What Does TED and Aliens Have in Common?

A lot it turns out. Actor Guy Pearce plays cybernetics pioneer Peter Weyland in this imagined TED Talk from the year 2023. The video is a viral promotion for the upcoming Alien prequel Prometheus, directed by Ridley Scott, trailer below (via Laughing Squid). This is smart branding for both TED and 21st Century Fox of course, as well as smart and entertaining content marketing. I'll get tickets to see this in the movie theater for sure to get the "big" experience, will you? This will be an event movie for sure!

The Making Of a Viral Video: Chatroulette + Improv Piano Player

Chatroulette is a website that pairs random strangers for webcam-based conversations and perhaps the most exciting phenomenon on the Internet right now. The idea behind it is as simple as it is genious - visitors to the website randomly begin an online chat (video and text) with another visitor. Created by Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow, the site was launched in November 2009 and was originally known as Head-to-Head, according to Wikipedia. It gained popularity in February 2010 after being featured on Good Morning America, in The New York Times, in New York magazine, and on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Part of the thrill is of course that you don't know whom you will meet. Celebrities claiming to have used Chatroulette include Kelly Osbourne, Joel Madden, Nicole Richie, and Perez Hilton. It's one of those underground phenomena that will only be cool for a while, but it's already creating stars of its own as well.

Toyota, Gov't anti-Toyota campaign, PR and Great Ads

A great article in the Wall Street Journal recently highlighted the Toyota spectacle, which has become slightly surreal, as a few uncertain questions about "sudden acceleration" morphed into a media and political firestorm over the safety of its entire fleet. It is also proving an interesting case study in the treacherous politics that accompany government ownership of U.S. industry. As a media and marketing professional, it is painful to see how a brand built on quality totally gets its image turned over in such a short time, while doing, in my opinion, a fairly good job with damage control under the circumstances. It's not like domestic car-makers have never had similar issues, just remember the job that Edward Norton's character had in "Fight-Club" determining whether there were enough accidents with a certain car to do a recall. Yes, it's fiction, but as with all good scripts, probably not a far cry from reality. With all this negative press, I figured that I'll do my part to balance the scale and point to something positive: Toyota has launched a new campaign called: “Sponsafy Your Ride” for their involvement in NASCAR in 2010. It pokes fun at the UGC and brand sponsorship trends in a very clever way, showing that Toyota can be a fun brand too. Go figure.

Expand Your Mind With Symphony of Science

The Symphony of Science is a musical project by John Boswell designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. “We Are All Connected” was made from sampling Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, The History Channel’s Universe series, Richard Feynman’s 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye’s Eyes of Nye Series, plus added visuals from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking’s Universe, Cosmos, the Powers of 10, and more. Via Laughing Squid.

Jonas Åkerlund's Rammstein Video Too Hot For YouTube

Swedish Director Jonas Åkerlund has worked with some of the world's biggest stars like Madonna and Metallica and is know for his edgy and stylish touch, but his latest video for German cult-rockers Rammstein's song German Pussy turned out to be a little too much for their record label Universal and they pulled it from YouTube. Now it's hidden behind an age verification wall. Check it out here.