So there was a video post (Trust Me Im A Professional) that hit the front page of Digg.com today, where in a video supposedly shot in 1994 a motivation speaker talks a woman into doing a trust fall where she smacks her head on the floor. The controversy comes from the intro clip to the video that shows what is supposedly the same man, selling his motivation material today, 13 years later…
So how can this guy who knocked a woman out on stage still be a motivational speaker?
He isn’t. It is called a viral video. Made specifically to fool you into talking about it.
Notice that there is an eerie resemblance between the girl who smacks her head in 1994 and a girl in his current promo video…
- Same shoulder length dark curly hair, pulled back over the top with a hair clip.
- Same brown jacket & pink undershirt (stage lighting is blowing out the colors)
*You can see there is a black padded mat that she falls on too.
Viral Video Production Tip: If you’re going to shoot all your material in one day… make sure to do wardrobe changes.
How Well Their Viral Video Worked
Many people ask why somebody would want to create a viral video like this… Attention. And they’re getting a ton of it.
The video was uploaded to Break.com (Video Link Here) yesterday Aug. 21, 2007. At the time of this post the video has received nearly 500,000 views in just 24 hours. The viral-ness of the video is beginning too… Posts have gone up on Snopes.com, eBaumsWorld.com, and who knows how many people have emailed and IM’d it.
Why This Video Worked So Well
#1 Somebody Gets Hurt
We love watching a dad get hit in the nuts by his son’s plastic bat… the skateboarder who doesn’t quite make the full rail slide… we love watching people get hurt.
#2 Polarize People
Some people will notice that something doesn’t sit right with the video and will post their opinions in the comments. Others that think it is real POWNE them by saying how real it is… so goes the comment flame-wars. Watch this for an example of how it usually goes (College Humor: Internet Commenter Meeting).
When you split the crowd you get them invested in a side and proving themselves right. It is this conflict that will draw more comments, attention, etc.
#3 Mullets
Scientists still can’t explain why some people still think mullets are cool or why the rest of us can’t help but love them.
#4 Bring People to Justice - As noted by Philipp Lenssen
The “let’s pull something to the light to bring them to justice� factor. It creates a dissonance when we see a fraud working or a crime taking place, and we want to help bring the world towards order again. We want to believe that we make progress and that people do not get away with cheating.
But What Good Is the Attention?
Who knows what their end goal was with this video. Could be some writers with a funny idea, looking to make some money off selling Todd Conner’s silly shirts and products… My guess is that this video was done by a comedy group, or creative production agency just looking to get some attention and to have some fun.
David Chen at ProNet wrote a recent post on this: “Viral” Videos as Marketing Tools.
Kudos to the group that put this video together, good luck with your project. (and I realize the irony in that the video was created to fool people into talking about it, and that is what I’ve just done)
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