Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Fall 2008
Prepared by LaunchSquad
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Executive Summary
Since Barely Political's debut in June of 2007, LaunchSquad has worked hand in hand with the
network's creative team to develop a video content strategy with the goal of attracting viewers and
creating mainstream media buzz. From the get-go, LaunchSquad executed an aggressive consumer
broadcast and print media outreach campaign, leveraging the active political climate for timely features
and television spots. In October of 2008, LaunchSquad began to expand its relationship with
NextNewNetworks to include strategy and outreach around the launch of its newest network, TMI
Weekly. In November of 2008, LaunchSquad began working with NextNewNetworks on promoting its
corporate story and developing a PR and messaging platform for use across all its networks.
Some of Barely Politicalʼs most prominent business and consumer coverage from Fall 2008 includes
coverage in Fortune, Associated Press, USA Today, GQ, and The Wall Street Journal, broadcast
coverage on dozens of local and national outlets including, "Good Morning America,” "The Today
Show," CNN's “Situation Room,” "The Rachel Maddow Show," and “The OʼReilly Factor.”
LaunchSquad secured guest appearances for “Obama Girl” on “Geraldo at Large” and “Inside Edition."
In addition to executing media pushes for Barely Political, LaunchSquad helped launch TMI Weekly
with a print feature in the Los Angeles Times. LaunchSquad also worked with Channel Frederator to
promote its Election Day "NiteFite" YouTube takeover resulting in trade coverage in Media Week, Ad
Week, Brand Week, and TV Week.
Since October 2008, NextNewNetworks corporate coverage included funding news in the opening
spread of Fortune, as well as coverage on the Conde Nast Portfolio blog and in key trade news
sources Television Week, Media Week, MediaPost, Brandweek, and WorldScreen News.
Threadbanger, Indy Mogul, and TMI Weekly have been featured in a wide range of major publications
including the Associated Press, Popular Mechanics, Los Angeles Times, and AskMen.com, as well as
on several popular blogs such as WebTVHub, Stylelist, Mashable, and ShinyShiny. LaunchSquad also
secured CNN broadcast coverage for Channel Frederator's "Howl to the Chief."
The following document provides further details regarding NextNewNetworksʼ and Barely Politicalʼs
public relations achievements and activities for Fall 2008, including a summary of coverage highlights
and briefings secured.
NEW YORK (AP) _ Given the historic election we've all just experienced, it's hard to remember
back to last week, let alone June 2007, when Barack Obama was a true underdog, polling way
behind front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
That's when a 32-year-old ad executive came up with an idea for a new Web video. Seeking
something catchy to launch a new site, barelypolitical.com, he sensed that Obama, though well
behind Clinton, had a huge following online because of his youthful appeal.
And so Ben Relles made the "Obama Girl" video, a racy paean to the candidate that's been seen
millions of times on YouTube and other sites, spawned sequels, was picked up by mainstream
media across the globe, and made bikini-clad model Amber Lee Ettinger a unique kind of political
Web celebrity.
Pop culture in political campaigns is nothing new. But it's easy to forget that in 2004, when
George W. Bush ran against John Kerry, there was no YouTube. If it seems like pop culture took
a more prominent role in this election than ever before, it's largely due to technology that now
makes pop culture such a participatory experience.
"People aren't just receiving pop culture from mass media anymore," says Montana Miller,
professor at Bowling Green State University. "They're agents themselves, producing mashups,
videos, making T-shirts. It's difficult to tell anymore what's amateur and what's not."
So everyone was producing pop culture this election season: The media, the candidates
themselves, their supporters, or just people with a computer and a little time. Here's a
chronological look at some of the top pop culture moments of Election 2008:
___
THE POWER OF O: In May 2007, Oprah Winfrey endorses Barack Obama on "Larry King Live,"
the first time the talk show queen has ever endorsed a political candidate. "What he stands for,
what he has proven that he can stand for ... was worth me going out on a limb," she says.
Oprah's endorsement — still viewable on YouTube, of course — leads to a media discussion of
how valuable such endorsements are. Most experts say not so much. But this is Oprah, and two
economists later claim they've calculated that Winfrey's endorsement gave Obama about a
million votes.
I GOTTA CRUSH: The above-mentioned "Obama Girl" video comes out the next month, with
catchy lyrics along the lines of: "You're into border security, let's break this border between you
and me!" Obama himself indicates he's not pleased. In any case, Relles estimates the video has
been seen about 20 million times — 10 million on YouTube alone.
"The Web, especially online video, has given us a way to participate in this election," says Relles.
"Something that's created in an afternoon can be seen millions of times across the globe."
YES WE CAN: This one, Obama likes. In February, rapper, songwriter and producer will.i.am
brings together a star-studded cast for his own viral video, the song "Yes We Can," based on the
candidate's acclaimed speech after a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary.
"It was as if he was talking to me," will.i.am says of that speech. The song features Obama's
voice set to will.i.am's music and melody, plus vocalizations from Scarlet Johansson, John
Legend, Kate Walsh, Herbie Hancock and others.
DIRT OFF YOUR SHOULDER: When was the last time you saw a presidential candidate proudly
displaying his hip-hop knowledge? In April, at a rally in Raleigh, N.C., Obama is bemoaning
political attacks from the Clinton camp.
"You just gotta kinda let it ..." the candidate says. And then he brushes the dirt off his shoulders.
It's a Jay-Z move, and Obama does it once, twice, three times, then brushes some off his leg,
too. "That's what you gotta do," he tells the crowd. They roar back their approval. Immediately,
there are mashups galore.
AN ARTFUL ENDORSEMENT: Los Angeles street artist Shepard Fairey creates in May what will
become a wildly popular poster of Obama. Getting permission from the campaign first, he
chooses a photo of the candidate gazing ahead, then uses colors of red, white and blue to create
his image, underlined by the word, "HOPE." The posters sell like hotcakes.
THE ANTI-CELEBRITY MOVEMENT: "He's the biggest celebrity in the world. But is he ready to
lead?" The words of John McCain's anti-Obama campaign ad are provocative, but the images
really get the attention: Obama speaking to an adoring crowd in Berlin, interspersed with footage
of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.
Does it work? Some pop culture analysts and humorists say the attack ad is silly and even passe,
given that Spears and Hilton are hardly in the news anymore. But it certainly gets attention. Then,
to surprise us all, Hilton pipes up with her own video riposte, actually wittier than the original.
SARAH/TINA/PALIN/FEY: It's Sarah Palin time! Some have called this THE pop culture moment
of the campaign — certainly it's one of them. In September, Tina Fey, who looks uncannily like
the Alaska governor, launches her much admired impersonation on "Saturday Night Live," getting
the look and the accent — and the wink — just right. The first sketch, with Amy Poehler as
Clinton, comes after Palin's shaky TV interview with Charles Gibson on ABC, and includes the
iconic line, "I can see Russia from my house!"
KATIE'S COMEBACK: Katie Couric scores a viral video hit, and unfortunately for Palin, it's not a
song but an actual news interview with the VP candidate — and one in which she stumbles badly,
wrapping herself in tongue-twisters over foreign policy, unable to give details on running mate
McCain's record, and in one segment, unable (or unwilling) to tell Couric what newspapers she
reads. For the anchor, though, it's a major coup, after two years of low ratings and negative
stories about her tenure at CBS.
SNL SUMMIT: A great season for SNL gets even better — the show earns its best ratings in 14
years when Palin herself appears on the show, appearing on the same screen as Fey for only a
split second, but then bopping along during a "Weekend Update" segment as Poehler raps: "All
the mavericks in the house, put your hands up!" ''
McCAIN HUMOR: Not to be upstaged by his running mate (well, not this time), John McCain
makes his own appearance on SNL, just two days before the election. The GOP candidate shows
he has a sense of humor, announcing he'll pursue a new campaign strategy: "The reverse
maverick. That's where I'd do whatever anybody tells me." McCain is a hit; unfortunately for him,
the ratings don't translate directly to votes.
!
!
!
Since Sarah
Palin was
named the
Republican
party’s vice-
presidential
candidate,
comic videos
about the
Alaskan
governor have
sprouted
across the
Web. Now, an
advertiser is
joining the
fray,
sponsoring a
spoof video about Palin’s life to promote Oliver Stone’s “W,” a new
Lionsgate’s biopic about George W. Bush.
The parody video clip, called “The Real Sarah Palin,” features “Obama Girl”
in the role of Palin. It has generated more than 1.5 million views on
YouTube since it was posted Tuesday.
“On Oct.17, one film will change the way you view George Bush. Josh
Brolin is W. A film by Oliver Stone. On the same day, another film will take
what you know about Sarah Palin…and completely blow your mind,” a
narrator says at the introduction of the video. The video goes on to poke
fun at the life of Palin, with scenes of her expressing anguish at being
named the first runner-up in a beauty pageant and issuing contradicting
statements about the Bridge to Nowhere.
The video was created by political-satire site BarelyPolitical.com, a unit of
New York-based Web-TV company Next New Networks. Barely Political
also produced the popular viral Web video “I’ve Got a Crush on Obama.”
The site was acquired by Next New Networks in 2007. Next New
Networks has worked with Lionsgate in the past to promote such films as
the Jet Li movie “War.” Lionsgate declined to comment on the new spoof
video. Barely Political plans to release another video with deleted scenes
and outtakes, likely to coincide with tonight’s vice-presidential debate.!
By Alex Dobuzinskis
Obama, who has become the first president-elect with a MySpace page,
has bolstered his online presence since last week's election by creating a
site called Change.gov.
The site has news updates on the transition and is also the place to apply
for jobs in the new administration, which takes over from President
George W. Bush on Jan. 20.
"It doesn't stop here, they are going to expect government in general to
be operating under different rules now," said Michael Wood, vice
president of TRU, a research company that tracks how young people use
the Internet.
"They're going to want a window into the world of what's going on here,
and that's all very different from anything that we've ever seen before,"
Wood said.
Republican candidate John McCain also used the Web to build support,
but Obama often outshined him online, experts said.
Obama's Facebook page, boasting a list of his favorite movies and
updates on campaign news, became the most popular page on the site,
with more than 2.5 million online supporters.
The Obama campaign posted 1,800 videos on the video sharing site
YouTube, compared to fewer than 350 for McCain.
Obama Girl, the alias of model Amber Lee Ettinger, also became a
YouTube star by appearing in comedy videos about Obama. The videos
were seen more than 70 million times.
With all she has done to lip-sync the praises of Obama, Ettinger, 26, said
she would like an invitation to his inauguration. And she said more online
videos are forthcoming from Obama Girl and her comedy group, Barely
Political.
"I definitely think we have four more years of good material to use,
whatever's going on with him I'm sure we can come up with our own
comedic spin to it," she said.
The team at Barely Political made a name for itself during the campaign
by making quick and cheap videos for YouTube and promoting them at
MySpace. Similarly, Obama used his own MySpace page to win supporters
during the campaign.
"We expect and hope that he continues to use his page in the White
House and create a continuous dialogue with these millions of Americans
that are involved on MySpace," said Lee Brenner, political director at
MySpace.
The Obama administration might get some Web inspiration from Britain,
where since 2004 the government has run a site called Directgov,
www.direct.gov.uk, that gives users a one-stop-shop for information on
public services.
Brenner said that with the Internet, Obama has an opportunity to reach
out to Americans in new ways.
"In the past they did a weekly radio address. Why not do a weekly blog
that goes out to millions and millions of people online?" he said.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Mary Milliken and Frances
Kerry)
Make Your Own Halloween Fairy or Mummy Costume
WHICH/CRAFT: Tips for making your own fairy costume from ThreadBanger.com
Doing it yourself isn't just trendy, it's economical and eco-friendly. The Craft and
Hobby Association estimates that more than half of U.S. households now engage
in some kind of crafting.
These costumes from ThreadBanger.com, a network for people who make their
own fashion, make great use of items you may already have around the house.
FAIRY WINGS
Materials:
1. Firmly hold a hanger in one hand and use the other to twist the top apart. Please be careful when working with hangers.
Make sure to hold them firmly when bending unless you want to be a Cyclops for Halloween.
2. Make the hanger as straight as possible. it helps to use a thick pair of pliers. There will be a little bit of curl at the ends where
you took the hanger apart but on one end the curl is up higher. Try to work the curl out of the one that is higher but it doesn't
have to be perfect. The other end doesn't matter cause it won't be in the wing body.
3. Now take an end in each hand, and slightly bend the hanger so that the ends cross at the bottom — about 2.5 inches of
overlap.
7. Then take the other two segments and shape them for the bottom half. Again, the pliers are useful at this point. You can
shape them any way you want.
8. Take whatever thick string you are using and tie a reinforcement knot at the joint of each segment. Bring the string through
the middle of the wing segment so the string is equal on both sides and tie a knot down the middle of where the overlapping
wire "V's."
9. Now take one top piece and one bottom piece and place them together. One of the overlapping wires on the bottom
segment should touch the outer part of the top segment, and vice versa.
10. Use your twine to tie them together. Take your time with this and make
sure they are together very securely. Wrap the twine diagonally, up around
where the overlapping wire meets the outer part of each wing. Tie a knot
and cut remaining string.
11. Take a pair of your tights and pull one of the legs down over the bottom
segment like you would if you were putting it on your foot. If there are holes
in your tights use a strong craft glue to fix them. Just make sure whatever
seam is created gets turned to the inside.
12. Pull the tights down so that they are fairly tight. Don't worry about losing
your wing shape — you will fix them in a minute. Once you have the tights
pulled down to where you think they are tight enough, cut the other part of
the tights off around the leg. Remove the part of the tights you don't need.
Pull the foot part tight again over the bottom segment and tie a knot.
13. Repeat to the top segment with the other foot of the tights.
14. Put the remaining tights aside, they should be like Capri tights now.
15. Repeat all these steps to the other top and bottom segments.
16. Position the two halves together. Use your twine to tie them together. Take your time with this also. Go round and round
with the twine north, south, east, and west...go all directions with the twine. Pull it really tight. Be sure to cover up the
overlapping wire. Use your pliers if you need to push the wire down in position.
17. Take time to shape your wings and decide which side will show and which will be against your back.
18. Take out your ribbon and cut two long equal strands.
19. With ribbon one, pull it through the midsection of the wings so the ribbon the same length on both sides. Tie a knot on the
side of the wings that will be touching your back.
21. Slightly burn the edges of the ribbon so they don't fray. Make sure the end of the ribbon is hard and dry before you set it
down. (It only takes a few seconds.)
22. Next use your water-based glue and paintbrush to paint designs on your wings. Only do little bits at a time and add glitter
as you go so the glue doesn't dry before you get to the glitter. Glittering the edge of the wings helps disguise the wire and
reinforces the edges. You can also glue and glitter and spots on the tights that may have imperfections in them.
23. If glitter's not your thing, there are so many other was to embellish: Carefully sew in little bells, strands of ribbon, feathers
or crystals.
MUMMY COSTUME
By Rob Czar, ThreadBanger.com
Materials:
1. Get that dirty, off-white, century-old mummy look by dyeing all the material in black tea. Put the tea, hot water, and materials
into the big buckets and steep for about 2-6 hours. Take them out and dry them.
2. Lay out your sheet, grab your scissors, and cut 2- to 3-inch slits down the side of your sheet.
3. Tear the strips up the length of the sheet. They'll all rip pretty evenly and have a cool, frayed edge. You now have your
mummy bandages.
4. Start wrapping the strips around your shirt and get to sewing the strips around your shirt. The sloppier and less conformed
you sew these on, the better. Overlap your strips, leave some pieces longer than others, go crazy!
5. Once you get to the chest area, cut the inseams of each of the sleeves.
6. Lay them down flat, cut some pieces of material out to cover the sleeves, and sew them on.
7. After you finish the sleeves, sew on strips to the remaining blank parts of the shirt, turn it inside-out, and sew your sleeves
back up.
8. Now, take your pants and rip open the inseam all the way to the crotch.
9. Lay your pants flat, and cut strips out to cover them.
10. Start from the bottom and sew the strips up both legs. You can stop when you get to the crotch because your shirt will
cover that.
11. Turn your pants inside out and sew back up your legs.
12. Now all you need to do is wrap some extra material around your face and throw on some baby powder to get that dusty,
ancient mummy effect.
GENERATION O is that college kid at the White House gate early Wednesday morning,
lifting his shirt to reveal “Obama” painted in red on his chest.
Or that stylized Obama T-shirt that makes irony look old, the “Obama Girl” on YouTube,
or the thousands of notes on Barack Obama’s Facebook page: “U are the best!!!” “yeah,
buddy.”
He signed it simply “Barack.” After all, they were close. He and his biggest fans, the
generation of young adults who voted for him in record numbers, together had slogged
through 21 months of campaigning. And in his moment of victory, Barack Obama shared
the glow of success.
“All of this happened because of you,” the e-mail message said. “We just made history.”
With that simple “we” in millions of in-boxes, the post-baby-boomer era seems to have
begun. The endless “us versus them” battles of the ’60s, over Vietnam, abortion, race
and gender, at least for a moment last week, seemed as out-of-touch as a rotary phone.
Of course, that was Mr. Obama’s goal. In his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” he was
explicit in his desire to move beyond “the psychodrama of the Baby Boom generation —
a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college
campuses long ago.”
Mr. Obama’s victory was greatly helped by his young allies. More 18- to 29-year-olds
went to the polls this year than in any election since 1972 — between 21.6 million and
23.9 million, up from about 19.4 million in 2004, according to preliminary estimates from
the Center for Information and Research of Civic Learning and Engagement. And 66
percent voted for Mr. Obama, according to exit polls by Edison/Mitofsky.
These young voters and those slightly older, who together may forever be known as
Generation O, were the ground troops of the campaign. They opened hundreds of
Obama offices in remote areas, registered voters and persuaded older relatives to take a
chance on the man with the middle name Hussein.
They saw in Mr. Obama, 47, who was born at the tail end of the baby boom era, the
values that sociologists and cultural critics ascribe to them.
Government under Mr. Obama, they believe, would value personal disclosure and
transparency in the mode of social-networking sites. Teamwork would be in fashion,
along with a strict meritocracy.
The pinnacle and promise of that approach can be seen in Tuesday’s stunning victory.
But as January’s presidential realities inevitably chip away at November’s idealism, a
few valleys may be around the corner. With two wars and a financial crisis to face, this
generation may soon discover the limits of their consensus-oriented focus and
unyielding faith in networks and communication.
In many ways 2008 looks a lot like 1960, said Robert Dallek, the presidential historian. In
both cases, a young Democrat won on a promise of youthful change. Voters, Mr. Dallek
said, “want something fresh.”
President Kennedy responded not just with soaring rhetoric and new programs like the
Peace Corps. He also transformed communication between the president and the
people. At the White House, he projected an image of openness and transparency. He
let photographers take pictures of the Kennedy children. He held televised news
conferences for the first time.
“They took off their jackets and ties,” Mr. Sorensen said. “They didn’t go home to change
into blue jeans, but they were swinging bats.”
Mr. Obama has created his own jacketless atmosphere, but on a grander scale, with a
steady stream of e-mail messages and Facebook postings. Obama supporters know, of
course, that the text messages from “Barack” are the work of a campaign aide, but that
doesn’t mean that it’s not effective.
Ellen Steiner, 23, a graduate student at the University of Colorado, Denver, said the
direct style “makes me feel like I really was part of something great.”
Reid Johnson, 31, a volunteer at the Obama office in Wilson, N.C., agreed. “You get the
feeling that you’re becoming friends with him in that casual way,” he said. “I think
everyone takes ownership of it because you feel like you know who he is.”
It would be hard to overestimate how much communication and an informal tone means
to this generation. They have poured out their foibles and triumphs on blogs, MySpace,
Facebook or Twitter. Older Americans see this as dangerous exhibitionism, but young
adults believe the conversation leads to open-mindedness and consensus.
“This generation has been knocked for putting all of their personal stuff on full display,”
said Mik Moore, 34, a founder of the Great Schlep, which used a Sarah Silverman online
video to help young Jews win their grandparents’ support for Senator Obama. “But there
is an upside, too, which is a willingness to communicate with large numbers of people in
your network about what’s important to you.”
Ideology doesn’t matter. Young evangelicals can be just as creative in their use of the
Web as liberal bloggers. The point is that communication technology is the tool that
makes all things possible, from hook-ups and pop songs to protests or the president of
their choice, said Neil Howe, a sociologist who studies young adults.
And the enthusiasm has a way of spreading. Wearing a pink Chanel suit and gold heels,
Holly Hennessy, a wealthy older Republican woman in Palm Beach, Fla., came out of
the polls on Tuesday with goose bumps after deciding at the last second to vote for Mr.
Obama.
Matthew Weiner, the creator of “Mad Men,” the AMC television series set in the early
’60s, predicted that there would be more to come. “A year from now you’re going to see
that 65 to 70 percent of the people are going to claim they voted for Obama even if they
didn’t,” he said. “That’s what happened with Kennedy. People will be swept up in it.”
And yet, such a sweeping success could also breed trouble. “The risk is they vote for the
first time, and then there’s this incredible long-shot win — ‘Gee this is easy,’ ” said Kurt
Andersen, a founder of Spy and former editor of New York Magazine. There is also “a
risk of this generation conflating our iPhones with the substantive policy progress that
the iPhones and laptops enable.”
Inevitably, he said, “growing up is all about disappointment and things not going well —
so that is a natural next step.”
The pain of dashed hopes, if it comes, could be eased by this generation’s news media
diet, which has made them fantastically informed and skeptical. Or it could be worsened
by the psychology of how they were raised and came of age.
Ronald Alsop, author of “The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation is
Shaking Up the Workplace,” said that because today’s young people have been trained
to trust teams and systems — they love checklists — they often struggle when things do
not go according to plan.
Compounding the problem, they have also been told by everyone from Mom to Barney
the Dinosaur that they are destined for greatness. They have seen 25-year-olds become
millionaires overnight with companies like Google, and after helping Mr. Obama win, the
question is whether they will settle for anything less than a central role.
“They are used to getting a lot of awards and coddling from their parents, coaches and
teachers,” Mr. Alsop said. “So if they’re put in some menial position, in a political or
corporate environment, they are not going to be happy.”
On Mr. Obama’s Facebook page, there are already needy supporters like Viki, who
wrote, “Please keep this dialogue going.”
“We are here for you,” she added, “and I am anxious to see, now that you have won, if
you will keep your momentum with the people or let us go.”
Mr. Johnson, the volunteer in North Carolina, said that the new president needs to
refresh his Internet presence to keep young constituents passionate. “There’s a lot of
attention deficit with this generation,” he said. “You have to keep people engaged and
active because it’s a highly technical society and there are lots of ways to distract our
minds.”
The site is in many ways an extension of the Obama campaign: casual, cool, interactive.
BUT if these are the traits of the young, might they alienate older Americans? Mr. Dallek
said that for the new president to succeed, he must be seen as representative of not just
the new, but also the traditional. “This is the challenge: How to sustain the energy of
these young people and fulfill their expectations but not go so far to be seen by these
older folks as overreaching.”
Many baby boomers are unlikely to be comfortable with this generation’s technological
boosterism and ease with blurred identities and mixed ethnicities. Peter Wolson, a
psychoanalyst and former dean of the Los Angeles of Institute and Society for
Psychoanalytic Studies, said the crucible of the 1960s helped give baby boomers a deep
suspicion of “the other.” Their world was bifurcated: pro-war versus antiwar; communist
versus capitalist.
“There is a fear of intimacy and merging because of the sense that you’ll be taken over
by the other,” Mr. Wolson said. “The fear is: ‘We’ll get the wool pulled over our eyes.
We’ll get taken advantage of.’ ”
Seeing a new crop of young people texting their way to the Oval Office may never
soothe those fearful boomers. For others, the generational transition may bring relief as
the country seems to move past old, entrenched conflicts.
Chuck D., 48, the rapper and former lead of Public Enemy, said he has been amazed at
the ease with which his 20-year-old daughter and her friends have interacted with
politics this year. While he spent his youth shouting the message, “Fight the power,” his
daughter fell in love with a candidate, voted for the first time and got exactly what she
wanted.
He couldn’t be more pleased. “She doesn’t bring the burden of history with her,” he said.
“She’s not pigeonholed. She’s free to make a healthy decision for the future.”
November 05, 2008
“I just feel like I was a part of this election and that is incredible to me,” Amber
said. “Itʼs like history in the making. I would never want to change it.”
With the elections over, one canʼt help but wonder: What will become of Obama
Girl? The buxom brunette hasnʼt wasted any time capitalizing on her 15 minutes
of fame and says sheʼs currently working on an album and starting a jewelry line
with her mom. While sheʼs grateful for the doors that have been opened, she also
wouldnʼt mind a little appreciation from the Obama camp.
“I would absolutely love a little, little thank you note from Barack Obama,” she
said. "Thatʼs what Iʼm waiting for.”
Thank you note or not, Amber says she will continue celebrating and says she
will always be an Obama Girl.
“Iʼve been with him since day one and this is exactly what I hoped for,” she
revealed. “I donʼt think Iʼve ever been this excited in my life.”
By Laura Lane
Campaigns in a Web 2.0 World
Shortly after 9 a.m. on Oct. 19, Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for
president during the taping of “Meet the Press” on NBC. Within minutes, the
video was on the Web.
But as NBC’s decision to release the Powell clip early shows, the networks
and their newspaper counterparts have not simply waited to be overtaken.
Instead, they have made specific efforts to engage audiences with interactive
features, allowing their content to be used in unanticipated ways, and in
many efforts, breaking out of the boundaries of the morning paper and the
evening newscast.
Some of those lessons have been painful. Consider what has changed since
the last presidential election. Four years ago, the network news operations
were still the go-to source on election night, with a total audience of 38
million in prime time, compared with 17 million for the three cable news
channels. On Tuesday, the ratings race will surely be tighter. On a historic
night in August, when a black man became the first endorsed candidate of a
major political party, the biggest audience of all belonged to CNN.
“Some of this began back in 2006, but I think that cable news has
transformed the way that elections are covered,” said David Bohrman, the
Washington bureau chief for CNN. “I don’t think networks are irrelevant, but
network news is less relevant than it has been.”
But those who suggest that 2008 is a postnetwork affair should consider that,
it was Gov. Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric, the anchor of the “CBS
Evening News,” and her impersonation by Tina Fey on NBC’s “Saturday
Night Live,” that defined her in the public imagination. When Senator
Obama’s campaign sought to make one last push with a 30-minute
infomercial, it bought time on three major networks, using money harvested
on one platform — the Web — to buy time on another — broadcast television.
“We should be careful of these zero-sum games where the new media drives
out the old,” said Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News who
consults for the Monitor Group. “I think what we see is growing
sophistication about making the channels work together effectively.”
The Republicans have made a habit of running against the media in elections
past. This year, the mainstream media found itself at times running against
both parties. Perhaps drawing on Mr. Obama’s background as a community
organizer, his campaign decided early on to build a social network that would
flank, and in some cases outflank, traditional news media.
With a Facebook group that had 2.3 million adherents and a huge push on
YouTube — last week alone, the campaign uploaded 70 videos, many of them
tailored to battleground states — the campaign used peer-to-peer
communication to build a juggernaut that did not depend on the whims and
choices of the media’s collective brain trust.
The campaign mined its online community not just for money, but for
content. A video titled “Four Days in Denver” about the Obama campaign had
the kind of access that journalists would kill for, including the candidate
working over his acceptance speech with a staff member and showing the
family backstage making ready for their moment in the spotlight.
It looked like a big-time network get, but it was produced by the campaign
itself.
“We’re constantly experimenting with videos,” said Joe Rospars, Mr. Obama’s
new-media director. In fact, the most popular videos on BarackObama.com
weren’t TV ads; they were biographical and Web-only spots.
“No one knows the impact of quasi-permanency on the Web yet, but it surely
has changed the political world,” said Allan Louden, a professor who teaches
a course on digital politics at Wake Forest University. “The role of
gatekeepers and archivists have been dispersed to everyone with Internet
access.”
And late last month, the McCain campaign solicited users to come up with
their own Joe the Plumber videos and showed the results on its Web site.
“I think that this time around, campaigns got used to the fact that anything
that they put out there could be pirated, remixed, mashed-up and
recirculated,” said Henry Jenkins, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. “It is a much more rapid environment.”
Raw footage of political speeches — which no network except C-Span
considers hot content — racked up huge numbers. With 5 million views since
March, Mr. Obama’s 37-minute speech about race is the most popular video
on his YouTube channel.
To compete, major media companies had to change how they produced their
coverage. Before almost every big interview — like ABC’s interview with
John Edwards about his extramarital affair — the networks released
excerpts on their Web sites.
Politically oriented video, much of it topical and much of the juicier bits lifted
from network programming, is everywhere on the Web. YouTube videos
mentioning either Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain have been viewed 2.3 billion
times, according to the measurement firm TubeMogul. A Pew Research
Center survey conducted in October found that 39 percent of registered voters
had watched campaign videos online.
“What is striking here is not the dominance of any one medium, but the
integration of various channels,” said Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew
Internet & American Life Project. By the time the conventions rolled around,
some networks realized the game had changed. Ms. Couric christened her
own YouTube channel and was turned loose in Web extras. But network news
divisions are expensive operations based on a television business model. They
can’t be run on the relatively small money that online advertising draws but
they can’t compete for audiences if they ignore the Web.
“At a time when almost anyone can check voter turnout in certain
neighborhoods in Cuyahoga County, I don’t think everyone is going to sit
there and wait to be spoon-fed the election results in the order Brian
Williams thinks is appropriate,” said Joan Walsh, the editor of Salon,
referring to a closely watched county in Ohio.
Given the profound change in the media landscape in just four years, in 2012,
voters will be following the election through news sites that have not been
invented on platforms that cannot be anticipated. “There will be a lot more of
me in 2012,” said Mayhill Fowler, the blogger for The Huffington Post who
publicized Senator Obama’s “bitter” remarks.
Perhaps the only thing that could be predicted with any reliability is that,
viewers who now watch cable news on a set that looks like the desktop —
running streams of data framing the main page — while streaming video on
a nearby laptop will probably be watching just one screen that can do all of
those things.
“There was a palpable hunger for information and data about this election
that has nothing to do with media,” said Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for
Excellence in Journalism. “Nobody reports, you decide.”
3 Great DIY Halloween Costumes to Inspire Geeks
Everywhere
Not content to trek down to the mall for a pre-made costume, these three
builders devised and constructed their own elaborate outfits. Some are quick
and cheap, like a rotating cardboard Gatling gun, or laborious and intricately
detailed, like a life-sized replica Iron Man costume. We tracked down the
creators and asked them how they pulled it off. Halloween lovers, start your
screwdrivers!
By Andrew Moseman
Published on: October 28, 2008
One day not too long ago, Erik Beck was just another coffee shop employee who
hated his job and built crazy stuff in his off hours. And then, before he knew it, he was an
underground Internet hero. Beck is the man behind Backyard FX, a weekly video series
that Beck posts on YouTube under the name IndyMogul. He's been building homemade
creations for the show for more than a year now, including a simulation of the face melt
effect from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Ash's chain-saw arm from the Evil Dead films. Two
of his personal favorites are a replica lightsaber hilt—his pride and joy—and Hellboy's
oversized gun, the Good Samaritan, which Beck said was a true labor of love. But our
favorite Beck creation is one from an episode broadcast earlier this month—a Gatling gun
prosthesis.
Beck tells PM that he got the idea from the recent Japanese movie The Machine Girl, in
which the main character, Ami, has a Gatling gun for an arm. But the gun only fired bullets
and didn't spin, Beck said, and spinning is half the fun of the Gatling gun. So he decided
his version would rotate: "I thought come on, how hard would that be?" Harder than he
thought. All Beck needed was $35 to buy (or scavenge) his supplies—cardboard tubes, a
cordless screwdriver, a piece of foamcore, a film canister cap, L-brackets, plastic tubes, a
plastic bucket, a couple pieces of wood and a skateboard wheel. The cordless drill
provides the power, turning the skateboard wheel, which turns the barrel. Beck attached
the film canister lid to the wheel, and then attached six 16-in. cardboard shipping tubes to
the canister lid. With more plastic and cardboard he finished the shell around the barrel.
However, cardboard parts don't last. "It looked cool," Beck said, "but by the end of the
shoot, it was broken." Beck repaired the defective part, an office chair wheel that he'd
glued to the drill bit, with a whole lot of tape. You can watch the whole episode here.
Ideally, Beck said, he would've built his prop out of something more durable, like
aluminum. But he builds all his projects in a day or two, and on a shoestring budget. Beck
said that Backyard FX projects average about $40 dollars to make, and he didn't think
he'd exceeded $100 on any of them. While that's frustrating, and he said he wishes he
had more money and time to build, Backyard FX's budget constraints mean the show's
viewers can reproduce his projects without going to the poor house. For Beck, despite all
the hours spent cursing a project and wishing it was done, the love of building is what it's
all about—that's why he's up at 3 a.m. using a Dremel tool to build a lightsaber.
‘Nite Fite’ Claims Key YouTube Real Estate
October 7, 2008 12:01 AM
Next New Networks Web series “Nite Fite” took over the home page of YouTube Monday, Oct. 6. The show
was featured in the upper-right slot of the home page, a spot usually reserved for advertiser videos, as part of
a promotional commitment from the show’s sponsor Starburst.
This is an important “milestone” if you will in YouTube’s history because “Nite Fite” is not an ad, nor is it a
branded series. It’s an independent show that has a sponsor integrated into each episode, Next New Networks
pointed out on its own blog. The company is betting the YouTube home page placement can drive subscribers
and audience for the show going forward.
Channel Frederator, the Next New Networks channel that carries “Nite Fite,” already counts more than 20,000
subscribers.
I’ll be curious to check back to see whether the sub count rises significantly in the next few days as a result of
this promotion. For now, weigh in on whether you’d be apt to subscribe to the channel after watching this
video.
Daniel Dale
Staff Reporter
Two days after the Republicans were thumped in the U.S. presidential and
congressional elections, the founders of RebuildTheParty.com announced how they
would rebuild the party.
Their platform suggested the recruitment of "inspiring candidates with clear messages to
rally around." But it did not name any particular candidates or advocate any specific
messages. Those trifling matters, evidently, could wait.
The group wrote, the party's "number one priority in the next four years" should be
"winning the technology war." To rebuild, the Republicans did not need a "political
saviour." They needed "five million new online activists" and a "more open technology
ecosystem."
"We can't keep fighting a 21st century war," the group wrote, "with 20th century
weapons."
President-elect Barack Obama won the election, in part, by effectively deploying the
tools of the modern campaign arsenal. None was more important than YouTube. The
video website, which did not exist in 2004, both reinforced and subverted the dominance
of the campaign sound bite.
The minor verbal goofs of the type every exhausted candidate makes – McCain saying
"my fellow prisoners" instead of "my fellow Americans," Obama saying "my Muslim faith"
instead of "my supposed Muslim faith" in addressing false rumours – were no longer
merely noted at the bottom of news wire service stories and forgotten the next day.
Thanks to YouTube, the daily events of the campaign became something permanent.
For ill, sometimes, but also for good. It gave Americans a more complete understanding
of the candidates. The most inconsequential blunders may have sometimes made the
campaign more trivial – 400,000 people watched a seven-second YouTube clip of
Obama sneezing during an interview. The ability to review speeches and moments from
interviews sometimes made the campaign more substantial. Obama's poetic speech on
race, chopped into bite-sized snippets on the nightly news, could be digested in all its
37-minute glory online. More than 7 million people watched at least part of it.
YouTube allowed Americans to challenge the rhetoric by giving them unfettered access
to information that would, as recently as 2004, have been rationed by the mainstream
media.
When the McCain campaign portrayed Obama's support for a tax plan that would
"spread the wealth around" as a major gaffe, thousands watched the Democrat's entire
two-minute exchange with "Joe the Plumber" – rather than merely the controversial three
seconds on which McCain zeroed in – and came away impressed.
"People hear that 'Joe the Plumber' crack from McCain, but unlike in the past they can
go see the tape," wrote The Atlantic blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates. "That's what the McCain
guys never get."
The "Obama Girl" video, viewed 11 million times, is more memorable than any Obama
ad; Sarah Palin parodies are more memorable than official McCain campaign
productions featuring his running mate. The people with the deep pockets no longer own
the discourse.
But those people themselves used YouTube. Obama's campaign posted more than
1,800 videos on his personal "channel" on the site. Some were official campaign ads,
many were low-budget productions featuring enthusiastic Obama supporters and helped
emphasize Obama's appeal to non-elites.
Obama's social networking application had more than 1 million users by election day.
Once he had a literal connection to them, a cellphone number, supporters received
messages imploring them to register to vote, to watch campaign events, to inform others
of campaign events, and to go vote. The texts, studies show, are more effective than the
infuriating automated "robocalls" on which McCain heavily relied.
Finally, there's the money. Using YouTube, social networking, Obama raised more than
$600 million, a presidential campaign record.
Obama may well have won even if he had not used modern technology so effectively.
Running as a Republican in a poor economic environment after eight years of George
W. Bush, the deck may have been stacked against McCain.
But the old soldier made a classic military mistake his instructors at the U.S. Naval
Academy surely warned about: fighting the war you're in using the tactics of the last one.
Oct 28 2008 5:52PM EDT
* Embed, and they will come. Fred McIntyre from AOL talked about embedding as a critical component to
video discovery -- that the biggest problem in online video is simply finding it. Adam Berrey, senior VP at
Brightcove, echoed this sentiment, adding that most people consume online video like it's a Choose Your
Own Adventure book. Berrey advocates keeping audiences' eyeballs by providing context for a video; so,
embed.
* The dog and the skateboard, or that's industry speak for user-generated-content. For all of the industry
buzzwords and attempts at understanding monetization today, the funnier moments came down to what
makes good content. As Mike Hudack of Blip.tv pointed out, videos showing "how-to's" build dedicated, but
small, audiences willing to sit through TV-length episodes.
* And now, monetization. Despite a supposed clamoring of video inventory by advertisers, Next New
Networks is taking a sponsorship approach to its thirteen online "TV networks" targeted at specific
audiences. For ThreadBanger, a "network" for people who make their own clothes, signed just one sponsor,
Janome Sewing Machines. Tim Shey, co-founder, claims his company makes a couple hundred thousand
dollars a month with this approach.
In
response
to
the
point
that
“which
is
best”
should
have
been
“which
is
better”
in
the
post
about
the
two
Palin
parody
vids,
you’re
right.
I’ll
say
only
that
the
error
resulted
when
the
third
video
option
was
cut
(too
coarse
and
obscene
etc.,
lots
of
swear
words)
but
the
superlative
in
the
opening
question
was
not.
However,
rather
than
make
the
question
right,
I’ll
just
add
another
video
option,
bringing
the
total
to
three,
and
now
licensing
the
question:
Which
is
best?
One
more
Palin
video
for
you
all,
in
other
words:
The Internet is perhaps the most accountable ad medium there is. But the
downside is there are often too many numbers to wade through - total
spend estimate, return on investment, number of online views, unique
visitors, ad growth and so on. Separating the wheat from the chaff can be
tough. How does a media buyer, advertising executive or venture
capitalist decide which reports to use? More specifically, how do they
choose which projections to lean on for the online video ad market?
Because that's the segment that's causing the most confusion when it
comes to numbers. We know that Web video is probably the fastest
growing ad medium, but the estimates on the size of the market vary
widely. Lehman Brothers said advertisers would spend $1.1 billion on
online video ads this year (and look where that got them), Forrester
Research pegs the year-end total at $989 million, while eMarketer
predicts the dollars will come in at $505 million.
That's also the issue with the eMarketer figure. Neither its initial nor its
revised projection accounts for money flowing into brand integration,
product placement and host mentions. Those ad formats drive a
significant number of buys in the medium.
"The vast majority of revenue we derive for our shows are from brand
integration," says Greg Goodfried, one of the executive producers of
"LonelyGirl15" and its spinoffs; he's inked deals with MSN, Disney,
Paramount and Procter & Gamble.
"We have found it difficult to disentangle what should be the online video
ad spend when a Nissan sponsors Heroes, for instance," he says. "There
is a lot of room for error."
Research, by its very nature, is imprecise. Bill Tancer, the global head of
research for online audience measurement firm Hitwise and author of the
book Click, urges everyone to be skeptical when evaluating studies.
"Open up the chart, look at the source, ask what the methodology is."
But the truth is Hayes and others say they aren't terribly troubled by the
fluctuating estimates. That big picture is simply that online video ad
spending is increasing this year, whether it's by 56 percent, according to
eMarketer, or by more than 100 percent, per Forrester.
Besides, Web-content creators and distributors also say they don't rely on
market estimates to sell their inventory to marketers. Instead, Revision3
says 100 percent of its viewers can recall at least one advertiser;
NextNewNetworks talks up its 20 million monthly views; and online video
health information network HealthiNation sells ads based on engagement
with its content.
Still enjoying relative infancy, social media does not have a lot of built-in
access points or mechanisms to achieve scalable audiences. This has to
change. Perhaps the most beneficial thinking we can bring to social
media is to push for platforms that help deliver the scale and access of
other mass media while remaining sensitive to the unique qualities of
social audiences.
Finally, we need to more carefully align social and search, which feed
each other. Social bookmarking, blogs, review sites and social-network
listings increasingly influence search results. Social media has opened up
new avenues for pay-per-click ads and has created more opportunity for
search to be a vital function for each site (e.g., Twitter search). We must
capitalize on this interconnectivity to create more points of entry.
Right now, the systems don't exist. Media planners can't pull
comparisons of social media and TV, even though social media is quickly
becoming a breeding ground for more consumer conversations and
interactions. This is a priority for us and for others who want to find the
best way to measure social-media engagement. But what is engagement?
It must be something more than page views or downloads in this context.
Perhaps the number of fans or the number of pass-alongs to friends?
User-submitted content, from photos or comments to reviews or full blog
posts to well-produced videos, needs different weighting. We must
decide, define and deliver.
David Kenny and Jack Klues are managing partners at VivaKi, Publicis
Groupe's entity overseeing the digital and media assets of Digitas,
Starcom MediaVest Group, ZenithOptimedia and Denuo.
Barack Obama's influence shows in online book
sales after '60 Minutes'
By Lauren Johnston
Online sales spiked Monday for a title on FDR's presidency after Obama
made vague reference in a "60 Minutes" interview to a book he'd been
reading to help prepare for life in the White House.
"There's a new book out about FDR's first 100 days and what you see in
FDR that I hope my team can - emulate, is not always getting it right, but
projecting a sense of confidence, and a willingness to try things," Obama
told correspondent Steve Kroft in the Sunday night interview.
Obama did not mention a specific title in the CBS segment, but that didn't
stop eager readers from pulling out the plastic to place their online
orders.
Sales for Jonathan Alter's "The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and
the Triumph of Hope," rose dramatically on Amazon.com Monday, hitting
a peak 810% increase and boosting its rank on the Web site's bestseller
list from 1,538 to 169.
Sales tapered later in the day, but never dipped below a 564% increase.
The list is updated hourly based on sales data from the past 24 hours.
Obama staffers confirmed he had been reading both Alter's book,
published in 2007 by Simon & Schuster, and "FDR" by Jean Edward Smith.
"Often times when celebrities or notable figures are seen with a book,
mention a movie, pick out a CD, etc. we tend to see increased customer
interest in those products," said Amazon.com spokeswoman Tammy
Hovey.
Obama also told Kroft he had spent "a lot of time reading Lincoln."
Though it was not clear which books he was referring to, staffers revealed
Obama had been reading up on that other president from Illinois in Doris
Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham
Lincoln."
Valleywag might not be dead, but it’s not in a valley anymore.
Forecasting major gloom and doom for online media industry, Gawker
Media publisher Nick Denton made public Wednesday his decision to fold
its tech gossip blog Valleywag into New York media blog Gawker.
The news set off a rumor mill throughout the tech world, as readers and
industry insiders predicted that the blog is teetering on extinction. A
highly read site in the San Francisco Bay Area since it was launched in
2006, Valleywag has become notorious for its particularly pithy, gossipy
coverage of the industry. Valleywag.com attracts 415,000 monthly unique
U.S. visitors, according to Web measurement firm Quantcast. Gawker.com
draws 1.7 million.
Mr. Denton contends that the site is alive and well. “Valleywag.com lives
on. The brand remains. The only real change is that the individual stories
will be hosted under valleywag.gawker.com — a bit like news.com
remains within cnet.com or Fortune is found within CNN.com,” Mr.
Denton wrote in an email. “(Valleywag Managing Editor Owen Thomas’s)
scathing coverage of Silicon Valley will continue — but now in front of an
audience four times the size! Larry Page shouldn’t relax just yet.”
But Mr. Thomas will be the blog’s only employee. The other writer, Paul
Boutin, is fired. (Mr. Boutin and Mr. Thomas have been best friends since
1996, when they met working at Wired magazine.)
The rumor of Valleywag’s demise was met with cheers across the tech
industry, particularly among people who have been skewered in coverage
in the blog. (There is a Facebook group called “Slammed by Valleywag”
with 197 members. Mr. Boutin is a member.)
Adds Mr. Boutin: “If anything Owen is going to get meaner because of
this. The people who think Valleywag is going away are going to be very
very surprised, and they are going to be very very sorry. Owen is only
going to get meaner now. I was the nice guy.”
In an ode to the way things were, we asked some what they will miss.
Here’s what they said:
Mr. Boutin: “What will I miss most? The paycheck,” says Mr. Boutin. “But
Nick Denton’s competitors already have said, ‘Hey let me know if you are
looking for work.” (Mr. Boutin plans to freelance. He also writes book
reviews for the Wall Street Journal a few times a year.)
- Emily Steel
The giant minds behind boxee describe it as a social media center. Using
boxee you can play unprotected videos and music and view images that
are stored on your computer's hard drive or on devices on your local area
network. Additionally, you can enjoy content from Internet sources such
as Hulu, SHOUTcase, and Flickr. The "social" component is the friends you
add (and who add you). Friends can see what they're watching and
listening to, with the idea that if your buddy Marty had the good sense to
watch the latest episode of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, maybe
you should too.
Getting
In order to use boxee, you need an invite. And you can get that invite in
one of two ways. You can visit boxee and sign up for an invitation. As of
today, that invitation will be slow in coming as there are loads of people
who'd like access to boxee and the service is weeding through endless
requests. The other way is to find someone who has a boxee account and
ask them for an invitation. Currently, there's no limit to the number of
people someone with an active account can invite.
Once you have that invitation you can download the boxee application.
Versions are available for the Mac, Windows, and Linux.
Navigating
boxee is designed with TVs and their remotes in mind. Although the Mac
boxee application works perfectly well with a mouse and keyboard, you
can be forgiven if you instead use an Apple Remote if one came with your
iMac or laptop, or use the keyboard's arrow, Return, and Escape keys to
navigate around the interface. It lends itself to that kind of control.
The interface bears seven entries along the left side--Video, Music,
Pictures, Profile, Downloads, Settings, and Exit. The local temperature
and time are displayed in the bottom left corner.
When you select Video you'll see options for Movies, TV Shows, Internet,
and Sources. Select Movies and you'll see movies you access locally--
either on your hard drive or local network. TV shows, same idea. Select
Internet and you have access to streaming content via CBS, CNN, Comedy
Central, Hulu, Movie Trailers, RSS feeds you've added, MySpaceTV, Next
New Networks,. On Networks, Public Torrents, Revision3, and YouTube.
Sources is where you add locations that you've stored media. For
example, if your iTunes library is stored on an external drive, you'll want
to add that source so that boxee can find it.
The Music entry works similarly. You can view local music by artist or
album. Select Internet and you can get audio content via BBC, Jamendo,
Last.fm, RSS feed, or SHOUTcast.
The Pictures entry can take you to local images as well as images stored
on Flickr and Picasa.
iTunes is a terrific media player, but it's limited to certain types of media
and it's unwilling to stream the majority of media on the Internet. boxee
is far more accepting of different media types and is happy to incorporate
any kind of Internet media it can lay its hands on.
boxee and your TV go together like dill and pickle. This makes it a
natural for an Apple TV. But it also makes adding a Mac mini to your
home entertainment system even more tempting. If you've felt hampered
by Hulu's insistence that you watch its content on your computer screen,
boxee mixed with a TV makes a lot or sense, regardless of how you do it.
And, finally, it's good for viewers as well as content providers. Those
networks frustrated that viewers zip through advertising with their DVR's
controls may feel a little better that there's no way to do that with the
short commercials embedded in a lot of Internet streaming content. And
because these advertisements are so short, viewers aren't going to kick
too much about having to sit through them, particularly when they have
access to entire seasons of quality programming for free.
Artists including rapper Ludacris and Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am
were so inspired by Obama’s symbolic, political message, they released
hip-hop ballads to inform the world.
“I came up with the idea to turn (Obama’s) speech into a song because
that speech affected and touched my inner core like nothing in a very
long time,” will.i.am said in a Huffington Post blog.
Will.i.am’s “Yes We Can,” which debuted online earlier this year and was
performed live in Denver at the Democratic National Convention, depicts
the singer’s hopeful sentiment toward new leadership.
“I just wanted to add a melody to those words,” will.i.am said in the post.
“I wanted the inspiration that was bubbling inside me to take over.”
He also created a follow-up music video, “It’s A New Day,” which was
promptly released following Election Day. Both videos can be found on
YouTube and dipdive.com.
“The world is ready for change because Obama is here,” Ludacris said in
his poltically charged piece, “Obama is Here.”
“McCain don’t belong in any chair unless he’s paralyzed,” he said in the
rap. “Yeah, I said it ’cause Bush is mentally handicapped.”
Obama tunes aren’t limited to big names in the industry. YouTube has
become a popular site for those lacking professional resources to express
their political beliefs via music.
Videos such as “Crank Dat Barack Obama,” a spin-off from rapper Soulja
Boy’s 2007 single, have generated numerous hits, as well as “Obama
Obama,” a parody of rapper Lil Wayne’s “A Milli.”
“I got a crush on Obama” made “Obama Girl” Amber Lee Ettinger famous
when “Saturday Night Live” alluded to her video.
“You’re into border security,” she sings. “Let’s break the border between
you and me.”
Junior Josh Wold, frontman for local band Pessoa, said he thinks
unsettling events in past years might be a contributing factor.
“Songwriters and musicians write a lot about things they’re unhappy with
in their personal life or society, and how they’d like change them,” he
said. “I can see how Obama would fit in with that, because he’s pretty
damn inspiring. I don’t have trouble believing that he inspires music.”
When the book is written on this election, it should not be titled The
Making of a President but The Marketing of a President. Barack Obama's
campaign is a case study in marketing excellence.
First, Obama's personal charisma, his listening and public speaking skills,
his consistently positive and unruffled demeanor, and his compelling
biography attracted the attention and empathy of voters.
Third, his fundraising prowess was aided by his appreciation and use of
all communications media, notably the Internet, to engage voters. Obama
picked up where Howard Dean left off. He leveraged his website, the
blogosphere, and even user-generated content (remember Obama Girl)
and video games to engage not just donors and volunteers but all
citizens. From the imaginative campaign logo to the thirty-minute
infomercial, Obama's communications were professional without being
slick, attention-getting without being in-your-face.
Fifth, his advertising messages and his tone and demeanor throughout
the campaign consistently communicated his upbeat themes of hope and
"change you can believe in." The emotional appeal was buttressed with
solid and specific policy details. The ability to combine emotional with
functional benefits and the discipline to be consistent in positioning and
message delivery are core to all successful branding campaigns. Ads that
dealt with specific policy issues, even ads criticizing McCain, all continued
to communicate the core themes.
Seventh, he fought the ground war as brilliantly as the air war. Building
on Howard Dean's 50 state strategy, he built his primary delegate count
by investing time in Democratic caucuses in red states; the organizations
he built for the primaries in these states set him up to win several of
them in the general. In the closing weeks, he put McCain on defense in
multiple red states, making it tough for the Republican to focus his
efforts. Having relied on public funding, McCain ended up having to make
some tough trade-offs regarding where to go and where to spend his
money. Obama did not.
Like any great brand, Obama has built up a bond of trust with the
American people. His election has also given the United States the
opportunity to reestablish its moral leadership around the world. But like
any brand, he has to deliver now on his promises, both actual and
perceived. In the current economy, that will not be easy.
Yesterday, I hosted and moderated the inaugural Broadband Video
Leadership Breakfast, in association with the CTAM New England and New
York chapters, here in Boston (a few pics are here). We taped the session
and I'll post the link when the video is available. Here are a few of key
takeaways.
I posed the question first to Peter Stern, who's in the middle of the action
as Chief Strategy Officer of Time Warner Cable, the second largest cable
company in the U.S. I thought his answer was intriguing: he said that it is
cable networks themselves who will determine the sustainability of the
model, depending on whether they choose to put their full-length
programs online for free or not.
Later in the session, he put a finer point on his argument, saying that "a
move to online distribution by cable networks would directly undermine
the affiliate fees that are critical to creating great content" and that
finding ways to offer these programs only to paying broadband Internet
access subscribers was a far better model for today's cable networks and
operators to pursue (for more see Todd Spangler's coverage at
Multichannel News).
Still, our audience Q&A segment revealed some very basic cracks in the
panelists' assertions that the transition to the broadband era can be
orderly and managed (not to mention that afterwards, I was privately
barraged by skeptical attendees). First and foremost these individuals
argued the idea that the cable industry can maintain the value of its
subscription service by using the control-oriented approach typified by
the traditional windowing process flies in the face of valuable lessons
learned by the music industry.
Does history repeat itself? Are Peter and the other brightest lights of the
cable industry deluding themselves into thinking that a closed, high-
margin, windowed platform like cable can ever possibly morph itself into
a flexible, must-have service for today's YouTube/Facebook generation?
I've been a believer for a while that by virtue of their massive base of
broadband-connected homes, high-ARPU customer relationships and
programming ties, cable operators have enormous incumbent advantages
to win in the broadband era. But incumbency alone does not guarantee
success. Instead, what wins the day now is staying in tune with and
adapting to drastically changed consumer expectations, and then
executing well, day after day. One look at the now gasping-for-breadth
behemoth that was once proud General Motors hammers this point home
all too well.
The first intimation of this phenomenon was the Obama Girl video posted
on the network early in the race for the Democratic candidacy. Her song, I
Got a Crush on Obama, led to a wave of sycophantic postings - and
Hillary Clinton just couldn't compete.
Even more impressive was the high percentage of the funds that came
from first-time donors - many in traditionally hard-to-reach groups,
such as young people and those with criminal records. 'Obama has
appealed to the grass roots, and the internet played a big part in that,'
says Harty.
Through the web, the Democrats sought to attract many $100 and $200
gifts. 'They gave the little guys a role to play by suggesting they could
participate and contribute just by doing whatever they could,' says Harty.
'They created a sense of allowing ordinary people to take back
government from the special-interest groups - the lobbyists, fat cats and
politicians - who used to control it. That created a huge sense of
community, momentum, confidence and inevitability among Democrat
voters.'
However, on the presentation front, McCain started out well, says Howard
Belk, co-president and chief creative officer at branding agency Siegel
and Gale in New York. 'He took his reputation for straight talking around
the country on his campaign bus,' he explains. 'He had a refreshingly
irreverent style, said what he believed and took on the establishment and
even the Republican Party, as well as the Democrats - a classic challenger
brand, if you like. He espoused lofty goals - patriotism, equal
opportunity, championing the underdog. Notably, one of his campaign's
most successful attacks on Obama was when he portrayed the Democrat
as a vacuous, shallow celebrity.
'But when McCain started to fall behind in the polls and got swept up in
the financial crisis, he became reactive and slipped into a different
communication mode. He stopped talking about the real issues and
simple solutions and switched to attack-politics in an attempt to distract
people from the economy.'
According to Belk, going on the offensive lost McCain his momentum and
voter support. In contrast, Obama stayed on-message, maintaining his
equilibrium in the face of personal attacks and projecting the stature of a
thoughtful leader. He demonstrated an understanding of who he is and
where he is from.
Nevertheless, negative advertising is an accepted feature of US politics.
'It's quite different from the commercial sphere,' says Quelch. 'If Pepsi
and Coke ran negative ads against each other, it would put consumers off
the category and the soda market would shrink. But in this election,
where both candidates were relative unknowns, there were more attacks
than usual because each side was painting a picture of the other that they
felt the public had a right to see.'
Sumners adds: 'The side that generates the headlines and narrative of the
campaign tends to lead in the polls. Palin's appointment was a political
sleight of hand to try to woo disenfranchised Hillary [Clinton] voters. It
created short-term interest and hype, the kind of news that brands thrive
on. You could argue that selecting a potential future vice-president
shouldn't be a tactical move. But when marketing to a small percentage
of swing-voters, such tactics can be enough to win it for you in those
states.'
Similarly, the support of Warren Buffett, the world's richest man and,
arguably, shrewdest investor, was a powerful vote of confidence in
Obama's ability to manage the US economy.
3 Obama's trip to Europe, the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan this
summer was designed to burnish his foreign policy credentials. The
anchors of the US' main evening TV news programmes, CNBC, CBS and
Fox, along with a group of top reporters, went too, guaranteeing three
days of 'presidential' news coverage.
A week has passed since the election of Barack Obama as the next president of
the United States, and Iʼm still high on the history and possibility of that moment.
So, yes, my headʼs in the clouds. But, my feet are planted firmly on the ground
and I believe, despite much evidence to the contrary, that this campaign season
represented a breakthrough for women.
Of course I recognize that women came close but did not win the presidency or
vice presidency. Of course I recognize (and have written about) the sexist
treatment of women by the media and, more recently, by certain campaign staffs.
Of course I recognize that Michelle Obama had to tone down her political
opinions and ramp up her “First Mom” rhetoric to be more acceptable to the
American people.
But I also recognize that most of the standout players in this election year were
women.
For starters, it was the first time a woman nearly clinched the Democratic
nomination for president and the first time a woman was on the Republican ticket
as the vice presidential nominee.
It was also the first time that Oprah, Queen of All Media, endorsed a candidate,
and sheʼs credited with swaying voters in Obamaʼs favor simply by virtue of her
Oprah-ness.
Katie Couricʼs now infamous interview with Sarah Palin reminded audiences of
Couricʼs disarming style and revitalized her career, but it was an earlier interview
with Hillary Clinton during the primaries that caught my eye:
Couric: “I know youʼre confident [the winner] will be you, but there is the
possibility it wonʼt be, and clearly you have considered that possibility.”
And who could forget Campbell Brownʼs scathing indictment of the McCain
campaign for sheltering Palin from the press: “Stop treating Sarah Palin like she
is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment….Free Sarah Palin. Free her from
the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must
come to an end.” Brown had discovered her calling as a political commentator,
and CNN came to recognize what they had on their hands: a worthy competitor
to Bill OʼReilly on Fox and Keith Olbermann on MSNBC. They began airing
“Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull” shortly before Election Day.
Even the much-watched yet much-maligned all-female cast of The View earned
respect from unlikely quarters after John McCainʼs turn in the hot seat. At one
point, co-host Joy Behar looked McCain straight in the eye and said, “There are
ads running from your campaign… Now we know that those two ads are untrue,
they are lies. And yet, you at the end of it say you approve these messages. Do
you really approve these?” Beharʼs gutsy, no holds barred style caused columnist
Frank Rich of The New York Times to dub her “the new Edward R. Murrow.”
Perhaps most surprising among the rise of female media stars was the ultra-
quick ascendancy of Rachel Maddow in her self-titled political program on
MSNBC. Maddow, who also hosts a radio show on Air America, is not only a
woman, sheʼs a left-leaning lesbian with…short hair—a television first!
This campaign season the notion was put to rest—forever, I hope—that women
are not as funny as men. Only one comedian had everyone—everyone—talking,
and that was Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live. (In fact, post-
election life feels a little empty without Fey/Palin.) I believe that even the next
three most memorable comedic performances were also by women. There was
the extremely pregnant Amy Poehler rapping about Sarah Palin while Palin sat at
the SNL Weekend Update news desk and grooved to the beat, Samantha Bee on
The Daily Show “forcing” attendees of the National Republican Convention to
utter the word “choice” in connection with Palinʼs pregnant daughter, Bristol, and
Sarah Silvermanʼs “The Great Shlep” video aimed at getting the grandchildren of
bubbes and zadies in Florida to vote for Obama.
On the internet, Tina Brown, the legendary former editor of Vanity Fair and the
New Yorker launched her latest political-cultural offering, thedailybeast.com,
Arianna Huffingtonʼs website continued to be a go-to place for politics, and Joan
Walsh, editor in chief of Salon.com, was a frequent guest on MSNBCʼs Hardball
with Chris Matthews, distinguishing herself with her reasoned analysis spoken in
a quiet but firm manner. And, letʼs not forget Obama Girl, with her internet hit,
“Iʼve Got a Crush…on Obama.” Silly as it may seem, she lent Obama, who
sometimes seems too cool to be hot, sex appeal.
Some political Mean Girls got their comeuppance, which is good news for the
rest of womanhood. In one SNL skit, Tina Fey as Sarah Palin described herself
as “one part practiced folksy, one part sassy and a little dash of high school
bitchy,” which seemed to perfectly capture Palinʼs persona. Needless to say,
Palin lost the election. And then there was incumbent Senator Elizabeth Dole of
North Carolina, previously considered a genteel Southern woman, who, in an act
of desperation, ran an ad accusing her opponent, Kay Hagan, of being “godless”.
Listen up, Mean Girl: Haganʼs in, youʼre out.
Finally, the White House is about to become home to three of the worldʼs most
famous females: Michelle, Sasha, and Malia Obama (and maybe a fourth,
depending on the puppyʼs gender). Itʼs also going to be home to a man who has
a grace about him normally ascribed to women, and whose demeanor serves as
a rebuke to the womanizing ways of Bill Clinton and the macho swaggering of
George W. Bush. And guess which gender put Obama in the White House?
Women voted 56 to 43 percent for Obama while men only voted 49 to 48 percent
for him.
And so, we still donʼt have a woman president or vice president despite the fact
that women form 51 percent of the American population. But, take heart:
Americans have a lot of women winners, this
election.
didn’t like trailers. Roger Ebert says his late, great partner “hated them so
much he would stand outside a theater until they were over. If he was
already seated in the middle of a crowded theater, he would plug his ears
and stare at the floor.” Grace Randolph doesn’t share the classic critic’s
sentiment.
In her just launched, Next New Networks movie review program Beyond
the Trailer, Randolph shows viewers select scenes from new theatrical
releases before explaining the film’s “industry expectations,” divulging
“behind the scenes gossip,” and taking a camera crew to New York City’s
streets for “audience reactions.”
Does the same audience that wants to learn how to Two-Face its face and
watch Keg of the Dead care that Jeffery Katzenberg was booted out of
Disney or want to hear what toddlers think about Madagascar 2? This is
IndyMogul, right? Randolph’s side swept bangs (how does she read the
teleprompter?) and prison uniform of a t-shirt kinda look alternative, but
the rest of the show (in terms of content, delivery, etc.) is about as
traditional as you can get.
Beyond the Trailer is well produced, but for the wrong network. Maybe a
movie review show with some monster would’ve been a better choice.
Two more members of Congress are expressing concerns that the
FCC, broadcasters and the federal agency responsible for the digital
converter box coupon program need to do more to prepare the public
for the digital transition. House Telecommunications Subcommittee
Chairman Ed Markey and Commerce Committee Chairman John
Dingell have written letters to broadcasters and the federal agencies
asking them to detail plans to remedy concerns that arose during the
September digital transition test in Wilmington, NC.
“We think there is a solution that is sustainable,” said Peter Stern, executive VP
and chief strategy officer at Time Warner Cable during the breakfast. “Deliver all
your Web content to paying customers online and just a small amount to non-
paying customers.”
That sounds like Time Warner plans to offer a replica on the Web to its
subscribers of what it already offers on traditional TV to its subscribers. So if you
have Time Warner service you could see the cable channels and programs you
want on TV and also on the Web. And if youʼre not a Time Warner customer you
canʼt.
OK, so this is a forward-thinking solution. I like that Time Warner is making its
content available on the Web too.
But, Iʼm not so sure this solution, though well-thought, is going to stem the tide of
cable defections in the coming years.
Are people dropping their cable service in droves today? No. It is very early days
and traditional cable and satellite programming on a big-screen is still more
convenient and more enjoyable for TV viewing.
However, as a recent cord-cutter (Iʼve been without cable programming for four
weeks now) I donʼt see a reason to return to the cable fold now that I have seen
that life without—life just online—works almost as well.
I recognize that traditional delivery is both more convenient and more enjoyable
than watching shows online. But you know what? When you go without traditional
delivery for a few weeks, you just get used to it (unless you are a sports fan). You
stop missing the old way of doing this. And the new way of doing things—
watching “The Office” on Hulu, checking out “The Daily Show” on
Thedailyshow.com—becomes a reasonable facsimile for the old way.
Ettinger attended a victory party last week in New York, where she joked about
getting an invitation to the inauguration.
More seriously, she said she's appreciate a note from the president elect
thanking Obama Girl.
Ettinger's smash video, "I Got a Crush on Obama," has been viewed more than
11 million times on YouTube.
Her publicist, Kelly Brady, told AFP the video wasn't just a joke. "Sex sells, and
she was the sexy part of the election. That helped draw in the younger crowd.
They asked: 'What's that hot girl saying about Obama?'"
Ettinger says she wasn't much into politics until Obama's campaign, but now
she's ready for anything. "I've got my Super Obama Girl outfit in the back of the
car!"
The only sound inside President-elect Barack Obama's press bus was the hum of the motor as it
turned into downtown Lancaster. This was the gray morning of March 30, and Obama and his
press corps were making their way to Stevens College of Technology for his first visit to the city.
The buses rolled past Clipper Magazine Stadium, Gallery Row and the Fulton Opera House, but
none of the press corps seemed particularly interested. They snoozed or studied their laptops.
For many, this was the umpteenth small town they'd visited since the Iowa caucus three months
earlier.
Suddenly someone exclaimed "Look at that!" Every writer, TV reporter and photographer raced to
the left side of the bus so quickly I thought we'd tip the thing over. Their hands and faces pressed
against the glass.
The subject of their intense interest? The castle-like Lancaster County Prison.
***
After the high-stakes Philadelphia debate between Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton in April,
national and state reporters descended to the spin room. This is where famous surrogates for
both candidates enter and "spin" for the reporters what was seen and heard during the debate.
Yet, the main "attraction" in the spin room wasn't the likes of retired Gen. Wesley Clark or Gov.
Ed Rendell, but a New York-based model, Internet sensation and champion lip sync performer,
Amber Lee Ettinger, aka Obama Girl.
Ettinger, part of a comedy troupe called www.BarelyPolitical.com, slipped through the spin room
with a cameraman filming a segment for the Web site. Some of the nation's top journalists quickly
made their way to Ettinger, asked for a photo, then cozied up to Obama Girl while someone with
a cell phone snapped a shot.
Obama Girl may have a crush on Obama, but plenty of hormonal male journalists were crushin'
on Obama Girl, too.
***
Anyone who thought Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was the real star of the GOP ticket and not
presidential nominee Sen. John McCain would have felt vindicated by what took place on the
Lancaster Airport tarmac Sept. 9.
The Straight Talk 737 touched down on a muggy morning just before the GOP rally at Franklin &
Marshall College, and an entourage of about a dozen local people were there to greet McCain
and Palin just outside the gate.
McCain appeared at the plane's door, descended the steps, shook a few hands, then darted for
the bus. There was a tight schedule to keep, after all. Palin, though, with husband Todd in tow,
bounced down the steps, chattered away and shook everyone's hand; she even autographed a
hockey puck. Palin was out there so long schmoozin' with the locals you had to wonder if McCain
wasn't perturbed.
After the rally, it was nearly the same scene on the tarmac. Airport and security officials waited
under the 737's wing, and McCain shook a few hands, had a few photographs taken, then
stepped away to climb the steps back into the plane.
Palin? She took much longer interacting with supporters, and the loss of patience was evident on
McCain's face.
***
When you're a member of the press and you show up to cover a candidate's rally, you show a
press pass to campaign security volunteers to gain access to the event. The campaign then gives
you its own pass, usually with the candidate's slogan or name on it.
So it was in Downingtown for a McCain rally in mid-October, the day after the Phillies clinched the
National League pennant against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The campaign handed out laminated blue press passes with "Country First * McCain * Palin" in
white print … and a picture of the Philly Phanatic, the fuzzy green whatever-the-heck-that-
mascot-is for the Philadelphia Phillies. The Phanatic is pointing at the camera, and on his shirt
are the names "McCain * Palin." It appeared to be superimposed over his usual red-pinstriped
jersey, as the red lines were slightly visible underneath the names.
Did the Phanatic endorse the GOP ticket? No, said a team spokesman at the time, and the
campaign did not ask the Phillies for permission to use the Phanatic's image.
Said Paul Lindsay, spokesman for the McCain campaign: "We were concerned that the national
press pool was infested with some depressed Dodgers fans. So we wanted to make every effort
to outfit them with the appropriate Phillies accessories to remind them of the results of
Wednesday night's game."
Quotes-of-the-Week
"This election really showed me how the county is changing. It certainly did not go blindly by
party. Obviously, people split their tickets."
— State Rep. Katie True about Tuesday's election in which down-ticket Republican candidates
like U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts received more votes than presidential nominee John McCain.
***
"You have no excuse. You can't say 'the man' is holding us back any more. You have to work
harder. You can't expect handouts."
— Millersville University student Jessica Hemingway, a member of the Black Student Union,
about the black community after Obama's election.
***
"If it was a normal year, McCain would have had a real shot. With the economic crisis, that was a
real godsend for the Obama campaign."
E-mail: dpidgeon@lnpnews.com
BOSTON -- Programmers should work with cable operators to distribute TV content to
paying customers over the Internet -- instead of throwing it up online for free and
undermining cable’s existing business model, said Peter Stern, executive vice president
and chief strategy officer at Time Warner Cable.
“The question of whether broadband video upends the cable business lies with the
programmers,” said Stern, speaking on the Monday panel “How to Profit from
Broadband Video's Disruptive Impact” at the CTAM Summit ’08
If consumers can get the shows they want to watch for free, they will do that, he said:
“Free is a very good deal.”
Stern said there’s a sustainable solution to the issue: For programmers to deliver “all
your Web content to your paying customers, and just your promotional content to
nonpaying customers.”
“The notion should be that consumers who want to pay for great brands and great
content should be able to access that on any platform,” he said.
There should be defined windows for cable TV distribution, Stern added. “What we’re not
comfortable with is putting content online for free that we’re offering to customers
because at the end of the day, it’s the same screen,” he said. “That makes no sense and
ultimately will undermine the affiliate fees that are critical to create that great content.”
For cable programmers, distributing ad-supported content online simply doesn’t provide
the same level of return on investment, Scripps Networks Digital president Deanna
Brown.
“When the Internet is able to provide us with that same economic value [as affiliate fees],
we’ll probably shift our activities accordingly,” Brown said.
But rather than trying to replicate cable TV experience online, the Internet provides the
opportunity to present content in a new context, said David Eun, vice president of
content partnerships for Google and YouTube.
“We should be thinking less about cutting and pasting and more about creating new
experiences,” he said.
And traditional TV content is just one part of the vast and growing pool of video available
online, accordin to Eun.. He said consumers upload hundreds of hours of video content -
- the equivalent of 57,000 movies per week -- to his company’s sites.
Brown said HGTV launched a site last year, Rate My Space, for people to post pictures
of their homes and allow other members to comment on those and rate them. After
seeing a big response, HGTV decided to develop a show around the site and within 12
weeks had it on air.
“That’s a good example of when the consumer started the conversation and it grew up
and became a television show,” Brown said.
Fred Seibert, creative director and co-founder of Next New Networks, an online content-
production startup, disputed the idea that new Web content or distribution models will
displace the existing pay-TV business.
“Nothing ever goes away,” said Seibert, the original creative director of MTV, noting that
pundits predicted the death of broadcast TV during the cable industry’s early growth
phase. “Well, maybe vaudeville, but nothing else.”
On the other hand, Seibert said, “The model that has made cable a success isn’t going
away, but it’s going to go under an incredible adjustment.”
Stern said the challenge for the cable industry is to get content to consumers “on that
high-def, communal television when they want it -- and that means we need to
aggressively embrace time-shifting… but we need to do that in a way that grows the
pie.”
The panel was moderated by Will Richmond, editor and publisher of VideoNuze and an
industry consultant.
We’ve long been drawing comparisons between the imaginary Carrie Bradshaw and the
real-life fameball Julia Allison. Afterall, there are so many similarities and Julia is no
doubt the modern day iteration of the dating columnist portrayed on Sex and the City.
That’s why I was tickled pink to hear the theme song of Julia’s online video installments
on her newest website TMI.
Now I, Stanley Stuyvesant, do have floppy ears, but I’m not completely tone def. Is
TMI’s theme song not very similiar to Sex and the City’s theme song? Maybe its the
existence of the Marimba in both (or is it a xylophone?), or the similiar syncopations?
Anyway, listen below and you be the judge!
This was no ordinary week for America, and it’s inspired many to consider being more
civically active. Jill Weinberger and Liz Shannon Miller are no exception, and in today’s
Station Conversation they make plans to aid one of online video’s more disenfranchised
populations: the bikini girls.
Jill: Mean Kitty’s dad got a mermaid corpse…Oh. You mean the other thing.
Liz: Yeah.
Jill: That was good, too. Freedom and change and hope and whatnot. Plus, CNN had
holograms.
Liz: It’s been fun to see everyone react. Obama Girl, for example, is understandably
jubilant.
Jill: Yeah. Oh, did you see? The Downstairs Guys filmed their reaction video the morning
of the election, just to get ahead of the game.
Liz: WHY WERE THEY TEMPTING THE WRATH OF THE WHATEVER FROM HIGH
ATOP THE THING?
Jill: Well, they made a reaction video for either eventuality and found the bright side
either way.
Liz: That’s fine, but why is that girl wearing a bikini in freaking November?!? I wore a
sweater on the 4th, and I live in California!
Jill: So they could use cleavage and breasts in their tags, duh. That is just good SEO-
ness.
Liz: Yeah, I guess that was kind of naive of me. But it still seems unnecessarily cruel.
Jill: They clearly gave her plenty of alcohol. She seems fine.
Liz: There ought to be an organization to protect the girls in bikinis used for
screenshot/seo purposes, like the ASPCA. The ASPCB!
Jill: Or at least a bikini girl union ensuring that you get time and a half for any time spent
in a bikini.
Liz: Man, if I could get her to support the ASPCB, then we’d be GOLDEN. That’s like
getting Tom Cruise.
Maybe you could get McCain Girl on board. I mean, really, what the hell is she going to
be doing with her time now? She’s gotta be free.
Liz: Really, the entire Obama Girl army should enlist. And also, we need to nail down the
international audience, which means getting the kids at AtheneWins on board.
Jill: OMG! And Heidi Klum! Although technically she is more lingerie than bikini.
Liz: Heidi Klum might be our biggest challenge, though. While I’m sure she gets paid
handsomely to do so, the lady LOVES to show off her ta-tas.
Jill: That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t enjoy time and a half and a heat lamp.
Liz: I’m just saying that it seems like she likes it a little too much, and any obstacles to
her being able to do so might be auf’ed.
Jill: But this is what democracy is ABOUT. The privileged using their power to raise the
opportunities and protections for the underprivileged.
Of course, Heidi IS German. But America has been very very good to her. And it’s not
about taking away anyone’s ta-ta flashing opportunities. It’s about making a safer and
more productive ta-ta flashing environment for EVERYONE. USA! USA! YES WE CAN!
Liz: No, it’s good! We are inspired, is all, to follow Obama’s example, and organize within
our community. Our community happens to be online video. Hence, we organize.
Jill: We are TA-TA COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS! And how many people can say that?
Outside of porn, that is.
Liz: What are some other rights we feel these ladies in bikinis should demand? I think
bikini approval is important.
Liz: And the right to demand that one crew member, at all times, is tasked with the job of
keeping an eye out for nip-slips.
Jill: As well as the right to negotiate beforehand whether or not there will be visible nipple
outlinage.
Liz: Ooh, yes. There’s like a whole sub-section here on the issue of nipples.
This discussion, of course, gets to the heart of one of those basic facts about online
video, which is that the implementation of a girl’s cleavage is oftentimes the key element
of their success. Rocketboom, ScriptGirl…
Liz: As long as there’s been a YouTube, there have been screenshots of knockers on it.
At this stage, it’s kind of ridiculous to ask the community to change, so I suppose all we
can do is ask that these young ladies are well-treated, and not exploited…well. You
know what I mean.
Jill: We aren’t asking for there to be less bikini girls. We’re just asking for basic
workplace protections. I imagine a whole roomful of girls in bikinis standing on tables,
holding up signs that say, “UNION.”
And shivering.
Here is my question: The screenshots are supposedly random. So how does YouTube
KNOW which part of the vid has cleavage in it? ‘Cause most videos with girls in bikinis
also feature guys looking like idiots, and they’re never in the screenshot.
Liz: It’s actually a somewhat common practice for editors to insert single frames of bikini
girls in spots most likely to be picked for screenshotting. The exact middle of a video is
usually the best guess.
Jill: The question is, because a cleavage shot is so essential to the success of a video,
do bikini girls have the leverage to negotiate? Or is there always some other new bikini
girl, getting off a bus from Omaha, willing to bikini up in less-than-ideal conditions?
Liz: Hmmm, good question. I’d say yes and no. Definitely there’s no shortage of young
ladies prepared to brave the elements for their art, but a lot of times these girls become
the anchor for their shows, and their personality and charisma adds a lot.
Replacing Obama Girl, for example, is pretty unthinkable. And Rocketboom had serious
drop-off after Amanda Congdon left. I think there are probably some not-too-savvy
producers who think the answer is yes, but in reality the answer is no.
Jill: Well, then you get back to the Heidi Klum conundrum. Which is that you need your
high-profile, more valued personalities to bring their clout to the table to benefit the
lesser-known bikini population.
Liz: The nice thing about supporting the rights of the lesser-known bikini girls
is that it gives them a chance to connect with their audiences on their own terms. Thus
enabling them to build a fan base and gain more recognition. And that is good for the
show, and thus good for the producers with whom they are negotiating.
Jill: I think we’ve done good work today for the rights of girls in bikinis everywhere. I feel
like I am a part of the solution. And a true American.
A key turning point in the long and brutal presidential election involved a YouTube battle
between dueling online videos.
It was primary season and Barack Obama was being battered in the press because of his
relationship with controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Some of Wright's more
inflammatory sermons were captured on video and were flying around YouTube.
Instead of letting the clips fester online, the Obama campaign immediately posted on YouTube
the candidate's full rebuttal, a 37-minute-long speech on race he delivered to an audience in
Philadelphia.
The video clip helped calm the controversy and attracted around 5.3 million views on the video-
viewing website, proving the popularity and impact of a medium that was first used widely this
election cycle.
Dubbed early on "the YouTube election" by some, by late October, 39 percent of voters had
watched some sort of campaign-related video online, according to the Pew Research Center, up
from the 24 percent who said in December, before the primaries began, that they had watched
political videos. "I think it's fair to say that this is the first election YouTube has played a critical
role in helping the president-elect to reach audiences and get people out to vote, says Steve
Grove, YouTube's head of news and politics.
YouTube videos, which weren't around during the last presidential election, first made their mark
in 2006, when George Allen's infamous "macaca" moment was filmed and uploaded to the Web,
derailing his Senate re-election campaign in Virginia.
Most of the early YouTube incidents involved "gotcha" type videos, not serious political
messaging. That soon changed as more Americans embraced the medium, along with candidates
themselves. "I think a lot of candidates said 'Whoa, this is kind of scary, frankly, and maybe a
little bit dangerous,' and 'How are we going to deal with this situation?' But then fast forward just
a few months later and 7 out of 16 presidential candidates actually announced their candidacy on
YouTube through videos," says Grove.
By Election Day, 28 percent of voters surveyed said they had watched speeches the candidates
had put online, like Obama's race speech. "Even though it's 37 minutes long, it's the most-viewed
video ever uploaded by a presidential candidate to YouTube," says Grove. "[The Obama
campaign] understood that YouTube's not just about short clips, or commercials, or "gotcha"
footage, or a slick ad. It's about making yourself available to people."
Of course, YouTube was about much more than official campaign videos. While YouTube
logged about 200 million views of official candidate videos, there were as many as 1 billion
views of videos created by average Americans and groups not associated with the campaigns,
according to the website TechPresident. "So YouTube has become the town square for America's
future," says Andrew Rasiej, a co-founder of TechPresident, a website that covered the
intersection of the election and the Web.
The most popular of the noncampaign affiliated videos seems to be "Dear Mr. Obama," a video
created by a McCain-supporting Iraq War vet who delivers a message to the Democratic
candidate: "Dear Mr. Obama, having spent 12 months in Iraq theater, I can promise you this is
not a mistake." This video received about 13 million views.
There were other more professional-looking videos that became hits too. One is "I Got a
Crush...on Obama" that turned the sultry Obama Girl into an online and offline pseudo-celebrity.
And then there was Will.I.Am's "Yes We Can" music video that featured a handful of actors and
musicians singing and rapping to an Obama speech, which received about 12.7 million views.
"The 'Yes We Can' video captured the culture of the Internet's interest in Obama at the beginning
of the primary season," explains Rasiej. "It was the perfect melding of Obama's political message
with a desire for more engagement by the American public manifested in a simple video instantly
viewed by millions without any influence by the mainstream media and the political parties
themselves." The video proved to be so popular online that it was adopted by the Obama
campaign to be played at campaign rallies.
Unlike normal campaign advertising, online video was often more persuasive because it was
passed virally from person to person. One video that helped shape the campaign dialogue was
created by director Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films, a progressive Web video making
outlet, called "McCain. Mansions: The Houses That Greed Built." This video circulated the Web
even before McCain flubbed a question about how many houses he owned. "Initially there was
not a lot of evidence that people would watch serious political messaging. There was clear
evidence that they would watch naked ladies fall down in showers and cats playing the piano, but
there was not a lot of evidence for what we wanted to do, so it's been very satisfying," Greenwald
says.
But Greenwald says his ambition wasn't just to get people to watch videos online. "The goal is to
get them to participate, send the video around, get involved, learn something," the director says.
This tactic was also used by the Obama campaign, which used a variety of Web tools, including
YouTube, to create a large community online hoping that it would inspire advocacy offline as
well. "They used video to gin up interest in Obama's message and ideas, but it was always about
what you could do in your neighborhood and your pocketbook," says YouTube's Grove.
Amber
Lee
Ettinger
aka
Obama
Girl
burst
into
tears
at
the
barelypolitical.com
party
at
Haven
when
her
man
was
named
the
new
president
of
the
United
States.
“This
is
the
day
I’ve
been
waiting
for,”
she
told
us.
Ben & Jerry’s is giving out free ice cream to
voters, Starbucks is hooking you up with twelve-
ounce coffees, and our favorite freebie yet: a
glass of sangria from Boqueria. Based on an
informal Wafels & Dinges poll, Obama is
expected to win (243 Barack waffles purchased
versus 141 McCains). If you’re looking for a place
to watch it go down, Daily Intel has a good
rundown of election parties. There’s also
Craftsteak’s fête tonight, and at Haven, Barely
Political is celebrating with a special performance
by Obama Girl.
The Quest for "it"
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
DL21C's Election Night Bash! New World Stages, 340 W.50th Street (bet.
8th & 9th Ave.) 6:00 pm- LATE. NYC's biggest party celebrating out local
and national Democratic victories 20,000 feet of fun! Huge TV's, DJ,
Elected Officials and more! For RSVP info visit to
www.newworldstages.com
Barely Political.com Hosts Party with Obama Girl @ Haven. 244 East 51st
St. Time TBA. Invite Only.
If Tuesday night’s election goes the way polls are predicting, not only do we
have four years of President Barack Obama ahead of us, we have four more
years of Obama Girl.
No wonder she’s throwing a big election night party.
Amber Lee Ettinger, who became famous writhing around in tight clothes
while lip-syncing “I got a crush on Obama,” is hosting the party at Haven in
New York, in case anyone is up for a road trip.
If that’s too far, but you still want to celebrate election night out of town,
consider the University of Delaware. The college sent out a release touting
the campus’s designation by another news organization as the “epicenter of
this year’s presidential election.”
(The school is Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden’s alma
mater. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe and McCain campaign
manager Steve Schmidt are alumni, too.) If you attend, you might end the
night crushing beer cans on your head. More than 500 college students are
expected to watch the returns together in the student center.
10 most viral videos of the campaign
They
zip
in
and
out
of
e‐mail
accounts,
get
millions
of
views
on
YouTube
and
sometimes
put
the
Madison
Avenue
creations
of
real‐life
Mad
Men
to
shame.
Viral
videos
have
been
part
of
the
Web
world
since
1996’s
digital
Xmas
card
from
the
South
Park
boys,
but
over
the
past
decade
they’ve
also
impacted
politics
—
sometimes
changing
the
course
of
elections
and
frequently
providing
a
few
laughs
in
an
otherwise
wonky
world.
The
“macaca
moment”
from
way
back
when
in
2006
seems
almost
quaint
by
comparison
to
the
viral
videos
of
the
2008
cycle,
which
include
entire
"Saturday
Night
Live"
segments,
interviews
with
network
anchors
and
newsreel
moments
with
plumbers
named
Joe.
Here,
then,
are
the
10
viral
videos
that
have
bored
deep
into
our
brains
over
this
long
election
season.
1.
Yes,
We
Can
Sure,
this
$30,000
quasi‐MTV
clip
contains
more
waifs
and
cleavage
and
porkpie
hats
than
seems
possible,
but
the
spot's
mix
of
speech,
music,
spoken
word,
simple
guitar
strumming
and
very
pretty
young
people
rings
with
inspiration
and,
while
minimalist,
it
may
be
the
most
creative
video
of
any
type
to
emerge
this
year.
Congratulations
to
singer
will.i.am,
director
Jesse
Dylan,
producer
Fred
Goldring
and
the
others
who
got
together
one
weekend
and
impulsively
decided
to
translate
their
political
passion
to
digital
video
with
a
little
help
from
their
friends.
2.
Dear
Mr.
Obama
“Dear
Mr.
Obama,
having
spent
12
months
in
the
Iraq
theater…”
No,
it’s
not
the
lead
in
the
Tikrit
road‐company
production
of
"Cats."
This
heartfelt
and
straight‐ahead
message
from
veteran
Joe
Cook,
23,
of
Wauconda,
Ill.,
was
scripted
and
filmed
by
Michael
Brown,
an
amateur
producer
of
Christian‐themed
videos,
to
support
Sen.
John
McCain’s
presidential
bid
and
relate
their
feelings
about
continuing
the
war
in
Iraq.
The
words
are
simple
yet
powerful,
and
when
Cook
hobbles
away
from
the
camera
to
show
his
prosthetic
leg,
one
can’t
help
but
get
a
bit
choked
up.
After
more
than
12
million
hits
on
YouTube,
the
video
has
been
reworked
and
trimmed
for
use
as
a
TV
commercial
by
the
Republican
Majority
Campaign
PAC.
3.
“I
Got
a
Crush…
On
Obama”
by
Obama
Girl
Yes,
we
know
it’s
dumb.
But
10
million
viewers
can’t
be
wrong,
can
they?
Named
best
Web
video
of
2007
by
People
magazine,
this
is
the
viral
video
that
launched
dozens
of
imitators
and
made
a
star
out
of
former
Miss
Howard
Stern
TV
pageant
winner
Amber
Lee
Ettinger.
Though
the
sequel
with
former
Democratic
candidate
Mike
Gravel
was
a
bit
sweeter
and
a
little
less
sexy,
it’s
the
old‐school
original
that
brings
back
memories
of
a
more
innocent
time.
Obama
Girl
Ettinger
recently
put
on
glasses
and
a
hair
bun
to
portray
Sarah
Palin
on
Geraldo
Rivera’s
show.
Our
advice
to
Ettinger:
stick
with
Obama,
girl.
4.
Obama
and
McCain
—
Dance‐Off!
Crude
yet
effective
special
effects,
stylin’
break‐dance
moves,
some
crazed
looks
on
the
McCain
Man,
and
a
surprise
challenge
by
OG
(Original
Governor)
Sarah
make
this
latecomer
with
bizarre
digital
magic
(said
to
be
created
in
Russia)
a
welcome
addition
to
the
campaign
mix.
Directed
by
yet
another
Howard
Stern
alum,
this
time
his
cable
series
“Son
of
the
Beach”
writer‐producer
David
Morgasen,
it’s
worth
repeated
viewings.
5.
Time
for
Some
Campaignin’
Sure,
the
plucky
banjos
are
annoying
as
hell,
but
this
summer
animation
from
the
Spiridelli
brothers
—
who
go
by
the
professional
name
JibJab
—
is
not
an
altogether
bad
piece
of
political
satire.
Dylan’s
“The
Times
They
Are
a‐Changin’”
gives
it
some
heft,
and
the
Disney‐esque
fantasyland
featuring
Obama
riding
a
flying
unicorn
while
repeating
nonsense
lyrics
about
“change”
could
be
the
most
vicious
put‐
down
of
the
Democratic
candidate
this
entire
year,
even
if
it
does
seem
merely
glib
(and
not
a
jab)
upon
first
glance.
6.
The
Great
Schlep
We
far
prefer
Ms.
Silverman’s
account
of
Joe
Franklin’s
alleged
molestation
in
“The
Aristocrats”
or
even
her
Matt
Damon
sex
tape
confession
to
this
heavily
ethnic
yenta‐go‐round.
Still,
any
clip
that
begins
with
a
term
that's
too
gross‐funny
for
use
on
Politico
automatically
gets
our
vote.
The
best
part
of
the
video
followed
its
release,
when
goy
grey
goose
Anderson
Cooper
and
other
WASPy
teleprompter
readers
tried
vainly
to
pronounce
“schlep.”
7.
The
McCain‐Palin
Mob
Perhaps
the
best
entry
in
a
disturbing
sub‐genre
of
documentary
videos
descended
from
the
1986
“Heavy
Metal
Parking
Lot”
cult
classic,
this
4½‐minute
hatefest
is
like
watching
a
full
week’s
worth
of
Hannity’s
America.
The
best
participant
of
all
is
the
annoying
blonde
with
dirty
hair
who
keeps
popping
up
in
the
frame,
first
to
rail
against
ACORN,
then
to
ask
when
the
cameraman
first
heard
of
“O‐bam‐AH.”
It
might
have
benefited
a
bit
from
a
crunchy
guitar
soundtrack,
but
otherwise
this
cinema
verité
glimpse
around
the
perimeter
of
a
McCain‐Palin
rally
is
a
hit.
8.
Terry
Tate
—
Reading
Is
Fundamental
We
abhor
violence
under
most
circumstances,
especially
against
women,
and
even
in
jest.
So
we
were
totally
aghast
when
we
first
saw
this
brief
clip
of
office
linebacker
and
obvious
lunatic
Tate
tackling
Sarah
Palin
in
the
middle
of
her
fateful
Katie
Couric
interview.
We’re
still
not
sure
what
to
make
of
it.
Nevertheless,
the
sheer
audacity
and
seamless
editing
on
display
make
this
a
memorable
entry.
9.
Diddy
Obama
Blog
#16
John
McCain
Is
Buggin
the
F%^k
Out!
Forget
the
dizzying
Brian
DePalma
camerawork.
Sean
Combs
goes
ballistic
in
by
far
the
best
video
he’s
ever
created.
“I
don’t
know
if
there
are
even
any
black
people
in
Alaska!”
he
cries,
before
calling
“all
youth
voters”
to
“protect
our
future”
by
voting
against
the
GOP
ticket.
Among
other
off‐the‐wall
weirdness,
he
suggests
McCain
bring
on
Michelle
Obama
as
his
vice
president.
How
this
guy
got
to
where
he
is
—
raking
in
billions,
partying
in
the
south
of
France,
etc.
—
remains
a
complete
mystery
to
us.
But
he
does
do
incredulity
very
well.
10.
Paris
Hilton
Responds
to
McCain
Ad
Not
as
funny
as
it
could
have
been,
but
it
got
slapped
together
pretty
quickly
after
McCain
came
out
with
his
Obama‐as‐Celebrity
attack
ad
featuring
Hilton
and
Britney
Spears.
“I’ll
see
you
at
the
debates,
bitches”
is
as
good
a
line
as
any
this
season.
On
the
negative
side,
the
video
used
Hilton’s
“hot”
cliché
too
many
times
and
the
magazine‐reading
joke
fell
flat,
too.
Still,
when
Hilton
refers
to
the
GOP
candidate
as
the
“wrinkly
white‐haired
guy,”
it
felt
just
as
cutting
as
the
first
time
Tina
savaged
Sarah.
And
Paris’
energy
plan
wasn’t
half‐bad
—
we
wonder
what
she
would
do
about
the
AIG
bailout
or
fixing
problems
with
derivatives
trading.
Campaign Retrospective: Memorable Moments
Last Edited: Saturday, 01 Nov 2008, 3:49 AM GMT
Created: Saturday, 01 Nov 2008, 3:49 AM GMT
LOS ANGELES -- It's been a long election season, and there have been plenty of memorable
moments on the campaign trail. From the Obama controversy surrounding Jeremiah Wright to
McCain's man of the moment, Joe the Plumber, MyFox takes a look back at some of the political
season's newsmakers.
Fist Bump
The Obamas showed a lighter side of their personalities back in June 2008 when they shared a
fist bump on stage before the presidential candidate delivered a speech in St. Paul, Minn.
Commentators went wild, with some calling it a "knuckle-bump" and others calling it a "pound."
For a brief retrospective on other memorable moments, watch the Fox News video below:
Election Night Party. 8:00 pm. Red carpet arrivals, election
broadcast and live performances. Hosted by Obama Girl.
Invitation only. Haven. New York. Contact: Kelly Brady.
Event address: 244 East 51st Street, New York.
November 2008
October 26th, 2008 at 7:16 pm | by ThePit
Indy Mogul, the do-it-yourself filmmaking network, have expanded with an all new weekly webseries The Best Short Films
in the World. The new series joins Backyard FX, Q&Eric Live, and Four Minute Film School, the latter of which is on
hiatus.
The Best Short Films in the World, is hosted by Bobby Miller who chooses four films a week to spotlight based on a
specific theme. Past weeks have included dating, prison, nature, and food. This week’s theme is near and dear to my
heart, slasher films. Check out the new episode below.
You can watch more episodes and check out Indy Mogul’s whole network of goodies here.
Next New Networks Expands Distribution to
YouTube, Joost & More
October 23, 2007 - 12:23 pm PDT - by Kristen Nicole
Next New Networks, the company that was co-founded by former MTVN vice chairman Herb
Scannell, has made a few distribution agreements with some big names in online networks,
including YouTube, TiVo, blip.tv, Joost and Veoh. This covers the standard gamut of Internet TV
offerings that have aggregated and distribute a wide variety of channels for its end users to enjoy.
There will be featured content from three of Next New’s project, including IndyMogul, Frederator,
and Fast Lane Daily. If any of this content sounds familiar, it’s because Next New Networks also
distributes down to other smaller sites (relatively speaking) like Dailymotion and TVTonic.
As Next New gains more content, such as its recently added Barely Political collection, it is
becoming integral for the gathering of content, which then gets to enjoy a wide array of
distribution channels across several networks, as well as the trickle-down effect, which enables
content to be pushed through ultra niche sites with an accommodating purpose.
ThreadBanger: How-To Series For DIY Designers |
Make Your Own Halloween Costume
Posted in: Video On Demand and Web TV Series by Iman Peera on October 22, 2008
ThreadBanger is a very specialized how-to site that provides various tutorials for
tailors, sewing buffs, or just about anyone who wants to experiment with DIY
fashion.
If you’ve never used a sewing machine before, or if your only incentive to make
your own clothing is to save a few bucks, then I suggest that you stay away
from this site. Many of the tutorials fly by the basics very quickly. Rookies could
give it a shot, but it wouldn’t be pretty.
In this latest webisode, Rob and Corinne show you how to make your very own
strait jacket costume. For more Halloween costume ideas (some are
easier/cheaper than others) keep visiting ThreadBanger this month.
!
!
It turns out that W. is getting a major boost from Sarah Palin—the movie that is.
“The REAL Sarah Palin!” - the latest satirical video clip produced by Barely
Political (the team the gave the Web Obama Girl), has generated close to 2
million views on YouTube in just three days since its launch on Sept. 30. Plus,
according to officials at Barely Political parent company Next New Networks, The
REAL Sarah Palin! hit the magic 1 million views mark in just one day, while the
company!s signature I Got a Crush… on Obama video took a whole week to
reach that milestone. That video has been viewed 9.8 million times to date.
But unlike I Got a Crush, Next New Networks has been able to immediately cash
in on its Palin viral hit. The video carries both a pre-roll and overlay ad for the
Oliver Stone movie W.—which “The REAL Sarah Palin!" spoofs. That movie hit
theaters on Oct. 17.
Online Exclusives
October 2008
By Peter Caranicas
The most prominent, perhaps, is Michael Eisner, the longtime powerful head of
Disney, who stepped down in 2005 and soon thereafter started the investment
firm The Tornante Company, which in turn launched the Vuguru “studio” in
2007 as a producer and distributor of video for the Internet, portable media and
mobile devices.
Similarly, Herb Scannell, former vice chairman of MTV Networks and president
of Nickelodeon, switched to new media when he left that company in early
2006. About a year later, he announced the founding of Next New Networks
(NNN), an online media company, of which he is chairman.
Scannell likens today’s environment to the early days of cable. “It feels like
1985 again,” he says. “Back then, there was an opportunity to be creative. The
broadcast nets had become closed shops, and it was hard to get a job there.
Cable opened up the doors. I think this is now happening again.”
While creating online content may cost less than producing for television, it still
costs something—content still has to be produced, either in-house or via
contracted producers.
FremantleMedia produces some material itself, says Hindle, at times taking its
existing TV content and changing it to fit the new medium. “For example, we
make amusing clips out of the Baywatch content.”
But such self-produced, repackaged and amended content accounts for just 20
percent of what FremantleMedia puts online, Hindle adds. “About 80 percent of
what we do now is commissioned from third parties. We sit down, we have
pitches from producers coming in, and if we like them, we say, ‘Go ahead and
make 20 clips for us.’”
Hindle continues: “At first we expected the pitches to come largely from the people we knew, but there’s this
wealth of new creative activity from people who just want to make content for the web.”
Hindle adds that this community does not think like TV producers. “The production costs are dramatically
lower, so they’ve got to produce material at a much cheaper level. People who do this have to be of a
mindset very far away from TV.”
Similarly, Next New Networks constantly seeks new sources of content. Like other Internet entrepreneurs,
Scannell strives to connect with “that new generation of talent coming of age. We want to capture them and
bring them into the company.”
NNN has had some success doing that with the creators of one of its most popular series, Barely Political.
“There’s talent out there that wasn’t getting a chance. We provide access for them.”
Scannell adds that this new wave of Internet content mavens “has a different tool kit than traditional
producers. They know how to write, produce, direct, host and market. We call them five-tool players, and
that’s what the Internet requires.”
Practically all Internet video ventures, be they the creation of a small startup or a media conglomerate,
follow an economic model based on advertising support and brand integration.
ECONOMIC MODELS
“For each show we identify two to four sponsors, then we go out and get them,” says EQAL’s Goodfried.
“Instead of doing generic product placements, we do some pretty cool things, like taking a brand and
integrating it through the narrative so it’s generic to the storytelling.”
In addition, EQAL sells “substantial amounts” of advertising on its lonelygirl15.com site and related sites,
says Goodfried. “We also syndicate the video files to various partners like imeem, MySpace and YouTube,
and advertisers get display advertising on those sites as well.”
Almost everything online is ad-supported, says FME’s Hindle. “We use two buckets. One is run-of-site
advertising, which is sold by online distribution portals like YouTube and MySpace, and as the content
provider you get a share. At the moment that revenue stream is small, but emerging.”
The larger revenue stream, Hindle continues, comes from “bringing on a specific sponsor around that
specific piece of content or channel. We say to advertiser X, ‘Look, we’ve got this great piece of content
we’re going to produce, it’s totally targeted to your brand, we’ll integrate your brand, let’s discuss the value
of that to you.’ And they’ll buy against that particular piece of content. That’s vastly more profitable, and
makes a lot more sense for now.”
Just as it has discovered new talent in the production community, FremantleMedia reaches out to new
players in the advertising world—a search that’s not always easy. “Some brands have dedicated digital
agencies, but many don’t,” Hindle notes. “It’s confusing. For us, finding out who is the decision-maker on
digital ad investment is a critical achievement. A lot of times the agency understands the client’s brands, but
a lot of times not, and you have to go directly to the client, the brand itself, to discover what they’re trying to
achieve in different media.”
Advertisers, of course, need demographic data on which to base their decisions, and while the Internet has
great ways to measure aggregate numbers of users and page views, it falls short when it comes to
determining the age and sex of its users.
“We don’t have as much information as we’d like to,” acknowledges Hindle. “From what we’ve seen, the
demographics skew male, but less male than you would expect. And young, but not as young as you’d
expect.”
Hindle adds that some simple formulas always seem to work on the youthful, male-skewing Internet. “One
mantra is that chicks get clicks,” he says. “Literally anything where you put an attractive woman on the
thumbnail gets tried out. It’s quite ridiculous.”
Next New Networks, perhaps reflecting Scannell’s days in the U.S broadcast-cable warfare trenches,
strives hard to provide accurate information to advertisers.
“New technologies are helping to make accounting better,” he says. Scannell adds that NNN averages
between 20 million and 30 million views per month, with the most prominent destination being the satiric
Barely Political. “That site can be red hot when there’s something in the culture,” he says. The NNN
audience skews male and is aimed at the 12-to-34 group.
Bucking the male trend, audiences of lonelygirl15, which focuses largely on a teenage heroine and young-
adult issues and relationships, are 60 to 65 percent female, according to EQAL’s Beckett; the average age
is 19. KateModern, which contains more action while still maintaining a strong female lead, is more evenly
split between female and male.
FREEWHEELING SPACE
While some traditional media executives may long for the old days of a finite number of channels and
appointment viewing, theirs is an exercise in pure nostalgia. Today, on the Internet, video files get passed
from site to site, with content removed only occasionally after complaints from copyright holders. And even
if violations are taken down, they may still reside on countless hard drives and—uncontrolled and
unregulated—get passed around via e-mail and social networking.
“It’s a free world out there,” says NNN’s Scannell. “The cat’s out of the bag. People want media their way.
Rather than try to fight it or sue people over it, we should accommodate them, and make it clear what the
basic rules are with regard to advertising.”
“We’ve succeeded because our approach is different,” says Eqal’s Beckett. “We didn’t come from traditional
media backgrounds, so there wasn’t any format of formula in our heads for what would work online.”
lonelygirl15 broke new ground, blurring the lines between fiction and reality in a way that couldn’t have been
done on traditional tele-vision. When the show started, many people thought it was the video diary of a real
girl.
“In the early days, because of the unique nature of the Internet, anyone could create a YouTube profile and
start uploading videos,” says Goodfried. “You didn’t explicitly come out and say, ‘Hey, this is fictional.’
People had no idea whether this person was real or not, but they immediately got hooked into the story that
was unfolding organically. Over time they realized it was too neatly told every couple of days to be real.”
And yet, old media, with its deep pockets, has a way of co-
opting the new. For example, in May EQAL signed a first-look deal with CBS that puts the network at the
head of the line when it comes to developing certain concepts created by EQAL.
Per the agreement, EQAL will “work with CBS writers at the script and production level to write, produce
and direct online narratives that tie directly into the television series and promote the network telecasts.”
That sounds like a marriage of the old and the new—and perhaps that’s the great synthesis the
entertainment industry is looking for.
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Mr. Podell most recently was CEO of Seevast Corp., which handles search engine marketing
and sponsored links for some of the top Web properties and Web ad networks. During his stint
at the company, he built it into a $100 million business.
At Next New Networks, Mr. Podell will focus on how to most effectively monetize the
programming. “He’s built businesses from the ground up and been in the Web business since its
most formative years,” Herb Scannell, chairman of Next New Networks, said in a statement.
The Web studio has already developed a loyal viewer following and also has been growing its
advertising stable as it heads toward profitability next year.
Next New Networks launched in 2007 and its Webisodes, including “Indy Mogul,” “Barely
Political” and “ZapRoot,” have been viewed more than 190 million times.
“Understanding how to monetize content is something I bring to the table,” Mr. Podell told
TelevisionWeek. “I come from the Web business for years and have managed startups and am
looking at how you build this within the framework of Web budgets, not TV budgets.”
Mr. Podell also served as the chief marketing officer at Shopping.com and has worked at Chiat
Day, Time Inc. and Ogilvy & Mather. “My entire career has been at the intersection of content
development and advertising,” he said. “Next New Networks has phenomenal programming and
we need to monetize that inventory. I bring the monetization aspect and the ability to innovate ad
solutions.”
Broadcast Coverage
Broadcast Coverage
11/18/2008 CNN The Situation Room with Jeanne Moos