penny for a thought | Patrick on every & anything

Ok, so, unlike my previous post, this video isn’t for everyone, but I’m confident the majority of my readers will appreciate this re-mix of a classic Richard Simmons exercise video. Credit goes to a Portland-based creative who writes for a Portland-based juggernaut in the ad game.

There’s never a shortage of random videos–online–intended to make one laugh. Everyone has their own opinion of what’s funny or not, but here’s one I think anyone can appreciate. It’s a non-offensive, :30 TV ad a Portland, OR ad agency did for the Oregon Aquarium… Brilliant!

Last week’s hot topic in viral media was a video of Kobe Bryant jumping a speeding sports car. Considering a vehicle would have to be traveling upwards of 150 MPH, I venture to guess magic (perhaps Harry Potter) was involved during this video’s production; but spectacular nonetheless. It’s viral for several reasons: a.) The video has received more than 3.5 million views on YouTube alone, b.) It’s all the rage in the mainstream media, and c.) The original video has spawned a number of “re-edits,” some morbidly funny. Check them out, starting with the original.

In my opinion, you’re never too old to laugh at a good sex joke. That said, there’s nothing funny about (STIs) sexually transmitted infections (not that I’d know, honestly!) But they are fun to make fun of, especially for the sake of education. That’s the approach Planned Parenthood is taking with TakeCareDownThere.org, an action-based website intended to educate, inform and bust your spleen laughing. It accomplishes all three and then some by allowing medically challenged individuals in Portland, OR schedule an appointment online.

Great work by one of Portland’s hidden creative treasures, Leopold Ketel & Partners. Here’s to making fun of the things which scare me most!

Strung-out by their long running “Got Milk?” campaign, Milk, with help from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, launched a “made for web,” digital campaign built around a fictional rocker, White Gold. One part moderately creepy human and one part mystic moon goddess, White Gold is sure to please; whether or not he’ll persuade you to consume more/any milk is beyond me. Very funny and entertaining nonetheless.

Milk’s “White Gold is White Gold” campaign is, in fact, achieving its viral goal, but I’m forced to question the actual usefulness of the campaign. I mean, sure, White Gold’s videos are well produced and supported by a flashy website–which In my opinion is not very user friendly–but where’s the call to action? What’s the goal?

Is White Gold meant to simply build brand recognition/equity? He does, pretty well… Or, should White Gold be a bit more of a universal advocate for Milk, reiterating Milk’s health benefits in a way which gets consumers involved? Now we’re talking interactivity!! Call me the Devil’s advocate, but I just feel like a genius campaign is missing a little something that would’ve made all the difference. Instead of a pretty, but complex, website with only a “send to a friend” function, I’d like to see something a little more community oriented, user generated content (video and/or social networking) perhaps.

That’s my $0.02, check it out for yourself.

Over the weekend Yahoo! launched a revolution, one only recognized online and of value to those of us with a web cam/iSite, not to mention a blazing fast connection, but a revolution nonetheless. It’s Yahoo! LIVE, a live video-streaming service that has all the potential to, once again, change the way we use the internet. Don’t trifle, Yahoo LIVE! is a-ways-away from perfect, so you haven’t missed anything big yet… but it’s definitely worth your perusal.

Yahoo! LIVE is a lot like existing apps, Ustream for example, but boasts some pretty rad features, like the ability to embed your LIVE video-casts on third-party websites/blogs. LIVE also has a handy chat window (b/c the audio component is totally messed.) My favorite is multi-camera viewing, which enables you to see video channels of other people watching the same stream you are. It sounds complicated, but you can jump around from channel-to-channel quickly and change the lineup however you’d like.

Thanks goes to the Digital Merlin for introducing me to Yahoo’s time/soul-sucking app. There’s no better way to spend Portland’s warmest day of 2008 than in a video chat-room with a plethora of dudes suffering from hair loss… Just playing. It was honestly incredibly exciting, don’t let my depressed look fool ya. Check it out!