This is so clever, and well executed. It’s a spoof of every moment of every trailer you’ve seen for Oscar-Award-Winning movie trailers. But it’s self aware. Thanks to George from YouTube for including it in his e-mail footer.

Folks it’s content like this that makes the viewer in me very excited, and the creator hope that my 15 minutes aren’t completely done.

BritAnick (pronounced to rhyme with Titanic) are not new to YouTube (see channel), and are Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, and they met in Atlanta and have a manager. But to be clear, they’re at this moment far, far less popular than me on YouTube. Okay?

The reality is that I like to see people like this zoom past me. It’s not great for my ego, but it’s inevitable and deserving. Let the shakedown continue. Or as one YouTube employee says, “the popularity race is representing a marathon, where the distance between the popularity grows as the race continues.”

Did I mention I’m a sprinter at best?

And, yo, Brian or Nick… ready for a collab so you’ll remember me when you get to the top? What? You haven’t heard of a collab’s ability to propel your popularity on YouTube? Oh you should read this crap.

Walter Sabo, Hitviews founder and former radio maven, makes it more apparent why radio peolpe seem to have adapted more naturally to online video than television people. At first I thought it was simply that the radio people saw their boat sinking sooner than television people (some who vary their whistling melodies and choose a new route past the graveyard to show they’re flexible).

In fact there’s another reason that Sabo has attracted radio investments and a posse of former radio sales people, and it’s evident in his anti-standard piece and even more succinctly in his “Four Crazy Things My Dad Said About Media Buying”:

Every radio spot he (Sabo’s father and store owner) bought was a live read by personalities. Every print ad was endorsed by a local celebrity. Every TV buy at least had live tags even though TV was too precious to offer live spokespeople. On the Internet he would have bought a webstar video visiting the business and talking about it. We all buy products from friends.

Indeed radio and today’s version of online video are arguably more alike than online video and television. Why? The talent carries the show. You may like the tunes best, but you can’t argue with the facts: when a radio star jumps stations, the audience often follows. Is it any coincidence that one of YouTube’s hottest properties is a former disc jockey (yeah the fat guy- Shaycarl). If Shay loved beets I’d eat ‘em.

Online video is about a charismatic human and people who enjoy them… unscripted reality and a fairly intimate relationship (as one-to-many goes). Like radio personalities, online video folks don’t mind plugging a good sponsor. And that doesn’t work as naturally on the boob tube, except for during an occasional talk show (where’d that format come from again) or that radio-like television show we call American Idol.

I’m not entirely unbiased about Sabo’s poetry (see below graphic to find the “Hitviews Pro” series on JackMyers.com) because I have a working relationship and friendship with the radio and online-video media maven… Still, I do believe he’s the Billy May’s of online video. He cuts through a lot of the jargon and states inarguable truisms, and it’s especially charming when he quotes his dad. Get on his good side, and he’ll give you a bear hug, make you feel special, and drive two states to bring you cookies when you’re having back surgery. Get on his bad side, and he’ll pinch your brain. Either way you’ll find him more interesting than the average human, and check your pulse if you don’t find this article about why records in automobiles failed (it’s not why you’d think).

Since my blog’s been a bit slow lately, here are 5 great articles by Walter “Regis” Sabo and Caitlin “Cathy Lee” Hill. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Sabo is his blatant disregard for middlemen, especially media buyers. (Just once I want a media buyer to tell me how prejudice I am, and prove me wrong).

Some of the most-viewed YouTube “weblebrities” will gather with hundreds of people in the YouTube community, including video creators and viewers, professionals and stalkers.

Phil DeFranco Will Attend July's VidCon, a gathering of hundreds (maybe thousands) of YouTube community people.

The event — called VidCon 2010 and scheduled for July 9-11 – includes rapid-fire stage performances by some of YouTube’s biggest “stars,” including comedy duo Anthony Pedilla and Ian Hecox (“Smosh“), “What The Buck” host Michael Buckley, Phil DeFranco, “SxePhil” and “Like Totally Awesome” host, and Justine Ezarik, YouTube’s token popular hot girl who hails as iJustine (and author of Tasty Blog Snack). Those 5 people alone, mind you, have been seen collectively 1 billion times (if you count both videos on their individual channels, as well as on group channels like TheStation). For those of you not good at math, that’s “an assload” and more views than most television shows.

To put it in perspect, 106 million people watched the last episode of MASH and the 2010 Superbowl. Paranthetically, my stupid videos have been seen 130 million times, and my siblings still refer to it “as your little YouTube videos.” But if I’m on the local Fox news channel I’m suddenly hot.

Back to VidCon: What’s got me most excited are performanced by some of the most talented musicians on YouTube, including the advertainment song duo of Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal (Rhett and Link), the ukulele-playing singer Julia Nunes (know as j and seven a’s), and the cerebral guitarist Hank Green, who is the event’s mastermind. I’m also looking forward to seeing Joe Penna (TheMysteryGuitarMan aka MGM), who wrote the “Nalts, Nalts, It’s Not His Fault” theme song. He’s been on a magical high lately, and he’s eye and ear candy for the whole family (see his recent “Looping Around,” a song that’s almost passing 1 million views, and what my family calls “The Happy Song”).

Although I haven’t hit all of the major YouTube grassroots events, I have gathered with fellow YouTube fanatics in NYC (twice), London, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. A nude female doll with my face has attended other events, and was no doubt far more interesting to meet. The only formal event YouTube has thrown, to my knowledge, was November 2008’s YouTube Live… a show the San Bruno company doesn’t appear to be reviving.

We’ll also see the omnipresent Charles Trippy and Alli Speed, who have documented their each day for a year. Trippy somehow doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, which I find highly suspicious. ZeFrank is also going, and will appear on a panel with other Internet has-beens like me.

(Half the fun of this post is the hyperlinked videos to punctuate the copy).

Below is an ad from a trade magazine, where Yahoo let’s advertisers know their television ads can move online. My immediate reaction (after I puked and rinsed my vomit) was that Yahoo is basically teaching advertisers and brands to annoy its users. Not a good long-term strategy.

Hey, marketer. Hey, marketer. Hey, marketer. Send us your TV spots and money. Hey, marketer.

Then again, Yahoo has long shown it knows its REAL audience is not the silly fools who visit the site, but those that give it money. Yahoo has partnered with larger content providers, fetched large integrated advertising dollars like Fagin’s army of orphans, and countered You “animal farts” Tube with promises of advertising-safe content not user-generated content.

So Yahoo goes after the path of least resistance. It’s not an entirely reckless move. If you’re an online property and see the vast majority of marketing dollars going into television… why not be “an online television set”? It’s easier for marketers to understand, and for lazy media buyers to spend without a lot of work.

No seriously. Prerolls make me obsessed with brands.

Consider the mind of the marketer:

• My VP keeps asking me to shift dollars to online. I don’t want to hassle with a dumb ass branded Facebook page.
• Wait- I don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars customizing my content for the medium?
• I can just have my “Agency of Record” account lead tell his production people to send the Yahoo people a compressed version of our :30 and :60 spots?
• Then I shift some of my budget allocation? Sign me up. Yey prerolls!

Meanwhile, the consumer is silently skipping or indulging the ads with despise (even the dumbest online site won’t measure or share data on how prerolls have negative impact on brand sentiment). The hapless user/viewer is forced to watch television ads before and during the content they want. Suddenly they start drifting away from Yahoo, and looking for less obnoxious ways to get content and entertainment.

It’s a smart, strategic way to spur a shift of media dollars, even if it comes at the expense of Yahoo’s other target audience (the users and viewers).

Will it work? It might bring some fast revenue, but its sustainability requires a) the non-ad content being so incredible that Yahoo viewers tolerating this, and b) if Yahoo can use this approach as a buyer “hook,” then quickly adapts the ad content to make it engaging (something the ad promises, but is not as easy as repurposing television spots).

A more sustainable approach would be to partner with firms that can create “branded entertainment” (whatever that means to you), or set up rich media entertainment with non-intrusive but inviting ads (the Seven Echo model). But really… does Yahoo have the time or patience for that?

When I saw a YouTube house ad for “how to upload a video,” I had written a scathing blog review (in my head at least) before the video even loaded. Then I was in for a surprise.

It was funny, edgy, self depricating, and informative. I’m unable to criticize it. It basically taught people how to upload without insulting their intelligence: an almost impossible creative assignment given the simplicity of the upload task. More importantly, the video armed itself for the inevitable scathing comments (“hey dipshit, if they can’t figure out how to upload, you can probably assume they’ve got no useful video to share”), by having some fun with the concept.

Might I suggest the creators of this raise their hand for a round of applause? Comment below. Go ahead- we’re proud of you and would like to give you a gold sticker.

Now we’ll need a book to accompany this. “Idiot’s Guide for Upoading YouTube Videos” (a companion guide for how to refresh a browser screen, or double click a mouse).

Of all the nonsense about social media, I can’t say I have heard it represented as a money saver until I read this interview with Jane Postlethwaite (Social Media Can Save Council Money). Man it’s weird to call a YouTuber buy her full name when you basically barely know her first name. She’s StylistBrighton, damnit (and SytlistBrightonStyle). I met the fashion stylist/model in London, but who knew her name was Postlethewaite?

Anyway the former fashion model and YouTube weblebrity is now the Brighton and Hove City Council Social Media Officer, and she’s opening the UK government’s eyes to using social media to reduce costs. It’s a fair point. When you have 9,000 employees and take 400 calls a day, there’s got to be an efficiency angle… keeping or improving relationships with the public without the burden and cost of mail and phones.

Could social media one day permit these people to see sunlight?

I have a client that receives 500 calls daily in a customer-service department with only about 4 or 5 people. If customers could gain access to basic information (the 80% of the calls that represent the same 10 questions), why shouldn’t social media provide cost offset?  As an example, I no longer call stores to check their hours or directions… Google covers that for me, and its’ faster and has zero cost to me or the company.

So kudos to Jane for being brave enough to enlighten a government office to social media (far braver than me trying to do it for pharmaceutical firms). And extra credit for conceiving it as an efficient channel of communication that can maintain or improve public relations and also reduce calls, letters, lines of people…

One day, when the US catches up, I hope I can update my driver’s license in a single tweet. A girl can have her dreams.

2100 pages and 50 jotter books, but it got full marks… so the displeased eskimo may be pleased with this work.

Ashton Kutcher Made OK Go's Rube Goldberg Music Video Viral in the Summer of 2010

Sparked by an Ashton Kutcher tweet moments ago, a new video featuring OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass,” music video became viral in the coming weeks on YouTube. The video, currently seen fewer than 50,000 times, is projected to surpass 1 million views by March 14.

The director, James Frost, told WillVideoForFood he expects by April 1 the video “to have a thousand millions views,” and appear as the first Google search result for “Rube Goldberg machine.”  Kutcher added that by April 19 it will be YouTube’s 19th most-viewed and most-favorited music video of all time because it’s “ass piss awesome.”

The band said it expects national media coverage about the viral video success in mid summer of 2010, and expects a Good Morning America reenactment scheduled for October 14, 2010 when ABC finally catches wind of the viral success via an intern’s sister.

The viral video was directed by James Frost, OK Go and Syyn Labs. It was produced by Shirley Moyers, and is the official video for”This Too Shall Pass” off of the album “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky.” The video was definitely shot in one take, in a two-story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA.

The Rube Goldberg machine, using no CGI or trick photography, was designed and built in one night by the band, along with members of Synn Labs (http://syynlabs.com/ ) and a homeless guy known as “Patchy.” Patchy was not available for comments, but the band reports he will be available for media appearances in May, pending contract negotiations.

Sometimes our lives get so full of nonsense that we need the serenity and comfort of… nothing.

Well I’m selling it now, at a one-time special. What would you expect to pay for the pleasure of owning nothing? $500? $100.

No, for less than $5 you can purchase absolutely nothing (limited time offer). You won’t need to clean it, remember where you left it, or resell it. It will never be out of style, damaged or rust. If someone asks if they can borrow money, you’ll be able to tell them sincerely: “I own nothing.”

Imagine the joy of owning nothing. No commitment or obligation. And you’ll never need another “nothing” because it never expires.

Testimonials:

“Nothing makes me happy,” – Justin

“Nothing has changed my life,” – Karen

“Nothing is going on!” – Rick

The Onion Radio news has a message for folks suffering from depression. Seems depression effects “losers” more than “normal” people. Stick around and enjoy Taco Bell’s morning after solution.