UPDATE: Mountain Dew Rips Off YouTuber and Indie Rappers

• • NOTE: This is a followup to a story blogged a few days ago. Click here for Part 1.
    If there were ANY doubt about the Mountain Dew ad I blogged a few days ago, we can doubt no more. 
    
    I messaged DevinSuperTramp, who said he'd actually been contacted by the ad agency before they shot the video.  They were looking for the contact info of riders in his original.
    
    We can put the issue to rest, but here is my final frustration and my final question: 
    
    
    Why didn't they take the opportunity to make a great story, hire the original artists, get a fantastic end product, and avoid the inevitable lashback from copying 100% an already very popular independently produced work?
    That would have worked better for ALL involved. 
    
    

    Hello,
    My name is John [last name omitted], and I'm writing to find out the locations, ages, and availabilities of riders in a YouTube video uploaded by you. We are checking on them for a Mountain Dew commercial. The availability dates are April 26 - April 28. April 26 is wardrobe, April 27 is rehearsal, and April 28 is the shoot.
    Looking forward to hearing from you.
    Thanks!
    ------------
    Lisa Fields Casting
    
    West Hollywood, CA 90069
    
    ---
    Hey Devin,
    Thanks for getting back to me. We're looking for bikers who can do lake jumps between the ages of 18-25. If we could get the names and contacts of anyone that might be appropriate, that would be great.
    This is a national spot, so any riders that are chosen would be flown first class and put up in first class hotels.
    Let me know if you have any questions.
    Thanks!

• • 
    

Mountain Dew Rips Off YouTuber and Indie Rappers

Saw it this morning. It's pretty obvious.

Mountain Dew posted a video of BMX bikers going off a jump into a pond. It has a good summer-time feel to it, with a fun hip-hop track going in the background. See video HERE:

UPDATE: Embedding for this video has been disabled. Click HERE to watch the video.

That would be fine, and there wouldn't be a story, EXCEPT they ripped it off, wholesale, with no mention or credit to the creators.

The following video was posted Oct. 3 2010.



Same concept. Same theme. Same shots. Same editing. Same musical style. Same everything.

Why wouldn't they hire the original creators? That's what Apple did, and what Microsoft should have done. Instead, they took the Urban Outfitters route, and ripped off independent artists. How do they benefit from backhanding the online communities that inspired the content?

The original video is from DevinSuperTramp, a partnered YouTuber who appears to be working hard to release content regularly to make money through YouTube's Partner Program. The original music is from Can't Stop Won't Stop, an unsigned hip-hop group trying to grow their following on Facebook. Point is, these artists are struggling to make a name for themselves.

It doesn't help when a huge company steals their work without so much as a shout-out. The MountainDew YouTube channel has a behind the scenes video claiming the inspiration came from a video on WildeManMedia's channel. Take a look, compare the videos side by side, and you tell me which video was the inspiration for their ad.



My take? They ripped it off, knew they ripped it off, and created a back-story to cover their tracks. Disgusting.

[Full Disclosure: I helped a little on the production of the original video, so this one made me mad in a personal way.]

Google+ Circles Suggestion

Google+ has won me over. I love it, and I think more and more people will use it and love it. In not too much time, it'll give facebook a real run for it's money.

But at a week and a half old, it's a developing platform. I have a thought about Circles.

Circles are a fantastic feature that will make managing posts and contacts much much easier. If it was managed graphically, it could be easier still.

If circles could be seen as a virtual space, something that could be managed by grabbing and dragging them, a lot more information could be readily conveyed and managed. For instance, if I could grab one circle, say "Extended Family" or "Orabrush Contacts" (Orabrush is where I work), and drag them into another circle, like "Family" or "Business Contacts", then I could make subsets.

Circles within circles.

This way, if I want to publish a post to all of my business contacts, including Orabrush contacts, it can be designated and managed graphically by high lighting circles. If I want to deselect a circle, I can just click it

What do you think? If you like it, share this on Google+. If you don't, let me know in the comments.

I haven't blogged in ages. But I'm starting again.