Going Bacterial

Ignore the title of this post...kind of. Ignore the jpeg attached to this post...if you want. I blog to you about the relatively recent phenomena in the world of advertising known as viral videos.
Viral videos themselves aren't new, but their potential reach has been recognized by advertisers, well...relatively recently.
Below I will post and discuss three advertisements that have "gone viral," that I have a particular liking for.

Phillips, the Dutch electronics company known most in the States for its expertise and advancements in the burgeoning, ever-expanding field of light bulbs, released a commercial called Carousel, which advertises, well...I don't know what it advertises. Therein lies the beauty and mystery of the reel. The video is roughly two minutes long and tells a captivating story (though hard to follow on first watch) with captivating images (making the story hard to follow on first watch.)

Hewlett Packard, the company that...never mind we all know who HP is. Anyways, they produced a fairly recent commercial for their Workstation printers. This commercial makes my list for a number of reasons, but mainly for respect for preparation. Filming this one must have been a hell of a time. The songs catchy and the whole scheme is creative. Thumbs up.

When I think European, I think sophistication. Thesaurus.com says "European" is a synonym for "sophistication." Don't look that up. Another Dutch company makes face here. Heineken provides a product I can relate to more so than Philips. I'm sure the majority of Americans can recall the Heineken walk-in closet ad. Well, this walk-in closet is much more surreal. We laughed at the actual commercial Heineken produced, this one is proof to every male that "TV" doesn't equal impossible. Plus, a wise man once said, "Beer is proof that God loves us," or something along those lines.

Bleh, Bleh, Piracy, Bleh.

Ah! The oh-so-popular subject of piracy in the music industry. We all (or at least I hope) remember Lars Ulrich of Metallica in his valiant attempt to spearhead the blossoming blessing known to the music fan as "music piracy."
Napster was the body he was attacking, and since then there have been many advances and changes as to how the masses can "pirate" their music. As far as I know, Lars gave up his fight (thank God). Since the prevalence of p2p and other music sharing software is so readily available, many bands have been welcoming of the new technology.
Radiohead released its last studio album, "In Rainbows," for free on their website, but accepted donations. Industry, follow suit.
To expect the current revenue making model for the music industry to continue doing its job is ludicrous. As all media becomes more and more narrowly tailored, and the consumer becomes more and more active and less passive, so too does the music fan.
Unless you're Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga and you're a musician, chances are the majority of your income doesn't come from album sales.
Artists should use the internet as a means of promotion. Give us your music. If it's not bullshit that the artist themselves didn't write, we will buy your concert tickets. (If not, we won't badmouth you to our friends.)
 Follow the indie music scene and you will see how quickly this paradigm is growing and catching on.
If the artist has enough work and faith in their music, somebody else is likely to.