Two amazing job exits and two gay- and comedy-related links.

Obviously, Steve Slater takes the cake or beers (literally) when he curses out JetBlue’s passengers and exits down the emergency shoot.

But he’s given a run for his money by this lady, who emails her company a photo-story using dry erase board, quitting and exposing her Farmville-playing boss.

Update: I got got.

Terrible transition, but maybe what Steve needed is a Sassy Gay Friend. (via Dana)

Oh, come on. It’s a joke, man! (via Aziz Ansari)

This animated gif has been making its way around the Internet, and it puts a smile on my face. Just like bulldogs snorting, Bubb Rubb woo woo’ing and this epic sax.

Have a happy weekend.

Every few months I look back over my delicious links and pull out some of the interesting and relevant things. A handful of you probably contributed to this list without knowing it via Twitter or email, so thank you. In the spirit of Age’s weekly “Teh Radness” and Greg’s annual 99 Things You Should Have Seen on The Internet—but not nearly as ambitious as either—here’s my quarter list of Ten for ESPN.

1. Just because March Madness ended doesn’t mean you’ll have to lose Gus Johnson’s calls.
2. Plus now you can fill out your Consumerist’s Worst Company in America Bracket.
3. With baseball season underway, there’s a new product for Red Sox (and music) fans.
4. From brands we’ve seen create this type of content before, the secret of Nike Air and RayBan “Never Hide Films” face tattoo.
5. To new brands making stuff, like Reese’s bridge jumping video and Tropicana’s lighting up the Arctic.
6. A couple of Social Media FAIL’s from Nestle and TGI Friday’s.
7. One of the most bizarre sports I’ve ever seen.
8. For LOST fans, the Saul Bass credits and the Old Spice commercial frame by frame with Richard.
9. OK GO’s latest video and The Muppets got mashed up with Lady Gaga.
10. Finally, a Presidential handshake and wipe.

Hopefully something on here you haven’t seen. If not, a handy list for next time you’re looking for it. Have a nice weekend. And don’t forget to watch Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN. (Shameless plug.)

I, like many planners, having been keeping track of and keeping my clients up-to-date on the content online that’s spreading across many people for a while now. It started years ago as a way to shift the conversation away from “We want the next Tea Partay” to “what’s right for us and our audience and what would they want to pass along” by providing examples with various levels of taste, humor, shock, etc. Plus, because the majority of “viral successes” come from individuals, it was helpful to start looking more closely at what companies were doing.

Read full article here

Fast forward to present. Thankfully we don’t get too many briefs with “viral” as a deliverable anymore. But for those who do, there’s been some great thinking about the problems with the term/request done by Faris, Bud, Paul and Ivan. However, I still do collect examples of (mostly) brands’ attempts to produce (mostly) video content to be passed around…and rack up that coveted 1 million YouTube views.

Since I had all these links in my delicious or email, I figured I’d put them all in one place and share them with you – just in case it’s useful in any way. Without further ado, the 2009 “viral” year in review:

Q1 kicked off with Mini has some fun with the “Is it fake?” theme of many viral videos. Geico feeds off the equity of the Numa Numa Guy to create a hit video (though other videos leveraging memes that they put on their YouTube channel “itsthegecko” had significantly less views). Nike had Taylor Momsen (from Gossip Girl) do some parkour to avoid the paparazzi. Ray Ban “Never Hide Films” (behind the catching sunglasses video which has over 4 million views) came back in early January with another video, which did not get quite the same response. Cadbury, on the other hand, came back strong (after the drum-playing gorilla) with “Eyebrow Dance” and got a lot of views.

Then, there were the commercials, which were heavily spread online like McDonald’s Fillet o’ Fish commercial, which has a techno song remix as well. Though, Pharrell trying to get the Mickey D’s in Paris airport gained more traction. Then, there were ones that just didn’t stir up the controversy they had hoped to, such as Domino’s CEO going hard at Subway.

After his death at the end of June, it was no surprise that Michael Jackson was all over the Internet. Millions of views for everything from this old Pepsi commercial to this Twitter mashup to the tribute by Philippines detention center inmates, who are more famous for their original Thriller performance.

Back to brands, Samsung put out this LED sheep thing which got tons of views. Then followed up with more crazy stuff at a trade show. I know it’s a TV campaign, but the geeks went gaga for this Intel work. And sticking with tech, peeps have been all about Xbox’s Project Natal and its first official look. T-Mobile is back (in the UK) with a follow-up to their train station dance, getting a crowd together to sing “Hey Jude”.

There’s what Nike did for Free And what FC Barcelona’s coach put together with Catalonian TV before playing Manchester United in the Champions’ League Final, which was inspired by this.

Remember the EA Sports response to Tiger Woods superfan and YouTube user? They tried to build off it (but less successfully) with this before the Open. And I think Gilette’s still sour that Philips had such a hit with their body groomer (“Shave Everywhere”) work a few year’s back and came out with this “manscaping” tip video. But that’s probably better than the Comfort Wipe infomercial out there and Burger King “Square Butts” (Sponge Bob + Sir Mix-a-lot) commercial, both of which have been racking up views online.

Of course you’ve seen “I’m on a Boat” by Lonely Island, but even better is this a Capella version. Plus, on the subject of singing (or lip-syncing in this case), here’s a kid who produces and broadcasts his talent from the Apple Store.

There’s the Kanye interrupting Obama mash-up and likely the most viral video as of the year (parodied on NBC’s The Office): “JK Wedding Dance“.

Nike, EA and RayBan returned with Skateboarding and Ice Cube, FIFA 2010 and a SxSW video respectively.

Discovery Channel launches a bunch of mini-clips for Shark Week. Disneyland brings us a magical (come on, don’t be a hater) proposal. Evian helps you feel young…with roller-skating babies. And MSI gives us “Guy catches laptop with his butt.”

United Airlines gets firsthand experience in the power of the customer and a PR nightmare when they broke a dude’s guitar. The Muppets sing Bohemian Rhapsody. There’s a Christmas Light Hero and a Gap commercial tribute.

Over the holidays, we had the option to stay warm by the fire or with your Weezer Snuggie. But, as NYC Health advises, stay away from the soda (WARNING: KINDA GROSS). And if we ventured out, we could have brought some money for the Salvation Army and ImprovEverywhere. While brands were not pumping out as much online video content as in past quarters, there was this nice set of videos for Google Chrome.

And there you have it. Say goodbye to 2009 (again)..and (now) to “viral.”

More stuff I’m digging this week:
- Conan spending NBC’s money
- Five year-old drummer doing System of a Down
- Parks & Recreation + Questlove + Wu-Tang
- Kind of like the Jersey Shore meets Pokemon (NSFW)
- And finally, a Jersey Shore compilation

Have a great weekend. Go Jets!

Other Seth (Gray), I fully expect a comment here.

Image via the awesome Age

But given it’s a snowy Friday morning, I figured I’d give you a couple cozy videos. Plus, I wanted to ask (in an accusatory way): How have none of my “friends” told me that these exist? Natalie and Rashida. Come on. Sure, there’s funnier stuff on the site but seriously. My favorite of the three:

As for one of the best series of videos on FoD, Zach G. is back with his third installment of “Between Two Ferns.” This time with John Hamm. So you know, it gets a little inappropriate at times but the “Websites” part is classic.

This video makes me want to start the Inbox of Immaturity back up again. Last night’s SNL was solid on the whole with John Malkovich as host. The Huffington Post has a handful of the best stuff, but this is the one that people will no doubt be looking for on a Lazy Sunday. (See what I did there.) It’s unfortunate that the title of this short is visible because part of its hilariousness is in the shock value. However, I won’t spoil any more surprises like cameos. Oh, just watch already:

Also, I know the sponsor of SNL’s videos change, but I have to mention when I grabbed this one’s embed code of this “Extra Fruit Sensations” gum. Amazing.

First, our Portland office created a new site for Old Spice Pro-Strength Antiperspirant. It allows you to get your TV Medical Doctor certification. Here’s mine:

You may have seen the commercials which feature Neil Patrick Harris. They’re pretty good too but couldn’t hold the stethoscope of (NPH as) Dr. Horrible. Greg March put me onto it with these two posts. Give it a watch:

And finally, Leland recently posted an interview of Stephen Colbert with the guy who wrote OBD (Obsessive Branding Disorder)…brought to you by Dr. Pepper. Check it out:

Quick shout-out to the Real World Hollywood crew for becoming friends even without being polite…and in the process putting on quite a show. (Yes, all 9 of you.) Half shout-out to Jesse (or as I like to call him, Travis from Clueless), who was able to make friends and win DeAnna’s hand in marriage on this season of The Bachelorette. Zero shout-out to Kristy for making friends but then deciding she didn’t like winning Tila’s heart.

That was therapeutic. Please be my friend.

1. Solid Timing: With the French Open just starting, tennis and Rafa are top of mind for (a handful of) sports fans.
1a. It seems Kia has been able to make this connection to one of the Grand Slams without actually paying for an expensive sponsorship of the tourney at Roland Garros.

2. Rewarding the Crossover Fan: Kia uses this top tennis star to promote its sponsorship of Euro 2008 soccer (yes, my readers are still predominantly American). Yet I’d venture to guess that many European soccer fans know Nadal. Some may also know (and Nadal fans of course know this and his Uncle Tony’s past as a professional player) the Spaniard (not THE Spaniard) used to play futbol in his youth (’cause he’s so old now). Anyone who has seen him on the tennis court has likely seen him sport some nasty foot skills. And word is his dream was to play striker for Real Madrid.

3. Catchy Title and Interesting Execution: “Nadal vs. Alien” is short and sweet. I know what I’m about to see but have no idea what I’m about to see. Therefore when both he and this alien take the form of MTV Celebrity Deathmatch claymation, it is unexpected and grabs my attention. The sound effects/Nadal noises are also pretty entertaining.

Yet for all this stuff that “works,” one main thing is just not that cool. Let me direct you to the video description to the right of the video in image above. Yup, see that right there. Yup, there. Where they Kia (presumably the company or agency is user “euro2008kia”) refer to its own video as “viral.” Not so fast my car-y. (Pronounced Car E and in the creepy voice of the Wicked Witch of the West. It is not pronounced like Carrie – sorry all you SITC fans.) Anyway, this may not be the best move to make your video go viral. If you have to say it is, it probably isn’t (like “cool”), and the corporate speak (even though you’re not hiding that it’s an ad, we really don’t care if you didn’t buy broadcast media) is a bit of a turn-off.

I do like that Kia actually responded to viewer feedback and made changes quickly (assuming it wasn’t just some last-minute changes based on a senior marketing guy or gal’s feedback) but truthfully you should have anticipated that having Nadal put his foot up a mini-Nadal’s ass would stirred the pot. Either stand behind it (not so close and toes on the ground) and let that controversy propel you to this viral status you’re so hoping for or put the more tame one up from the start so you don’t have to start from scratch with the number of views. A bigger number equals greater security that you’re passing on a gem. (Don’t worry others thought it was funny too!)

Lastly, take a look at the bottom right of the image above. There is another upload of 11-seconds from this same user. I don’t really get this. Are you worried that the web viewer is too starved for time to watch 2-minutes? This one actually has a stronger call to action at the end. It doesn’t just show the site url and expect you to visit. It gives soccer fans a reason to visit—”Win a ticket” Euro 2008. Can someone tell me why this less than 2-second CTA didn’t appear in the 2-minute version? I know it wasn’t that it didn’t fit into the traditional TV commercial time space because this isn’t a TV ad! Did creatives convince you a promotion take away from the coolness, emotion, integrity and thus brand equity of the spot? Jokes!

Either way, I applaud Kia’s entering the online space with something unexpected (definitely different from their good but mostly forgettable TV spots). This, I just realized, does deliver on their tag-line, “The Power to Surprise.” Now imagine if they started taking this tagline more literally and using it as a platform for communications (if not product development, etc.). That could be fun.

Watch the full two-minutes of “online viral content,” which I’m calling Rafakia (not to be confused with Rafiki from The Lion King) because I like mashing up words to create new terminology, here.

There is a reason Absolut approached him in the first place. Likely they felt that his type of humor connected to their target of LDA-25. (That’s a guess, and LDA = Legal Drinking Age for anyone who has not worked with a liquor, spirits, alcohol company.) Sure there were definitely a few rules in place, such as: no underage drinking, binge drinking or death. But otherwise, AV gave him the creative freedom. They realized that there’s no worse way to lose authenticity and relevancy with your audience than to change (even subtly) his brand of comedy!

Zach enlisted Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Coincidentally or not (depending on Zach’s motive for bring those two in), the sign-off to their show is Tim’s father rich saying, “Abso…lutely” and their production company is called Absolutely. (Apologies followers for having to use the term awesome.) And as of now, the first in a series of I hope more than two has around 55K views on FoD, where it was first launched. Don’t let that (low?) number fool you, though. It has 280K on YouTube as well as 138K on MySpace. The second, which was added about two weeks ago, is at about a quarter of that total number. But even if it this number didn’t even reach that illusive 6-digits (the 100K view mark on YouTube I’d say is the metric lots of clients set), I’d call this a successful foray into the world of branded entertainment.

BONUS: As you’ll see, the comedians (I’m assuming) even came up with a great tag-line for the content: “In an Absolut world, friends would get together more often.”

Here’s Part 1:

And Part 2:

First, let’s kick it off with some links connected to my excuse. Here’s a little action about declaring for the NBA Draft (via kenyatta via kottke) as well as an NBA nickname generator. (I’m Seth “Margarine” Gaffney.)

Second, for any of you players or playettes going out this weekend, take a quick look at this text dating primer. For those staying in watching reruns of SBTB the College Years, this Onion article is all you.

Third, and getting a bit grosser, peep yet another instant Nick Thune classic on FoD. And I dare you to tell me that Nick doesn’t look Palek from HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me. That makes me want to pull a Sue Simmons (via @akispicer).

Fourth and lastly, I’ve rather enjoyed this site: Things Younger than Republican Candidate (and Oh, Did I Forget to Mention “War Hero”) John McCain (via avin on Fallon Planning Blog).

Bill Hicks on Marketing via Stuart Smith email – not to be confused with Gil Hicks of Mallrats fame who kisses like a jackhammer in with some pressure and when he’s done you’re not the same…you’re changed.

Geek pants via @gaeyia

And lastly, I saw this on the news last night and Jake reminded me about it today. It’s not funny…except for the part when the boy says his punishment should be a weekend without video games.

I clocked in about 60 tweets over the course of the 2 days, which I think was both respectful of the speakers and my followers. However, I understand that conference-tweeters can be annoying if you’re not there or if you don’t care about the subject. So in the future you may want to make use of twittersnooze, which allows you to temporarily block individual twits you’re following. (thanks to @chroma for the find)

As I was saying though, I thought it was worth revisiting the >140 characters posts I sent out to the to find the best of the bunch and add a bit of context to a few. (Because if I didn’t copy/paste some shit, there’s no way this post would have been completed.)

First things first, I got to the conference. Then I found a great seat in between two groups of peeps I didn’t know. See:
But instead of sitting there with eyes buried in screen awaiting the first speaker, I sat there with eyes buried in screen to conduct a little experiment…

-@roflcon virtual introduction – two guys sitting next to me in red and black and in front in hat with kindle – whatup!

And as I reported, it “took less than three minutes to make non-virtual intro with dudes next to me after they saw it in tweetscan”. Tweetscan and Twemes are both really great tools for connecting with other twittering conference-goers, not just to meet them in-person (though this is something I always find gratifying and took advantage of over lunch to catch up with Katie and Kristen from Wexley and Conner from Fallon for lunch (as reported) – advertising peeps unite!) but to increase your insight intake (let’s go planner speak!) in panels you’re attending or missing based on your “track” selection.

Yet all this twitter action, blog posting, live commenting, etc. in Wi-Fi enabled conference halls and rooms has a had another—arguably less positive—effect – the lack of visual attention paid to the speakers. Surely, there’s no way Prof. Lambeau would stand for it. But for a conference that brought the Internet together, it was kind of a given. Still it led me to consider how I would have handled a job moderating a panel or giving a keynote (a boy can dream)…

-new presentations skills r going to have to b taught to connect w/ a connected (twitter, laptop, etc) audience

I have to point out that I was excited to see Anil Dash based on this and he did not disappoint. He was quite a good moderator on a heavy-weight panel that included from Drew of Fark, Alexis of Reddit, Matt of Metafilter, and DJ Pretzel of OCremix. And we all were quite impressed when the panel finally got rickrolled. Here I learned that Timbaland isn’t quite as cool as I thought he was and started to better understand the distinction between aggregators and curators as well as how communities often reflect their creators. For example, Fark sees itself as the chef at a great restaurant – sure he didn’t make all the ingredients but he’s cooking and serving it up in a unique and compelling way.

A highlight for me was definitely seeing the Brothers Chap, who are behind the infamous (using this term to mean “more than famous” like Steve Martin assumed El Guapo was in Three Amigos) Homestar Runner…and one of my favorite characters of all-time, Strong Bad. These guys have never “sold-out” and never will. I remember checking out their site back in my first agency job, thinking they would be great to create something for Crunch Fitness and seeing an FAQ to advertisers that said something to the effect that they are happy just doing what they are doing. But besides for hating ads, these guys hit another interesting theme of the conference:

Inspiration can come from where you least expect it. So next time you’re considering hitting up a museum or movie, consider a “depressing shopping center – an inspiringly depressing one” like where they work. Or consider soaking in your boredom and then creating something to eliminate it (like Chuck Norris Facts, which actually started with Vin Diesel facts on a lonely Friday night for the then high school senior). Making something you find really entertaining or useful was the key for many of these people’s success on the Internet. (Million Dollar Homepage, on the other hand, was all about making money from the start!) And once you’re inspired to make something, remember that “perfection is the enemy of credibility.”

Alice Marwick gave a fantastic talk about celebrity and how Internet celebrities fit into the framework. As David Weinberger said, “We know how fame works in a world of scarcity, but we’re still figuring out how it works in a world of abundance.” Thankfully I don’t have to describe the types of promoters out there, the public image vs. public appearance phenomenon (see Magibon) or pseudo-celebritis because Alice was kind enough to post her notes on her site. Awesome! Definitely worth a look, and back to that presenting to a digitally-inclined audience point, she may find a new career in it. Bonus points for Heidi and Spencer example as well.

I unfortunately missed Christian of Stuff White People Like, but his attribution to fame and fortune (luck) is captured here. Most importantly, you’ll learn he is a fan of Back to School, a favorite movie of this blog. I did get to see the LOL peeps in action, who were thanked on behalf of stoners everywhere. Their advice was to find memes with built in audiences and keep in mind that tiny iterations of popular stuff are more likely to be hits than breakthrough new ideas. And though the tail recursion for lolcode went way over my head, I found Adam Lindsay talking about how the passionate (computer science) community completely outpaced him in creating the code.

Marketers, here is your quote from “Cheez” the CEO of I Can Has Cheezburger:

Every second you spend on the haters is a second not spent serving your fans

I caught Justine of iJustine (whose audience is now mostly female believe it or not), Dino of Bert is Evil (who was contacted by the CIA), Ji Lee of The Bubble Project (who is looking for a way to do the bubble project over shitty commercials), Eric of ACLU (who was on fire) and Leslie of Gem Sweater (who sadly, I missed perform on Friday night). I laughed, though not necessarily while rolling on the floor, and I met some really interesting people.

I’ll leave you with a quote from ACLU Eric:

Ad people want to order a viral like it’s a cheeseburger.

And I’ll add “No pun intended.” Can’t wait for ROFLcon 2009.

And as “cool” as W+K may be in the ad world, there’s very little street/campus cred gained with this “hostname”:

In fact lots of the Harvard students have crossed out their username (which had been their parent-given names) and put their screen names in their hostname space (which had been blank because they go to school). Dope…I guess.

Mad amounts of blogging and twittering going on. (Yeah, I said “mad”. I haven’t felt this old since Georgetown’s Homecoming two years ago.) That feeling is compounded by the fact that I refuse to put this crap in my system:

It is a pretty funny thing to give to people as they register though (especially for those who’ve seen Idiocracy). It’s starting up in a half-hour over here on in MIT’s Sala de Puerto Rico…and that’s a place El Gaffney can get down with.

via the silly entertaining Too Much Rod Benson.

via a posting on fire Kevin Rothermel (working link to t-shirt)

via new favorite Kevin Driscoll, though the “Tay Zonday On a Ronald Jenkees Beat” post title was a cruel tease.

Greetings, Kind Sirs,

Have you ever blacked out on Irish Car Bombs? Been thrown out of a bar before the sun went down? Watched yourself get visibly fatter while taking down two Double Quarter Pounders at McDonald’s? Gotten scolded by a stewardess for being an intoxicated loudmouth? Indulged too heavily on a soiree’s delicious finger food and subsequently nuked the bathroom? Tried to drunkenly save face with a girl that rejected you by saying, “I don’t need any new friends?” Been too drunk and too broke to pay for your cab? Argued with your bank because surely they have your balance wrong? Spent the morning watching after-school HIV prevention films at a free AIDS clinic? Had your girlfriend’s niece ask you why your stomach is so much bigger than everyone else’s at a family function? Have you ever recounted one or all of these stories in lurid detail to your buddies over Instant Messenger?

If you answered “yes” or better yet “indeed,” then, you, sir, are a gentleman, and we, the dastardly webmasters at TheFoggyMonocle would like to salute you.

Interview with one of the founders (the one on your right) to come soon…now.

3:18 PM me: could i email you 3-5 questions about it
interview style – and i’ll post the answers
3:19 PM James: yeah totally
or we could do it as an IM interview to fit in with the theme
3:20 PM me: nice idea…how did you decide to create this site?
James: we always talked about having a blog together and the gentleman joke is recurring for us whenever we behave badly and i had a backlog of all these funny IMs/Emails recounting bad behavior
so i figured my friends would too
i hope it catches on
3:22 PM me: how did you decide to call it “the foggy monocle”?
3:24 PM James: All gentleman require a monocle — it’s old-timey and it also aids your eagle eye in spotting various opportunities. After a long night out full of much drinking and carrying on it often gets foggy, and so you IM and your email your buddies to get the full story on what went down the previous evening and hence de-fog (is that word?) your monocle.
3:26 PM me: if it’s not it can be soon. what must a gentleman never do?
and the converse, from what must he never abstain?
3:29 PM James: A gentleman never second guesses his decisions. He lives in the moment and goes head in to any situation, no matter how big of a dumbass he’ll inevitably make of himself or how much he’ll hurt in the morning.
3:32 PM me: where is the best place to get a monocle?
3:33 PM James: The monocle store. But be warned, lines are often long, so if you have an engagement planned with a lady, you might want to stop by well in advance so as not to arrive tardy.
3:36 PM me: ha. i had no idea how you’d respond. good stuff. and one final question: any night-spot recommendations for the monocle-wearing gentleman in nyc?
3:38 PM James: discussing with Dane
3:44 PM Erik: A gentleman will adapt to his surroundings and become comfortable wherever he is, given that there is appropriate amounts of liquor and women on the premises. Be it a club or a dive bar. Occasionally though, the best company is found in the later. But the most important part of the equation is the liquor. A true gentleman must first have half a dozen shooters before talking to a lady.

The end. Now go visit.

This World of Warcraft dancing video has been around for a while, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. Thanks to Nien for passing along.

This trailer for The Foot Fist Way from Matt has now put this movie on my radar, especially since I’ve yet to see friend-favorite, Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.

And while the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit keeps getting press, craplinks reminds us not to forget the MoMA’s permanent collection.