Election: The Last, The Next, The Following
Comparing mashup (real/fake footage) videos of the last election to this election. The one that finishes in a week or two. Yep, that one. YouTube was created in February 2005. Three and half years ago. This quick post is about the fact that although we (creators of user generated content) start off amateur and mimicking…
Comparing mashup (real/fake footage) videos of the last election to this election. The one that finishes in a week or two. Yep, that one.
YouTube was created in February 2005. Three and half years ago. This quick post is about the fact that although we (creators of user generated content) start off amateur and mimicking traditional media, we evolve. So does the technology. And we evolve fast.
JibJab was formed in 1999 (wikipedia) and in 2004 (the last election) this was their video This Land featuring George Bush and John Kerry.
Funny, if a little dated and clunky today.
This animation was an instant hit. Visits to the site skyrocketed, and the site was listed number one on Alexa‘s “Movers and Shakers” list. The video was so popular, it was viewed on every continent as well as the International Space Station. The traffic surge forced JibJab’s server to be shut down after one day, and the clip was placed on AtomFilms, where it got more than 1 million hits in 24 hours.[1]
So before YouTube, JibJab was able to pull the numbers in, in a tech un-savvy, YouTube unaware audience. 1 million hits in one day. And today? 80 million views. But not so much on YouTube, spread over the ‘net.
Yesterday this video was released.
Unbelievable McCain Vs. Obama Dance-Off – Watch more free videos
Lookat the numbers:
- 780,000 views in under a day on Break.com.
- Original site? Minimovie.com – 119k of views (only!- Poorly constructed community)
- YouTube – posted up in last 15 hours, around 20-30k of views (3 submissions of same clip)
Dunno how many by tomorrow.
Also I don’t know what the next election will bring. But I think the technology, creativity, innovation, satire and naughtiness will conspire to make it very very hard to tell the true candidates from our created ones. What do you think? Because what you see on YouTube today is the work of 3 and 1/2 year olds. Wait until they are 5, 10 years old. What then? Not more ‘loser generated crap’. Something more articulate, refined, educational, entertaining, without losing the passion and humour of this type of content.
And I’m gonna put ’em all on a DVD and sell them for $24.99 a pop. Hours of entertainment for you and your family – and who will stop us? Stop the collective us, I mean. The billion people online, the 80 million viewers of JibJab, the 1 million that saw Unbelievable McCain Vs. Obama Dance-Off since last night? The studios? The Candidates? The police, the courts, the…? No They Won’t.
And Yes We Can.
P.S. I still like loser generated content. It will be a shame when it’s polished too much.
You know what you’ve been, right?