Dino Baskovic Can’t Lose

Here's one thing you can't wake up to with the Sunday paper: last night's "Saturday Night Live" sketches.

Thankfully, there's the online edition of The Detroit Free Press.  The Freep's "Browser" blog, lately one of my favorite web feeds, highlights the inevitable SNL spoof of Toyota's ongoing PR challenges, this time poking fun at the runaway Prius:

I'm sure Toyota is the least bit amused, but it was only a matter of time before SNL would bite.  The parody spot ended with "Ford: We make hybrids too" voiced over a Ford logo, though I doubt Bill Ford, Jr. saw any humor in it.

Add it to the heap of problems facing the Japanese automaker.  Granted, the Prius case is drawing questions about the accuser and his troubled financial past.  Even SNL cast member Kenan Thompson found himself in the crosshairs this morning after the spot ran.

I am still rooting for Toyota.  It may be years before the company fully recovers from the recalls, and the situation will continue to get worse before it gets better.  If anything, the SNL ad, whether or not you found it funny, is part of the healing process.

And now, back to Crankshaft...

Leave it to my ol' boss to remind me, the 35-year-old whipper snapper that I am, to keep on top of nonsensical wacky web fads.

Do you remember that one goofy viral video of the band OK Go on treadmills from a year or so ago?  Their newest installment blows well past it.

Remember when MTV used to have innovative videos like this?  Heck, remember MTV?  Anyway, there is a back story to this Rube Goldberg machine-inspired meme.  Apparently the band was upset when their record label prevented them from earning royalties on the YouTube version of the video if said video was embedded on other websites and not directly viewed on said YouTube.  A recent op-ed by OK Go's lead singer elaborates on the issue.

What makes this new video -- 3.4 million views and counting -- even more intriguing than the last -- only 1.4 milliion views -- is that State Farm subsidized it.  "State Farm," you ask?  Yeah, me too.  Some where, some how, the band and the insurance behemoth made fast friends so that the video would benefit both parties (more coverage at BusinessWeek, Digital Media, Mashable and TechDirt).  Social media circles are buzzing about the secret handshake, whether this is a isolated case of strange bedfellows or a sign of brand synergies to come (State Farm has two subtle placements in the first 60 seconds, then the band thanks them outright at the close).

Business speak aside, it's just a refreshingly cool and creative music video.  Watch it.  Love it.  Share it.  You don't even have to like the music.

Thanks, boss.  I owe you one.

UPDATE: YouTube Darlings OK Go Say Bye-Bye to EMI (Mashable, March 10, 2010)

I love Nickelback.  There, I've said it.  They're Def Leppard for the new millennium, their music is rife with radio-friendly riffs and cherry soda pop lyrics and I don't care:

"I love you.  I have loved you all along..."

That's me, singing along in the car like a sissy.  But before you stop reading in disgust, I've seen your iPod.  Manilow?  Puh-lease.

Critics pan Nickelback so widely that it's become an Olympic medal sport.  Love 'em or hate 'em, their music sells extremely well.  Like any big act backed by a major label, they have a flashy home page, fan sites, the requisite MySpace profile and more than 1,400,000 fans on Facebook.  Oh, and some friendly competition from a pickle.

As reported last week (Billboard, CHARTattack, Switched), somebody launched a Facebook page of a pickle (your garden deli variety) with the sole intent of attracting more fans to the pickle than Nickelback.  The pickle is well over the million fan mark and is gaining on the band fast.

Diehards and detractors alike are in on the action and the pickle has already spawned its share of mashups and merchandising.  At the end of the day, it's a harmless prank involving an inanimate object and all in the name of fun.

Or is it?

Keeping it kosher
I googled around and saw no response from Nickelback, their record company, any lawyers or publicists.  No word from from their web site, blog, even the band's own Facebook wall.  Not a peep to the press.  Nothing.  I'm assuming they know about the pickle, that by now somebody brought it to their attention.  Which leads me to wonder, "Do they even care?  Will they have a sense of humor about the situation, perhaps go so far as to root for the pickle to prevail?  Is the band staying mute and letting it blow over for some reason?  Or are they 'lawyered' up?"

Any variation of scenarios can play out.  You can see the band serenading a larger-than-life pickle live on stage, Flip cams capturing the footage and securing the gherkin a 60-second segment on a future episode of VH1 "I Love the '10s: 2010" for posterity.  The Facebook meme ultimately fades into obscurity, Nickelback releases another crappy album and I lap it up like a sick puppy.  We all move on.

Maybe the band has other plans.  Some musicians have zero, and I mean zero, sense of humor.  Even if Chad Kroeger and fellow band mates find the pickle utterly hysterical, that doesn't mean the suits-and-ties think likewise.

"We will vigorously defend our intellectual property"
It would not surprise me in the least to read of a cease-and-desist filed by the band or the label, even a lawsuit claiming irreparable damage to name and image.  At the very least, infringement of legal trademark.  And maybe it's not just the Facebook account holder that is disposed, but Facebook as well.  Any ISP that refuses to block their domain could find itself in the crosshairs.

Sounds far-fetched?  Welcome to marketing.  The music world has struggled with its love-hate relationship of the web since the advent of Napster and the iTunes Music Store.  Never mind that the tiniest blip of a blunder is tweeted and a musician's image is tarnished overnight (this means you, John Mayer).  While the dill debate pales in comparison to that asshat's gaffe, if ticket sales slump, you better damn well believe that pickle is going down.

For most of us, Facebook is fun and games.  We don't see the harm in a silly little pickle, nor care what repercussions the world's most popular social network may face should the subject of said silliness turn sour.  It's a pickle, for chrissake, I know.  But I get nervous posting copyrighted material to my blog, and I am very much in the minority when it comes to respecting original works.  Heck, the header graphic that leads this post is stretching it.

Regardless of my pathetic, bedroom poster-like devotion to Nickelback, I am pulling for the pickle.  I figure it'll top a million-and-a-half fans by the end of next week, if not sooner or a sexier Facebook fad swoops in first.  If the Canadian quartet is cool with the cuke, they may even be able to grab more attention, fans and $9.99 downloads.  Maybe the lead singer is the lone punman, that is a pickle in his leather pants and he is happy to see us.  Maybe that's TMI, but there's a lotta bread-and-butter on the line, and I mean the green kind that folds, not crunches.

Ahoy, mateys!  It's September 19th. Happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  Accept no scurvy substitutes, though there are nifty translators.

The real world aside, pirate talk makes for great pick-up lines, PowerPoints and small talk with unsuspecting bank tellers.  Though, not so much in the cancer ward.  "Ol' Chumbucket" and "Cap'n Slappy" are two Oregonians that founded ITLAPD in 1995 and have since moved to St. Croix to spread their blackbearded sense of humor with the world. 

What helped today become a global phenom?  Social media, what else?  Could be why landlubbers call them for quotes when real pirates strike.  The two dredd pirates can be found on Myspace, YouTube and Twitter.  And Facebook, sorta:

Even though Cap'n Slappy's Facebook page got summarily deleted because the powers-that-be contended he's "not a real person," FaceBookers can still sign up for the International Talk Like A Pirate Day group he launched there, and possibly meet up with one o' the other members o' Team Pirate.

I'm with you, Cap'n. Maybe that's the ticket.  I'll start my own page if I can't smuggle enough signatures.

So hoist a blunderbuss ya sprogs and scallywags!  Booty ahead to plunder!  Lasses and grog!  Shiver me... you get the idea.