Felix Dennis Interview

Analysis of Disneys Purchase of Marvel

Video Games - E3 2009 - Attack of the Show

this is a decent breakdown of the whole thing

Paid Search 101 rap

There should be a rule that you have to love anything that explains ROI and PPC in an amusing way.

via - Coolhunting

Obama Budweiser Part 2

So here is an update on the WASSSUP 08 commercial which has been making the rounds on the internet

Who's behind the "Wassup 2008" Obama ad? Not Budweiser.
by: Burt Helm

This morning when I blogged about the “Wassup 2008” Obama video, two questions sprung to my mind. First, who paid for this thing? The production values are very high – one person from Budweiser’s ad agency, DDB, estimated it could have cost as much as $750,000 (she also said DDB had nothing to do with the video). Second, how could Budweiser possibly be cool with such a clearly partisan advertisement?

After some digging, I found out. First, it cost way less than $750k. Second, Budweiser had no clue it was happening until after the video hit YouTube on Friday.

The man with the answers? Charles Stone III, the director of the original “Wassup” commercial and the movie Drumline (and the guy who answers the phone in the first frame of the video). He decided to make it about two weeks ago, he told me, with a crew of about 50 volunteers (all professionals working pro bono). They put it together in 9 days.

It was all possible, Stone says, because Budweiser never owned the rights to the idea. He’d originally made it as a short film independent of the brand, and Budweiser had only leased the rights, paying a mere $37,000 for five years of use. Back then, people gave him a hard time about the low price. Now Stone, a diehard Obama supporter, says it’s more than paid off. “That I’m able to use an idea distributed by a huge company, who made a lot of money off it, so that now when I put out what I want to say, it’s recognizable, and it sparks -- that’s worth $1 million to me.”

It came together after emailing with friends about ways they could make a video supporting Obama. Once they’d settled on the concept, he got on the phone with the original cast (all friends of his, who are now actors living in New York, Philadelphia, and LA), and called up his Director of Photography from Drumline, Shane Hurlbut, who brought in his crew. He also signed up Gerard Cantor and Maurice Marible, from commercial production house Believe Media, who co-produced. They shot over two days. The war-torn Iraq setting is actually a preexisting set in Santa Clarita, CA.

After they finished, they uploaded it to YouTube with distribution company 60Frames, set up a website, wassup08.com, and sent links to everyone they knew. As of writing this, it’s been viewed almost 1.8 million times, and picked up across the blogosphere, including on BoingBoing, Daily Kos, and Huffington Post. The final price tag? About $6500 out of his own pocket, Stone says.

via - Business Week

to sum the story up basically a freelance creative person who had an original idea, sold it to a huge corporation for at best a questionable price, is now reaping the rewards of his creativity in two important ways?

He can support his favorite candidate for president in a widely and instantly recognizable way using his original idea AND most likely reap a huge financial reward for his original idea in the near future. Since this remix has given his original idea a higher level of cultural importance than any beer commercial ever could.

What we have here people, is a bona fide media miracle.

Laser Street Art

For a while now I have been interested in GRL and their use of laser's and lights as a viable alternative to using spray paint in creating street art. In theory it allows the artist to create art without the danger of being arrested by the vandal squad. So, I figured I would post some interesting examples of what I feel the future holds for street art (and if done well street marketing)

Laser Graffiti (Graffiti Reasearch Lab, GRL)




*Bonus

Air Based 3D Graffiti (Jung von Matt/next)

Long weekend reading

Here's some links from stuff I seen around the web that can keep you occupied as you try to avoid the family and relax during your long holiday.

1) After tons of money and man hours were wasted on what could only be described as a pettiness on the part of federal government officials . The Rulers Back (and this time he is here to stay).

2) Anyhow they should focus their efforts on R Kelly and what has been described by some as his Little Man Defense (and no this is not a reference to the midget actor used in R. Kelly's trapped in closet music videos). Really though if your going to scour through Wayans brother movie for possible alibi's (for why you couldn't have done what you filmed yourself on camera doing). Go with the classic soap opera excuse. Blame it on his dead brother.

3) Just saw a commercial for Astroland and I could have sworn they had closed down last summer. However if your in Brooklyn this weekend take the kids there and teach them the fear of death or mutilation that only Astroland rides can instill in them.

* Bonus: think of all the money your saving on gas by avoiding long car trips to all those amusing death traps located out of state.

4) Its official Keith Olbermann is the closest thing America has to a political conscious ( Part 1 and part 2 ). I think if I was a Hillary supporter and I heard this someone would have to smack me in order for me to become conscious again, because I would have passed out somewhere between the first "We have forgiven you" and "No capacity to be the President of the United States". It would have been too much of the truth to handle in one dosage after a good three month of deluding myself about Hillary's chances at winning the election. Thank God I support Obama.

5) Nas apparently changes the Name of his CD from N****R to NAS to appease his label (and be stocked in Wal-Mart Stores around the country). Regardless though is seems like this album is shaping up to be Revolutionary but Gangsta

6) Last but not least here is seven life lessons from GTA & What Jay-Z can teach you about Business.