredible Machine"

The object of the game is to solve real world object puzzles by the construction of a Rube Goldberg machine.
The Microsite is pretty neat too, it even has an interactive video for you to mess with.

Viral breakers = Wirebreakers

Here's an interesting campaign for Motorola's wireless headphones called Wirebreakers. The videos feature kids "krump" dancing to strangers while wearing their wrireless headphones. It has an interesting prank element and shows the product off in a hip way. Kudos to Motorola for meeting consumers where they live - and for knowing what krump the hell dancing is!


www.wirebreakers.com

Paying the Piper

YouTube announced Friday that it will distribute a cut of the revenue it generates from banner ads to its most popular contributors. The decision will not only drive YouTubers to generate better content, but will answer media companies that see the website as a source of pirated TV shows and video clips. Though YouTube has not set forth any criteria for videos to receive a pay-off, original content will certainly be a requirement.

YouTube isn't the first online video site to share profit with its users. Although they lack YouTube's traffic, Revver Inc., Metacafe Inc. and Break.com already pay contributors.

We Can Digg It

The internet may actually be useful to those living under a rock for a change. That is, if they happen to have a DVD player under there with them and love pirated movies. The secret "HD DVD Key" was leaked and spread via Digg.com throughout the internet.
This string of 32 digits and letters in a specialized counting system is used by the technology and movie industries to prevent piracy of high-definition movies. Someone found and posted the key, causing a worldwide internet and legal riot. BBC, CNN, ABC and NYTimes covered the story and started discussions about user generated content, copyrights and online riots.


Despite a cease and desist declaration, Digg.com decided it would no longer remove stories containing the code. After all, it is a fact that once something is out on the internet, it is out there indefinitely. Kevin Rose, creator of Digg, stated in his blog, "You’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be. If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying."
Brava, Digg. Common sense prevails.

Dancing with myself...

Listerine is jumping on the YouTube "brandwagon" by starting a user group for their FRESHBURST Listerine PocketPaks and advertising via banner ads. The user group asks Tubers to submit videos and answer questions on their discussion board. It's two months into the campaign and what's the problem? No one has.



Listerine asks, "What would you like to try again for the second time?" An interesting enough query that certainly warrants a response. Perhaps Listerine should lead by example with their own call-to-action video. Or, maybe they would like to try this campaign launch again for the second time.

ViralFuel's Viral Pick

This comedy commercial spoof for The Viral Learning Center really makes a great point about the medium... but mostly it just makes us laugh.

Created by Ziddio.

A Campaign of Dirt

TerraCycle, a small organic plant-food brand, has no media spending bugdet, but has landed features on CBS Evening News, CNN, CNBC and many other outlets. How? Touting that the small company as being sued by a monster rival. Or, a modern David VS Goliath, as TerraCycle puts it.

Scotts, the $2.7 billion maker of Miracle-Gro, which in March sued its tiny foe ($6 million in projected 2007 sales) for trade-dress infringement and false advertising.
TerraCycle smartly launched a website, SuedbyScotts.com, lampooning Scotts and its action. The site includes hilarious side-by-side comparisons of the companies' CEOs. Mr. Szaky's (from TerreCycle) main perk: "Free worm poop." Scotts Chairman-CEO Jim Hagedorn's: "Personal use of company-owned aircraft valued at $555,465 last year." The site also lists 81 other lawn-and-garden products that use green-and-yellow packaging like Miracle-Gro's.
Hopefully this fantastic engine-that-could company will win out over corporate greed. You can help by donating to their defense (via the website) or even by using "worm poop" to beautify your patch of Earth.

Creating A Buzz

KFC is introducing a new TV advertisement today (featured below) which is supposedly embedded with the Mosquito Tone. Set at an extremely high frequency, the mosquito tone is allegedly too high-pitched for many adults to hear. It is true however that most people begin to lose the ability to hear high frequency tones starting at age 20.

Can you hear this buzz? My guess is yes, no matter what your age. KFC may have simply used the "buzz" around the mosquito tone to bring controversy to the campaign.

Second Life Receives First-Rate Advertising

Coca Cola is launching a contest for the design of a virtual Coke machine to be utilized in the online game Second Life. The latest Second Life rendered commercial is featured below.
Second Life, which recently ran contests for CK in2u, has been established as the virtual marketing Mecca. The contest invites people to design a Coke dispensing machine for use only in Second Life. This means that the only limits are that of the designer's imagination. Participants won’t have to create it themselves; just provide the design by explaination video. Submissions are being accepted directly through Coca Cola, as a YouTube video, and on their MySpace Virtual Thirst page. Contestants need not even be members of the Second Life community.
While this campaign has great potential reach, the Virtual Thirst YouTube page has yet to engage a large viewership.
Got ViralFuel?

TurboTax Raps It Up

The winner of the TurboTax TaxRap campaign was announced via YouTube on April 12th. The announcement video featured the winning rap and also a phone call to it's creator, Christian Pulfer. Pulfer, a 28-year old Brooklyn real estate investor, will take home $25,000 in cash.
More importantly, TurboTax has taken in over a quarter million viewers and climbing.

Ask A Ninja How To Get A Book Deal

Douglas Sarine and Kent Nichols, the duo behind online phenomonon Ask A Ninja have recently sold a book to Random House unit Crown Publishing for a reported six figures. The publisher outlasted several other bidders for the title, which will be called "The Ninja Handbook." Sarine and Nichols recently won the YouTube Video Award for best series, considered the Oscars of the viral-video world.
Bravo, gentlemen.

What is "Viral Fuel"?

With the YouTube awards and 2006 all tied up, it’s fascinating to look back and explore certain videos and why they went uber-viral. Especially those creatives that transcended the internet and became a part of television, media and popular culture.
OK Go’s music video for Here it Goes Again became an over night success when they posted it on their YouTube page a full year after it’s creation. The treadmill dancing video soon had viewers flocking to gyms with video cameras. The song and/or video concept have since been used in mainstream advertising with Cingular, NHL, Nike and iPod.
No one was quite sure how the video blog LonelyGirl15 got off the ground in such a huge way. Many have speculated that the underground blogger network, the ZeitGhosts, gave her the first push. No matter how she got there, the LonelyGirl15 series is still one of the most viewed channels on YouTube. It was also the first piece of viral content ever to be parodied by a celebrity (Carmen Electra). And has since inspired Ron Jeremy, Law and Order: SVU and countless YouTube viewers.
Successful virals have to engage an audience in a way that they haven't been engaged before, such as first hand. The Diet Coke and Mentos phenomenon did exactly that by allowing viewers to try the experiment themselves and then post the results on YouTube. Letterman even got into the act on his late night talk show by bringing the soda-geyser to the television audience.
No one has been more upset about viral fame than Ghyslain Raza, AKA The Star Wars Kid. His “dorky duel with a lightsaber” has was released by his classmates in 2003 and has since spun more remixes than anything else on the internet. The TV series Arrested Development depicted main character, George Michael Bluth’s, lightsaber dance video- later seen a total of four more times in the series.
With all that said, how do you turn your creations into a phenomenon? Viral Fuel.

Most Discussed

Last year Jonathan Schoenberg of TDA Advertising & Design conducted a guest lecture in Boulder, CO and smashed the disruptive cell phone of a student with hardly a pause in his sentence. Naturally, somebody recorded it. In 12 months the "Angry Professor" video made multiple public TV and news cameos on ABC Nightly News, MSNBC, CNN and O'Reilly Factor. To date it straddles nearly 3 million views and is the 16th most-discussed video ever.

LonelyGirl15 Comes of Age...

... marketing wise. Product placement has finally made it's way into LonelyGirl15. The April 3rd installment of the YouTube series, Truckstop Reunion, uses a painfully obvious ending scene to promote Ice Breakers Gum. The LonelyGirl15 crew received a reported 10K for the advertisment.

Peta TV

Peta's ongoing Fur is Dead campaign is being launched mostly through video on what they call "Peta TV". Peta's shocking videos certainly drive the message home, but can only be seen on Peta TV as they have been banned from most major video sites. In other words, only those who visit Peta's website can view the videos - preaching to the choir.
Toning down content for YouTube or the like may serve not only to deliver the message to a larger audience, but also drive viewers to Peta TV for the more graphic content.

Adidas Mission "Impossible"

The new Adidas "Impossible is Nothing" campaign features several world athletes in short, but expressive YouTube videos. The dialogue and music are beautiful, not to mention the stellar animation, but somehow the viewership is missing. Oddly, one video starring David Beckham has only 5,949 views after three weeks. Adidas could certainly so with some fuel behind this wonderful campaign.