John McCain and YouTube

Today's Washington Times article on John McCain and the Viral phenomenon surrounding his recent 'Celebrity' attacks is quite interesting. According to the article, the recent series of 'brutal yet entertaining' attack ads and the 'combination of wit and insult, has pushed his YouTube channel to the sixth most watched on the site this week.' And John McCain has beaten Barack Obama's channel for 'seven straight days and 11 of the past 14 days.'

This article theorizes that McCain is trying to court the YouTube vote. And goes on to characterize this as a 'giant reversal' since 'Obama had been quadrupling McCain's YouTube views and (was beating) him every day since February.'

The Drudge Report is also onto this theory and has titled the link to the article, 'McCain takes lead on YouTube hits.' Both parties see this as a good sign for McCain. BUT, all this harkens back our Viralroots argument/theory that knowing the true temperament of viewers is impossible. Right? Let's discuss, cause I'm not convinced this is a win for McCain.

Firstly, I don't always think all publicity is good publicity. There's the possiblity the ads could rub people the wrong way. And, regardless of the effect of the ads, its also not automatic that the the viewers are McCain supporters, ie. what if half the viewers are Obama fans who are pissed off, but want to see the ads? Does it even matter? Will online buzz even equate to votes? Time will tell.

But in my opinion, this stuff makes McCain look bad. His handlers have put him into a situation where he's associated him with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears attack ads and now...Paris Hilton's video has gone viral - and it attacks him back! This press can't be good for McCain. The message, whatever it was, is lost and the Viral-ness has taken over. Obama is virtually unaffected. And Paris Hilton is the real winner. Ya' know, cause she's so...hot. Uggg...

For some perspective with the statistics: Obama's YouTube channel still dominates, with 51 million all-time video views. McCain trails with 8.3 million views.
McCain's silver lining: He's garnered 4.1 million views this month compared with Obama's 2 million as of Wednesday evening.

(Washington Times Link)

2007 YouTube Video Awards

When I picture all the aspiring filmmakers in all the world, first I picture like a billion people. Like, almost as many as the aspiring bloggers. And then, I picture all of their films. And again, there's like a billion of them. And let's say 10,000 of them end up on YouTube. And then, I picture a world where, of these thousands of short films, the very best one of the year is the Alzheimer's short. And finally, my brain explodes all over my desk.

And that concludes my coverage of the "Short Film" category.

Of the other 2007 YouTube Video Awards winners, I'm strangely a huge fan of the Laughing Baby. He tops the "Adorable" category.

From now on, when I say "we", I'm referring to the America's Funniest Home Video Generation.

I've invented a new category for the YouTube Video Awards. It's called "Best YouTube Prophet". The winner is Pastor James David Manning of the ATLAH Ministries. Below, he speaks affectionately of Barack Obama. And when I say affectionately, I mean not affectionately.

Sometimes, I underwhelm myself. And in conjunction with all the quaintness of the 2007 YouTube Video Awards, it's nap time.

YouTuber to get TV show

The power of the interwebs is amazing. The whiny, 'Leave Britney Alone' guy (girl?) might have inked himself his own tv show!!??!... all based on his YouTube videos that have garnered upwards of 8 million view. This is train wreck entertainment and sadistically sad... its bananas that he might get a show. Can someone please explain to me wtf is wrong with tv these days?

Fred Thompson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Announces Candidacy for President

After months of political flirtation, Fred Thompson has finally and officially announced that he is a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Thompson, the ex-Tennessee Republican Senator from 1994 through 2003, remarked, "I am running for president of the United States" to much applause from the audience.

He came across as thoughtful and purposeful and was even relaxed enough to joke about his decision to attend the Tonight Show over the debates in New Hampshire. "No offense to New Hampshire but, it's a lot more difficult to get onto the Tonight Show than to get into the New Hampshire debate."

Directly after the show, Thompson was slated to go on his website (www.Fred08.com) for a 15 minute conversation in an attempt to further reach his potential voter audience, this time utilizing the online medium.

Read the full CNN article to learn more about his appearance. Below is his pre-announcement commercial:

And just for sport, check out this example of the online community's creative (and snarky) response to Fred's recent announcement waffling.

Gmail: Behind The Scenes And Around The World

This is the new Internet.
Step 1: You gotta be Google.
Step 2: Post a single video on YouTube that conveys a concept and ask for submissions that elaborate on it.
Step 3: Watch the video spread virally around the world.
Step 4: Wait for the responses to come pouring in.
Step 5: Edit them together into one video.
Step 6: Disco. You have an original, entertaining and collaboratively created video promoting Google Gmail.

Google recieved 1100 clips from users in 65 different countries to create this video.

Hillary Clinton: First Iowa TV Ad?

It just broke on the wire this morning that Hillary Clinton will be running her first TV ad in Iowa. This video called Invisibles just wound up on YouTube and It's gotta be the first Iowa TV Spot.
Reasons why this has got to be the Iowa TV spot:
1. Cowboy hats.
2. Not a minority in sight.
3. No Kentucky Fried Hillary accent.

CNN-YouTube GOP Debate Is A Go

Last night, Washington Post's The Trail reported that the CNN-YouTube Republican Debate is a go for November 28th. It is still unclear which candidates will be participating. Winner of this weekend's Iowa straw poll and frontrunner du jour, Mitt Romney is yet to confirm participation and quick to object to the format. "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman," says Romney.

Mr. Romney: Viralroots says you gotta go along to get along. Make no mistake, this election will be decided by a series of tubes.

YouTube YouChoose 08 Gets Facelift

The YouTube YouChoose landing page has been completely redesigned. Previously, one candidate would get pushed off onto a second page. Which sucked. Now, there's a great new interface that not only sorts candidates by party and has direct links to their introductory posts, but also allows you to sort by issue positions. The result is that instead of just compiling a huge and growing assortment of videos, the YouChoose landing page is now a useful application for seeking out video clips of candidates discussing specific issues that are meaningful to you. Check it out: YouTube YouChoose.

Mike Gravel's New Campaign Video: Think Different

Question: How long until Apple sues Mike "I'm Fuckin Nuts" Gravel for "confusing their customers" by using their "Here's To The Crazy Ones" poem in this recent campaign video? MasterCard went after Ralph Nader for his Priceless commercial for exactly that reason. Of course, the claim was tossed out because the commercial is what one might call a "parody" which is a form of expression protected by the first ammendment, but that didn't stop MasterCard for trying.

An Open Letter To Ron Paul

Dear Dr. Paul,

Congratulations. As I'm sure you are aware, you're the only presidential candidate that I am yet to rag on. And I'd like to keep it that way, as I've never intended the Viralroots media empire to be just another second rate burn blog that rags on everyone for LOLs. See, ordinarily at this juncture, I would say something snarky and cruel in hopes that my dry humor lands me a new subscriber or two. But instead, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and write you a letter imploring you to see the error of your ways and do your best to fix them.

My specific grievances have to do with your videos in the YouTube YouChoose Spotlight. In the text of your first video, you proclaimed yourself the "Internet's BFF." And over the months I've published statistics that support that claim. The fact is, I'm not aware of any candidate ever achieving such a level of success through a viralroots campaign as you. Your accomplishments are truly remarkable. Which is why I'd like to make you aware of two major missteps in your YouChoose Spotlight and am humbly asking you to correct them:

A) Why on earth would you allow a vacuous-eyed meat-head fratboy to introduce all of your spotlight videos? I mean seriously. There's never gonna be a rEVOLution when your poster-child looks like you picked him up from a Campus Republicans meeting. I swear I saw him on HotChicksWithDoucheBags last week. I beg you to lose this guy.

B) As the Internet's BFF, what on earth would possess you to use chopped up clips from what looks like a CSPAN-2 BOOK TV interview for the YouChoose Spotlight? I'm really confused. It seems that while candidate after candidate botched their time in the YouChoose Spotlight, you were making creative videos and engaging YouTube better than anyone else. You spoke to James Kotecki in his dorm room. You called out Rudy Giuliani. You posted humorous and enlightening clips from TV personalities like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart. You did a fantastic interview with Google. In other words, you did everything right. And finally, it's your turn to really shine and you posted a bunch of recycled crap. You don't talk to the YouTube constituency. You don't ask questions. You don't answer questions. Nada. Please, for the sake of this new political age, I beg you Dr. Paul, fix this. Go back to what works. You're good at it. No. The best at it. So please: Own it.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Warmest Regards,

Philip Marlowe
Private Detective/C-List Blogger

Weekly Video Roundup

X-GAMES SKATEBOARD FALL
OMG, watch this clip of pro skater Jake Brown yesterday at the 2007 X Games Big Air competition. He completes a sick 720 degree crazy spin thingy over a humongous gap then proceeds to hit a massive quarter pipe, only to get absolutely crushed in an epic 50 foot fall... then walk away. Watch where his shoes go...



MINNEAPOLIS BRIDGE COLLAPSE VIDEO
I had been looking for this video. Its rather dramatic...check it out:



SUPERBAD TRAILER
As contender for this week's Viral Video of the Week, I nominate the Superbad trailer! Not that its the most watched video on YouTube this week, but more because it looks abso-fucking-lutely hilarious. I've heard from industry insiders that this is better than Knocked Up, which for my money was pretty friggin solid itself.

So, with 2 weeks to go before it even hits theatres I think its kinda nutty/awesome that this clip has clocked 400,000 views already and is sitting in the top ten most viewed YouTube video's this week. Dude, Evan punches the girl in the boob, that's cinema!

YouChoose Roundup

• John Edwards: Stop trying to make HAIR happen.
• Dennis Kucinich: I like you, but why would you remind us that you're friggin 90? BTW, I like that you still wear that suit.
  
• Barack Obama: Hip-Hop still scares voting-age white folk. Just sayin.
• John McCain: Oh wait, nevermind. I forgot that we don't talk about you anymore.
• Joe Biden: If you're gonna do David Letterman, go for the LOLs! But good job.
• Rudy Giuliani: Congratulations. You sold out a coffeehouse. PS, can someone please tell me a) where South Carolina is and b) is that where DELIVERANCE took place?
• Mike Huckabee: Contrary to popular belief, some us are, in fact, descended from monkeys. Why is that so bad?
  

Ron Paul In YouTube Spotlight

Ron Paul, the self-proclaimed "Internet's BFF," takes to the YouTube YouChoose Spotlight this week. Ron Paul will be coming at us with a video every day this week, addressing a different topic. In his first video, Ron Paul talks about his Internet popularity and the importance of the Internet in Politics.

CNN-YouTube Debates Review: Top YouTube Question Was Censored

I generally liked the YouTube debate and can't wait for the the GOP version to occur. But, its recently come to my attention that number one topic and question submitted to CNN/YouTube was on impeachment - and YouTube did a bit of censoring. Here is the list of what was shown.

Here's the video according to Community Counts which was not shown to us:

CNN-YouTube: The Great Goatse Hoax Of 2007

A few weeks ago, if I remember this right, Scoble was quoting someone who was quoting someone else who was asserting that we are on the verge of major backlash against the blogosphere. That amateur citizen journalism is doomed because of it's inherent lack of fact checking and journalistic ethics. I initially wrote it off because it seems all the "news breaking" is done by entertainment and gossip blogs (which doesn't really count because what's really the difference between legit pictures of Britney's cooch and bogus reports of Sinbad's death?), and everything else is merely high-horse opinion, right? Well, then came the Great Goatse Hoax Of 2007. See, I was really impressed that CNN and the candidates would open themselves up to the people for a debate. And I thought it was an impressive show. It would be a shame if it was somehow "hacked." And then I looked at today's search traffic landings for Viralroots and it was strange that searches for "CNN-YouTube Debate" had "Goatse" strung along them. So I investigated. And I immediately found this Digg claiming that a goatse pic was spliced into a YouTube question and was shown on live on CNN for 1/24 of a second. And then I saw that even Wonkette was reporting this. So it must be true, right? Well... no. Not even. Just for LOLs, a blog created this hoax and some of the biggest political sites actually started reporting it as news. Since then, Wonkette has posted a correction, but this should be a major lesson. And it looks like the drive-by-media scores a point here, cuz not for nothing, I can't find a single legit news source reporting this story. The actual video as aired on CNN is above. As you can see, it contains no objectionable frames.

CNN-YouTube Democratic Debate Update

The CNN-YouTube Democratic Debate starts in roughly 30 minutes. That should be just enough time to watch all 3000 questions submitted by YouTube Users. Watch the Debate live at cnn.com.

The CNN-YouTube Debate Is Upon Us

The much anticipated CNN-YouTube debate is tonight. Many are anticipating the debate to change the way we look at political participation. Hollywood Reporter Reports:

"It's the beginning of everybody figuring out what the role of new media is in the election process," said David Bohrman, CNN's Washington bureau chief and the executive producer of the debate. It's Bohrman's job to assemble the CNN campaign set, clear the technological hurdles of having made-for-Web video and audio translate into TV and, with a team of CNN staffers and moderator Anderson Cooper, decide which questions will make it to air.

"Literally anyone, anywhere has a chance to ask a question," Bohrman said. "They're unlike any questions posed to presidential candidates before."

A glance at YouTube, where the nearly 2,000 videos have been collected since June, proves it. The questions range from such serious topics as education, health care, global warming and energy policy to the kind of offbeat, humorous clips that YouTube is famous for. One pair from Tennessee, Jackie and Dunlap from RedStateUpdate.com, challenge Sens. John Edwards and Barack Obama to take off their shirts to see who is more buff.

Going into the debate, CNN puts Hillary Clinton ahead as the obvious frontrunner. Today's Rasmussen poll concurs, placing Hillary Clinton far out front at 38% followed by Barack Obama at a post-hype 25% and John Edwards at 14%.

Despite the format change incorporating YouTube into this debate, a Rasmussen Reports article suggests that the debates have little impact as polling shows that "46% of voters believe that the Democrats will end up nominating a white male in 2008."

As far as coverage goes, there's nothing on YouTube suggesting that they'll be streaming the debate live. A stream should be available at cnn.com. also DailyKOS is reporting that they have press passes and will be streaming coverage as the debate goes live. Their plan is for a panel of political bloggers to do live commentary from the spin room broadcasted over Ustream.tv.

Ron Paul Talks With Google

There has been "more questions for Ron Paul than any other candidate that has visited google," says Google's Elliot Schrage in the introduction to a 65 minute chat with Ron Paul. This interview is truly fascinating. Ron Paul discusses everything from constitutionalism to Iraq to NAFTA and free trade to taxes to prostitution to privatization to the gold standard and on and on.

Ron Paul is so rational and so eloquent. In other words, a far cry from all psycho libertarians of the past. I can see why he is so actively ignored by mainstream media. And I'll bet money that there will be active attempts by both parties to block him out of future debates like Ralph Nader was. Why? Because he presents a real threat to the two party system, which in turn threatens lobbyists and big business. His fiscal conservatism has gotta appeal to many Republicans and his moral liberalism has gotta appeal to many Democrats. And as for more polarized individuals such as religious pro-life Republicans and bleeding-heart social-welfare Democrats, Ron Paul's support of state's rights would allow for local regulation and taxation. Different regions have different ideologies so why should they all be governed by the exact same rule of law? Ya can't shake a stick at that. The major two parties really should be shaking in their boots.

See more candidates@google videos.

Rudy Giuliani Talks At Us

So Giuliani's been in the YouTube YouChoose Spotlight for about a day now. I watched the video and thought he was crazy. Then I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and considered that I might be crazy. So I waited for some views, comments, replies and ratings to come in before discussing my opinion of the video. It turns out, based on the poor feedback and one star rating, that maybe I'm not crazy. To date, Rudy Giuliani is the only candidate to talk at us in the Spotlight. There is nothing inviting, engaging, thought-provoking or discourse-promoting about his video. He doesn't introduce himself or address the YouTube constituency. He doesn't ask questions. He doesn't invite video responses. Rather, he discusses his definition of leadership (a definition that essentially leaves the public, meaning you, out of leadership) and invites you to check out his 12 Commitments website which is first and foremost a fund raising landing page. There's a button that let's you send in your ideas, but there's nothing aggregating people's comments. Giuliani seriously needs to fire his web campaign people because frankly, I expected more from him.

YouChoose Roundup

• Ron Paul is still a genius, his supporters are still fucking CRAZY.
• Mike Gravel has sexy elbows.
• Hillary equals change. Change equals Hillary. Therefore, Bill Clinton looks like Bob Barker.
• Barack: T-Mobile called. They want Barkley back. Seriously dude.
• To All Conservatives: What did ever happen to that whole government,-keep-out thing? (See Ron Paul.)
• John Edwards: Bye.
  

Okay. I'm done. And bored. Time to drink.