Wednesday, January 24, 2007

"Who Needs it?" video - viral politics

VOCM reports today that a video is making it's rounds on YouTube. A satirical take on the current provincial administration, it takes some shots at the supposed effects of government policies in a campaign-style 60 second piece.

I've already posted some notes on campaign advertising here, here and here. Back then I predicted that the low cost of modern digital video cameras combined with video posting websites and the prevalence of free video editing software would lead to the development of an underground brand of guerilla/viral political advertising.

And it seems now that it has come to pass.

For those who have not yet seen the video, check here, here or here. The last link, http://ipfreelynl.blogspot.com/, seems dedicated to the cause of local political underground videos and other satirical pieces.

An interesting side note is this: somebody seems to have gone to the YouTube site and flagged this video as "inappropriate" thus making it hard to find and access for the casual viewer. Flagging is usually restricted to videos that are pornographic, hate speech, infringes copyright, are too shocking or otherwise nasty and inappropriate for a general audience. It tells the YouTube managers to review this video and decide if it should be yanked from the site.

Clearly some government sympathizer thought this clip was too dangerous to be let out; certainly the comments attached to the video are strongly hostile to the video's point of view.

You'll have to decide for yourself if you agree or not.

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