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Will Google Change TV Advertising?
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People like things to make sense. As a species we tend to find
comfort and security in order and the routine. Ironically, (or
not) we also have a tendency to be fascinated, if not preoccupied,
by the strange and the unknown. We delight in the bizarre and
if nothing else, the Internet is chock full of the bizarre.
Who cares, you ask? The magic 8 ball says to finish reading
this article and ask again later.
Swing by WebProWorld
and discuss Web phenomenon with us.
 Today
is the ‘birthday’ of the longest running, most read and most
replied-to thread on our WebProWorld forum. Given the fact that
WebProWorld is an IT/SEO/Business
forum of considerable substance, you might imagine the subject
of such a thread to fall into one of those categories. Oddly
enough, the thread
in question is about… well… nothing. I don’t post there.
I don’t even like reading through it. It’s a monument to the
abstract, it defies any conventions of logic and it just plain
weirds me out. It’s apparent immortality is as unsettling as
it inexplicable.
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As such, in commemoration of our little slice of madness in WebProWorld and in the spirit of Halloween, I thought it would be interesting to take a minute to look at some examples of ‘paranormal’ phenomenon on the Web. These are the twisted little sites and concepts that, for whatever reason, catch fire and burn across the Internet. They are the things nobody’s ever heard of today but a week later everybody is talking about. They are the Things That Go Bump on the Web and they are the kinds of things plenty of marketers would sell their souls for.
The first good example of this type of thing I can think of is probably the ‘All Your Base’ stuff from about 4 years ago. For no good reason anyone can think of, a badly translated port of a video game resulted in innumerable Flash and Photoshop productions from the geek glitterati. Some of them are mildly amusing but more often than not, they end up a little weird for the most part.
More recently we’ve seen the poor Star Wars kid. It started a smaller version of the ‘All Your Base’ spoofing thanks in part to increased bandwidth to handle video. The mysterious Zombocom; I can’t decide if its some tacit jab at dotcoms in general or what. I’m ready to sign up though. I want to belong.
Spongemonkies anyone? These disturbing little things made the rarest of jumps from Web to TV. We actually had them in a ClicksToday newsletter a year or two ago. They made the web to TV transition and ended up featured in a Quizno’s commercial. Other web to TV transitions have seemed equally unsettling to me. That guy in MSN’s butterfly suit… I dunno.
TV has gone to the net too of course. Bud Light’s Wassupp commercial gimmick was dubbed into countless pop culture satires. Widely available editors made it pretty easy to do and before long it was being dubbed into all manners of ‘alternative scenarios’. This is one of a very few commercially driven manifestations that spring to mind. I almost didn’t count it since it wasn’t really all that disturbing or particularly scary. Then it occurred to me that the commercially spawned variation was plenty frightening enough precisely because it carried a commercial association.
These things get everywhere. They span cultures like sidewalk cracks. They’re emailed, instant messaged, blogged, posted, written up and phoned. And they are powerful. So what is the secret? Is it luck? Coincidence? Blind chance that these things explode like they do? Where is that fine line between the inane and the sublime?
If you would like, swing by the
forum and share any examples of these paranormal giant meme-things
you found particularly interesting (or frightening). Do you
have a favorite and if so, is it uncool to admit it?
About
the Author:
Mike is a manager at iEntry. He has been with iEntry since 2000. |
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The
WebProWorld Halloween Photoshop Contest!
It's almost Halloween folks, and to celebrate this frightful
event, we at WebProWorld are having a Halloween-flavored
contest for all you Photoshop experts (or whatever image
software package you use) out there. In order to provide you
with plenty of options, WPW mainstay rah has posted 5 pictures
of various memebers of the WPW staff (myself included).
The rules for participation are as follows: keep it tasteful,
safe-for-work, and preferably, Halloween related. So go on and
download whichever image you want and have a ball. You can also
post as many entries as you'd like. We already have a number
of entries; so don't delay. If you can, please try and have
your entries in by next Monday (officially Halloween).
If you don't remember last
year's contest, have a look at some of the awesome images
that were posted. This will also give you an idea of what you
may be up against. However, don't worry about competing against
Chris
Gross. Fortunately for you guys, iEntry employees are not
eligible for top honors.
Enjoy
the competition and have a Happy Halloween weekend.
***The following is an
example of one of our entries, using the almighty Rah:
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Meet the Members: |
User: aaron2005
Rating: Veteran
Joined:
10.11.05
Location: US
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