An anthropological introduction to YouTube

This has to be the best presentation on YouTube out there.

Your #1 Facebook Fan

Check out the top 100 most popular Facebook Fan Pages here.

The top ten are:

1. Barack Obama 1,360,874 fans
2. Michael Phelps 1,254,534
3. Batman: The Dark Knight 644,493
4. Friends (TV Series) 570,324
5. Apple Students 560,568
6. Coldplay 518,559
7. The Chris Moyles Show 513,013
8. The Stig 481,226
9. Victoria’s Secret PINK 480,854
10. Linkin Park 474,435

The Day That Never Comes

Metallica released their new single The Day That Never Comes today. It has made a big splash online with fans waiting to hear it and critics ready to tear it apart.

The search for the lyrics even made it to #1 on Google Trends. Impressive, but is the song?


You can stream the song on MySpace here.

Viral video on how to make videos viral

An entertaining viral video promoting Tropic Thunder, which is based on how to make a video viral:

YOUtube or PrinceTube?

I remember reading about this story a while ago, but I figured that it died down and the lawsuit was thrown out.

Now for the counter-suit:

"The case concerns Stephanie Lenz, a mother who filmed her young children dancing in their kitchen to the Prince song "Let's Go Crazy." She posted her video to YouTube for the enjoyment of family members, only to have the video removed due to a DMCA takedown notice from Universal. She filed a counter-notice stating that her video was non-infringing, and then with the assistance of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued Universal for sending a takedown notice over a video she says it should have known was non-infringing."

Interesting article. I remember Prince getting a lot of well deserved flack from this fiasco. What caused this controversy? The video below.

Leaked Albums = Good Publicity

Once again, it has been suggested that a leaked album does not necessarily spell disaster for an artist. This week The Jonas Brothers' new album, A Little Bit Longer, debuted at #1 selling 525,000 copies despite leaking on the internet 2 weeks before its official release date. Although the RIAA and a lot of bands will say that they don't want albums leaked early, many claim it can actually create more buzz and hype that will propel music sales.

In the classic example, Radiohead's fourth album, Kid A, was released in 2000 also claiming the top of the sales chart its first week. The funny part was that the album had no radio singles, no videos, and little interview promotion prior to its release. The album did leak though.

Social networks have continued to evolve for music fans since the days of Napster. Although it is now fairly commonplace for a CD to leak, people still get excited and are naturally inclined to become a marketers dream: grassroots promoters. The buzz created for an album and consequent album sales will usually more than make up for those few who actually download the leak and feel satisfied to not acquire a legal copy. The next challenge for the music industry will be to figure out how to better utilize and control the social media realm and channel its massive potential more consistently.

Seinfeld to Save Vista?...

Microsoft has recruited Jerry Seinfeld to appear in new advertisements promoting Vista. This is a rebuttal to Apple's successful Mac Vs. PC campaign (Mac accounts for 7.8% of the market, up from 6.2% a year ago).

Will this work? I'm not quite sure. Seinfeld's promotion for Bee Movie during an episode of 30 Rock was forgettable, although his appearance on the actual show was great. He also seemed to show up everywhere promoting Bee Movie, which got annoying.

The agency behind the campaign is Crispin Porter + Bogusky. A lot of people at ad agencies will talk this agency down, but in all reality, they have rolled out some brilliant campaigns in the past: Whopper Freakout, BK subservient chicken, Miller Lite Man Laws (although sales didn't hold up), and the Truth campaign.


One thing is for sure: Microsoft has an image crisis on its hands. They could use all of the help they can get to move away from the image of a company that isn't user friendly and not "trendy."

Success or flop?: Probably somewhere in-between. It would take one incredible ad campaign to get the idea of Macs being user friendly out of the consumers head.

Read an extensive article on this here.


Somewhat off topic, I love what Crispin has done with Burger King. From the subservient chicken to Whopper Freakout, they know how to get attention. Below is one of my favorite BK spots, parodying Helen Reddy's "I am woman."

It's Not a Glitch

EA have responded to a user video showing Tiger Woods being able to walk on water in Tiger Woods '08. Very smart video made my EA. It shows that they understand the people who play their games and they want to take part in the discussion. See the video below.