Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Advertising or not Advertising?

So I came across this video today: (I would recommend watching the whole thing - bit of a twist in there.)

There are a number of things that I find curious about this video.

First and foremost - IS THIS SOME KIND OF ADVERTISING?

Why do I think this? Well, it was only uploaded on the 17th of February and it has had over 110k views? Also, I get the impression that this was shot in NZ... pretty impressive numbers for something from NZ. Social circles for boosting views can only stretch so far here.

I feel like there is something else behind it. I realise that working in advertising has made me quite cynical and question pretty much everything I see, but come on... what do you guys think?

Trying to find more info on this, I am officially loving You Tube's stats which show where the traffic is coming from:
These numbers all seem to be due to loading the video on Reddit. I don't know much about Reddit. Can anyone load something up and hope for the best?

Could it be that this is just one of those videos which has a little something which makes people want to pass it on?

It's doing my head in. If this is advertising, what could it be advertising? Castlepoint? Castlepoint is delicious, it sells itself. Viral for a new band? They have relatively decent voices. Is there a record label behind this?

Anyone else got an opinion on this? Or know a secret squirrel backstory?

Any or all information gratefully appreciated.

9 comments:

BruceHoult said...

Feel free to disagree, but as a Whangarei boy I've got to say it looks a lot like Whananaki:

http://goo.gl/maps/4UzM

Anonymous said...

Nope no advertising... And thats straight from the horses mouth (eg person in the video)

BruceHoult said...

http://www.linkedin.com/in/caltho12

Probably no connection, but the woman looks very like the sister of my (1970's) school friend Michael Williams. As kids they lived on a farm at Marua on the road from Hikurangi out to Whananaki. Last I saw her (1995ish) she lived in Hikurangi.

iChild said...

Thanks Bruce, yes, I agree re. Whananaki.

Anon - see, if you're the person in the video then I'm curious as to why you're aware of this blog post so damn quickly?

OK, I will stop questioning everything now. My Boy tells me he went to school with the camera man and doesn't believe he is in advertising.

Either way, nice video. If this turns out to be a campaign, I will say I told you so.

Anonymous said...

hahhaaaa. Actually I googled NZ results for the video, because it is all soooo exciting for us.. It is in Whananaki... in November last year...
Just having some fun.. recording a song, definitely not advertising... just an awesome turn of events! :D

Anonymous said...

Brings back memories of my days riding horses, getting thrown off while the horse made a run for it down the long beach... definitely real and not advertising!!

officialfunning said...

I know caltho12 and you can find him on twitter, same username.

Here is a super popular video from the much beloved Weebls-Stuff.
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Amazing+Horse/

Benjamin said...

I recognise the guy singing as one of the guitarists from The Earlybirds, a band out of Auckland. No idea who the girl or the other guys are. I'm pretty sure it's not some advertising stunt (surely would have better audio if it was). I think most of the exposure came out out being randomly plugged on G4TV in the states and favourite by weebl himself.

Jonny said...

The girl is Brie, an old family friend of mine. Her boyfriend makes/used to make films, and I can hear his voice on camera, so it's probably a totally normal thing for them to be hanging out doing.

They are covering a song that is already viral on youtube, and it's a pretty funny series of events. I'm thinking it's real.