Kerfuffle

How the hell did they do this? We can't even get Bosco the dog to "sit, stay"

The newest way cool video from OK Go...with a lot of dogs...

 

Oddly, I actually really do feel better paying my car insurance premium after seeing this...

Advertisers and their agencies talk a lot about viral videos.  "I have an idea!  Let's make a video!"  And they do, and far more often than not, the thing goes nowhere.

"This Too Shall Pass" went live on Monday, and already has 2.5 million views as of this moment.  I came across it via a link on Twitter feed from a guy I follow but don't actually know, which directed me to his Tumblr page.

It features the band OK Go in a giant Rube Goldberg-type machine.  (These were the guys who made the 2006 video involving some rather acrobatic jumps on treadmills.)  The back-story is pretty cool. 

Kudos to State Farm for sponsoring it, and for doing so in a very low key way.  Their very recognizable logo appears at the beginning, integrated into the first few seconds.  I noticed it but only really knew they were the sponsor at the very end.  This is exactly how viral videos should work.  Understated identification that makes a consumer connection but doesn't get in the way of the entertainment value of the video itself.

As the Tumblr post I saw from Harry Shum Jr. notes, "OK Go….That was pure epicness…."  I have to agree.

[Also posted on Mediated Communication, the blog of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.]

Hulu app for iPhone close to market; The best way yet to be a couch potato without the couch

I'm a sucker for iPhone apps.  I have maybe eight or nine pages of them, and have cast aside several more along the way.  So far, one category that has been underwhelming is that of video streaming.  Hulu is reportedly about to change that.

From Silicon Valley Insider...

Hulu is in the process of developing an app for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and iPod touch, we have learned from a plugged-in industry executive. The app is coming soon (within a few months) and is "badass" -- as excellent as Hulu's Web site. Video will work over both wi-fi and 3G, we're told.

It won't be the first Web video app for the iPhone -- CBS's TV.com app is on the market, as are Joost, i.TV and several others -- but it could be the best. Hulu's tech and design teams have demonstrated themselves as the best in the Web video industry, as everyone is now trying to emulate them. One hurdle, we assume: Because of Hulu's streaming architecture, it might not be possible to download videos to watch later, such as on the subway or an airplane.

Good news for Hulu fans, iPhone fans, and people who can't get enough video in their lives.  Bad news for people like me who are app-addicted and easily distracted from doing things that are actually important and/or necessary.

Good grief! Peanuts hits the webisode marketplace; first two free on iTunes

Peanuts was a childhood favorite of mine.  That's why this is so cool...

From the Associated Press...

In a batch of 20 new webisodes, Charlie Brown and the gang have been brought back to animated life, much in the style of their classic holiday TV specials. But Lucy, Snoopy and others have been remade for the Web in 3- to 4-minute videos taken directly from classic 1964 comic strips.

In one of them, Linus runs for class president, only to be bedeviled by a controversial skeleton from his past: his strident belief in his Halloween hero, the Great Pumpkin.

Linus pleads: "In my administration, children will be children and adults will be adults!"

The webisodes are take from original Charles Schultz strips using Flash animation.  Variety.com has a video clip here.