Scott Kirsners’ recent Mercury News article on online video viewing is important to consider in the not so quiet war going on between those who wish to see the web remain the broad media platform available to the everyman, and those for whom the web is the next technology after radio, film, and television to become dominated by strictly commercial players, pushing the neophytes to the side. However, in predicting that viewers’ tastes over time respond more to quality production and branded content, such as happened over time in film over a century ago, Kirsner doesn’t pay nearly as much attention to another key driver which the consumer demands now more than ever, and should help extend the relevance of the individual uploading their own amateur produced clips – the demand for choice.

Kirsner demonstrates how with technology like film, early on many people would pay admission simply to see workers leaving a factory, or a train arriving, or an older man kissing an older woman. As film matured people began to want to see a story with the moving images, and to use film to see other places they had never been to before. All the while production techniques improved. Over a much longer period of time the ability for the consumer amateur to make home movies at a price point many could afford became a reality. However, even though over time movie studio content began flooding the theatres and then cineplexes, moviegoers never quite gave up their taste for smaller independent films, and still actively seek out alternatives to mainstream film. Does a flood of movies from a movie studio mean it will be harder to find the smaller film? Maybe. But even on the viral video web today, the chances of your clip reaching the heights of the Mentos Diet Coke Duo are pretty slim … but not impossible. And the web provides something independent films in days past never had, a community connected together through the Web to spread the word to the world, or to a specific niche community….

Gordon M. Grant for The New York Times
Continuing along the lines of odd news, we couldn’t let the story about whale barf go by unnoticed.
From The New York Times:
“I called my sister and asked her, ‘What the heck did you send me?’ ” recalled Ms. Ferreira, 67, who has lived here on the eastern tip [...]

Source: AP via CNN.com
We’ve heard of man bites dog, but when it’s world’s tallest man (according to the Guinness Book) who’s a sheep-herder from Mongolia sticks arm down dolphin’s throat to remove plastic from dolphin’s stomach….now that’s news.
From CNN.com:
Attempts to use surgical instruments to remove the plastic failed because the dolphins’ stomachs contracted in response [...]

Steve Rubel pointed out today a site called Quantcast. Similar to Alexa, it goes further for editorial outlets to provide some juicy demographic and common site information for interactive marketers and PR pros.

Some highlights for the media crowd include its Siteographicslist on the right. It works to assign relative affinity of media interests [...]

If you like The Office, you’ll probably like Dog Judo.
Nice little viral deal for a draggin’ afternoon at the office.

The FTC weighed-in on deceptive ways of word-of-mouth marketing, saying that companies must disclose when are compensated to promote products to peers.
One of the landmark instances of such behavior came from 2002 when Sony Ericsson paid people to promote one of the first camera phones.
From today’s Washington Post:
The initiative, called “Fake Tourist,” involved placing 60 [...]

Maps can be just as bad as stadium seating charts sporting horrendous uses of color.

Almost as bad as default Excel graphs…

Some people do like to be tasteful, however. Luckily, TopDeq has a stylish replacement for that ugly globe you used to throw around the room in elementary school.

It can be under the [...]

A couple of us from PRpulp won tickets to an upcoming Boston Bruins game at a charity auction. Full disclosure: one of us did and invited another along.
Knowing that they were pretty good seats, we headed over to the Bruins’ site to confirm our thinking. We expected to see one of those hard-to-read [...]

Just a follow-up to Friday’s post.

Too bad Wal-Mart just flipped this one upside down.
Via adfreak.

It’s firing Friday for Wal-Mart’s top marketing exec Julie Roehm, and subordinate Sean Womack who allegedly were engaged in personal relationship.
Other allegations for Roehm included inappropriately accepting gifts from vendors and showing favoritism.
The big news though, is that Wal-Mart overturned it’s previous commitment to Draft FCB, which PRpulp commented on back in November.
Here’s The New [...]