Cutest Halloween Pet Costume? Your Vote Counts.

ByNalts

It’s a showdown, folks, between Triscuit the Cat and Rusty the Dog (pets of babysitterofnalts). In this video, sponsored by Reader’s Digest, the cute animals duel on the cutest Halloween costume.

I can’t stop watching this video, because my wife’s squeeky voice cracks me up. My low-pitch Rusty voice is based on J.K. Simmons (remember him in Lady Killers as Garth Pancake, who was smitten for Mountain GIrl). Parenthetically, in my first job as a weekly newspaper reporter, I almost got to interview the Cohen Brothers, and this remains on my “bucket list.”

They’re not Kirk and Spock, Maryland, but they’re still cute. Be sure to vote for the cutest at Reader’s Digest.com — here’s the special Nalts Halloween landing page. Don’t listen to Hollywood’s “Don’t Vote” propoganda. Vote now. The future of Rusty and Triscuit’s Halloween is in your hands.

The challenge for sponsored videos — aka “advertainment” — is to promote the sponsor without sacrificing the entertainment value. In this case, I wanted to encourage people to visit ReadersDigest.com, so they built a voting application on the site. Typically fewer than 1 percent of people will visit the website of the sponsor. In this case, I believe we’ll see a lot more traffic from viewers that want to participate. Readers Digest is also holding a contest for cute Halloween contest that anyone can enter (for a $100 prize).

 

 

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17 Comments

  1. I hope you’re at least tax-deducting your props… I deducted 2 sets of Billy Bob teeth this past weekend.

    PS: I posted a cat video, too… (link)

  2. I voted, but I gotta say they could have built an easier site to vote on. At first I was having to go through page after page of photos, then somehow magically i got them all to appear on one screen, where I could vote.

    Also, you described the costume as “who’s got the cutest pet costumes? Rusty da Pekingese? Or Triscuit da cute lil’ kitten?” From this description, I was expecting to be able to simply cast a vote for one or the other animal, not for my favorite costume of all the looks. That added to my confusion.

    The smack I snorted just before i watched the video probably didn’t help either.

  3. Despite my criticism, i aslo gotta say that these readers digest videos are by far the most creative sponsored videos you’ve ever done (including the mentos stuff). I don’t know if it’s because RD is giving you a lot more creative license or a looser deadline or less oversight or what, but both videos were really, really good.

    I hope you can keep up this sponsorship deal with them because the work you’re doing under it is the kind of work that will be extremely valuable on your viral video genius resume.

  4. @#3… Witness and second that. Seems like these guys seem to get what our friend is trying to do here, and then, more importantly, are letting him go ahead and DO it.

    🙂

  5. @2 Sukatra- thanks for the constructive criticism on the voting UI. Hopefully the Rd folks can fix. I’m gonna change the description to make it clear you get to pick from all the major costumes.

    @3 Thanks also for the fedback. I like this one in particular because RD isn’t lost, but the video itself is interesting. And there’s a reason to visit RD.com- which is my biggest challenge. Sometimes I get weird startups approaching me, and I can’t even think of a reason why I’d visit the site much less a viewer.

  6. @3 Teacher’s Pet!

    Since when do you link your name to your youtube page? You must have run out of meds!

    I will have to vote later bubba, but will do! :o)

  7. @6

    since when do i link my name to my youtube page? since i learned how to do it about 2 months ago. Yeah, I know. I’m a little slow.

  10. I think you should have a contest for your viewers during the coming financial depression, winner gets to chose the cat or dog as a prepared dish, in costume of course.

    lay offs abound!

  14. I guess RD must have fixed the site, because when I clicked on the link in your post, Nalts (the first link), it took me right to a page with pictures of all of the costumes. I voted for Triscuit as a pirate. He’s soooo cute. Not as cute as Kirk and Spock; you are right about that. But still pretty cute.

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