Gavin McInnes is Vice magazine’s co-founder and now the writer/creator of The Naturist, a three-part-sort-of-funny video series created for the launch of the brand’s Riva and the Dalea shoes. Here’s a quote:
“There is a major disconnect in the comedy and advertising communities. Everyone likes a good viral video, but microscopic budgets prevent most of them from really breaking through. On the corporate side, brands are getting tired of traditional magazine and TV spots, and want new ways to reach and engage audiences. For The Naturist, two unlikely teams paired up to create three sketches about survival in the wild — and I happen to think they are binary gold.”
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We agree that there’s a disconnect between comedy and advertising, but there’s also a big misunderstanding about viral videos. Listen closely here — a video isn’t viral until it goes viral. With 302 views, this is not in any way viral. It’s just a silly video sponsored by a shoe company. So, please stop getting ahead of yourselves with this stuff — it makes you sound incompetent.
Also, most of the best viral videos we’ve seen haven’t been sponsored and were produced on a shoestring or $0 budget, both of which are smaller than microscopic. For example, the Maury Povich Home Paternity Test. Baby daddy, or not baby daddy. That sh*t is classic. Full disclosure, I know one of the people behind the MoPo video, but they got to go on his show so, that’s something.
Update: I may have to eat my words on this, since the video has 35,000+ views on Break.com. However, the YouTube video only shows 302 views.
Update 2: Fine, the thing has thousands of views, but the release about this video went up out at 10:30 am and the video, according to Break, went up at about noon. It was Gavin’s quote that referred to the video as viral, and this is where it gets messed up. He made the claim in a quote that was sent around 90 minutes before the file was even uploaded. How does a video go to number 1 on Break.com in 4 hours?
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