Fun on a Friday -- You Dummy! (Sneak Preview Super Bowl ad)
My husband laughed so hard at this spot we had to rewind several times to catch some of the lines. He was particularly fond of "You Dummy!" shouted at the hapless cubicle dweller.
I'm one of those people who watch the Super Bowl for the ads (although now I just look them all up online the next day). CareerBuilder's taken it a step further -- and increased their buzz -- by releasing their ad ahead of time. Lots of web chatter, lots of YouTube views. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Fun on a Friday : The Jingle Generator from Intuit QuickBooks
The makers of QuickBooks were looking for a fun way to increase trial usage of their software so they developed a tool for small businesses to create their own jingle: The Jingle Generator. This could be a nice little distraction on a Friday.
According to Marketing Profs, the Jingle Generator was promoted using a number of new media techniques, including:
Blogger outreach: Intuit contacted bloggers with whom it already had working relationships to share the campaign story.
Participation on forums and blogs: The company also joined in conversations on forums and blogs that relate to small-business issues, '80s music, social marketing, etc. Company representatives aim to add value to the conversation when posting responses and do not solely promote the site.
Social-networking sites: The company posted a video on YouTube, and profile pages for Tommy Silk were established on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Participating Intuit team members help build awareness by adding Tommy as a friend or follower to their personal networks and "re-tweeting" Tommy's posts.
Shared examples: Early in the campaign, employees were encouraged to create their own custom jingles on the site and forward them to friends and family members, especially small-business owners, who might have an interest in the software.
I saw this on ABC News the other night and knew I had to share. This 30-year old video is one of the top Google searches in the Czech Republic. It's quite funny. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
What happens when you post a ten-year old video of you and your college buddies singing group on You Tube? If you're this group of Indiana University crooners (my alma mater!), you get over 8 million views, one of which was by a president of a record company. Guess what happened next? A record deal and a holiday album. Enjoy the video of the college performance that started it all or buy their album here.
Here's my little munchkin, born on Election Day. He has his dad's chin (see that cute cleft?) and it looks like he may have my red hair. Mom, Dad and Baby are all fine, healthy and happy. Mom and Dad are especially happy.
One of my favorite blogger humorists, the Cake Wrecks lady, is at it again with Halloween wrecks. Here's what she has to say about this craptastic cake.
Yep, Stephanie S. reports that this was actually labeled "Mummy Cake". As opposed to "Ticked-Off Cross-Breed of a Storm-Trooper and a Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle Cake".
I've been laughing so hard at the cakes on this site that I literally have mascara running down my face and my husband is beginning to question my sanity (something he should have done a long time ago). This blogger posts pictures of cakes gone wrong, then writes hilarious posts about each. I read about it on another blog, but it sounded kind of lame so I ignored it. Then I read about it on another blog, only this blogger posted pictures, and before I knew it, I was hooked. Soooo funny!
It's not just the pictures -- although many of them are pretty hilarious on their own -- it's what she writes. To wit, here's her explanation of the carrot baby cake above:
This cake is so disturbing, I'm almost glad the picture doesn't include the whole thing. The plastic clone babies wearing naught but mohawks is bad enough, but then they're also riding carrots. What do you do with that? It looks like some kind of perverted vegetable rodeo, or maybe a bizarre clone military exercise, what with their little plastic fists raised high in identical salutes.
And what kind of occasion calls for a "naked babies riding carrots" decor, anyway? No, wait, maybe I don't want to know...
My hubby and I love to watch "So You Think You Can Dance." We both really enjoyed this routine last week and I see that it's one of the most viewed You Tube clips today. Enjoy and have a great weekend!
Here's a routine from earlier in the season that may still be my favorite dance so far. It's about a young man called off to war. Several "wow" moves and a beautiful story line. I love it when Joshua does this handstand thing, but Katee pulls him back by his foot and he "reverses" it. Impossible to explain. Even more impossible not to love. Watch and see for yourself!
Check out Wordle, a new tool that generates beautiful word clouds (similar to "tag clouds") from any text that you submit. The image to the left is a Wordle created from a poem I uploaded that I wrote when I was 11 years old. The shapes and colors Wordle cranks out are techno-fabulous. I'm thinking of creating some artwork for my baby's nursery using one of these.
Here in Atlanta, no matter what soft drink you order, the generic term is "coke," as in, "Wanna coke?". When I lived up north, it was "soda," or "pop" (or "soda pop" in some places). This map plots the preferred term regionally. It's a fun little distraction on a Monday.
Personally, I've always said "soft drink," proving once again, that I'm something of an outlier.
Rolling Out the Invisible Red Carpet -- Introducing the YouTube Award Winners
The votes are in and here's a list of the 2007 YouTube Video Award Winners: No red carpet for these winners, no awards ceremony, not even a trophy -- just millions of fans watching and sharing their videos. Like this one that we've featured which won in the category of "Most Adorable." Consider us suckers for giggling babies, but we laughed out loud watching this one.
Forget March Madness. For "Lost" t.v. fans, there's a new madness (as if the show isn't maddening enough already!). Get your (virtual) pencils out and write in your favorite Lost characters. Watch the bracket evolve and eventually narrow down to your favorite two Losties. Really, what could be more fun on a Friday?
