Kiwiblog

Chooka Parker from Australia’s Got Talent. Not bad.

The Dominion Post shows what people saw on Labour’s new website.

They’re blaming You Tube and computers for it, but the solution is simple. You untick the box which says “show related videos”. You also test before you go public.

Samuel L. Jackson reading out the book. Perfect.

This was linked to by someone in the comments, and I loved it. As it happens American Pie is my favourite all time song, but the video is amazing – 10 minutes almost of non stop filming over several city blocks with a cast of thousands. It was filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

92 million views in five months.

Hat Tip: Whale Oil

This is superb. Not sure who did it, but well done.

Hat Tip: Brian Edwards

Just got e-mailed this clip by a friend. All I can say is that dangerous weapons like that should be licensed

The show appears to be Germany’s Got Talent. What I love most of all is the looks of shock on the judge’s faces.

The NZ Herald reports:

Midway through the last decade, Fyfe was drawing admiration for classy, innovative approaches to traditional branding campaigns, working closely alongside its branding agency Colenso BBDO.

The “Nothing to Hide” commercials – featuring staff in body paint and G-strings and even featuring Fyfe in a cameo – marked a shift to a retail-focused campaign using Colenso’s retail division, .99.

Some content in spots featuring All Blacks has touched base with the old brand values.

Yet the focus hasn’t been on those traditional values but on a crude puppet specialising in double-entendres.

Last month, Rico appeared with rapper Snoop Dogg in an online clip that has been picked up by American breakfast TV, which Fyfe points out gave coverage you could not buy.

This week, 80s aerobics star Richard Simmons featured in the airline’s in-flight safety video – in a duet with polarising TV star Paul Henry.

Fyfe agrees there are risks in the marketing strategy and says that the adventurous approach could become “too successful”.

The danger is that offbeat ads aimed at niche online audiences are being picked up and, as Fyfe says, “leaching” into editorial coverage in mainstream media with a different market.

I do like the latest safety video – it carries on their quirky history, and I’ve observed on flight around 90% watch the video now, when it used to be around 20%.

The Rico creature though is stupid, and should be shot. I like smutty humour as much as anyone, but it doesn’t work with an airline brand.

This video will send you into fits of laughter or apolexy as the PM stars in a video skit to promote Napier.

The Dom Post reports:

The prime minister laughs, jokes and pokes fun at himself during a session with Australian comedian Peter Flaherty, whose character Shaun Wayne bears a certain resemblance to celebrity cricketer Shane Warne, in a video clip going online today.

The unscripted seven-minute video was shot during Napier’s Art Deco Weekend last month as part of a $100,000 campaign to market the city to tourists from the east coast of Australia.

“I work for the Government,” Mr Key tells “Shaunie”, during their chat in the back of an art deco car. The Australian does not realise he is talking to the country’s leader.

The subject of the Government’s new BMWs crops up. “They’re nice. They’re good value,” Mr Key says. “I heard that nice prime minister talking and he didn’t have a clue what was going on. He bought 34 of them and he didn’t have a clue what was happening.

“Honestly, the things they try and whip through, sometimes it’s beyond me.

“It would probably be better if they were Holdens. I’ve had Holdens all my life. The Calais.”

Napier Mayor Barbara Arnott and her staff were delighted with the video but worried that, after Mr Key saw it, he would not approve its release.

After he gave the go-ahead, Mrs Arnott said: “It was wonderful that the prime minister understood very well what we were trying to do. He entered the spirit of things wholeheartedly.

I loved it. I am sure some sour pusses will say he should not be doing such things, but really it is 10 minutes out of his schedule, and I love having a PM who can take the piss out of himself.

This is the infamous video of Casey Heynes, who lashes out with a very nice lift and throw, after being bullied by other students. When you see the actions of the student doing the bullying, you don’t feel one ounce of sympathy for what then occured to him.

As millions around the world cheer Casey on, it is worth remembering what the sadness of what he has endured. The Herald reports:

Casey Heynes, 16, says he has been bullied nearly every day at his school, Chifley College, St Marys, in western Sydney, but could take no more when Year 7 student Ritchard Gale tormented and attacked him last week. …

Casey said his outburst was a “build-up” of more than three years of being attacked verbally and physically by other students.

“They used to slap me on the back of the head and said I was a fatty and to lose some weight.

“I’ve been duct-taped to a pole before as well. They target me because I don’t retaliate.

What is awful is that the school has never detected the bullying before now, and also that Casey didn’t feel he could go to anyone in authority about it.

Casey told A Current Affair he had been bullied almost every day at school and even contemplated suicide a year ago when the taunts became too much.

“I started putting myself down and all the crap just kept piling on,” he said. “That’s when I contemplated suicide.”

And sadly some kids do committ suicide due to bullying. More New Zealanders die from suicide than in car crashes.

A school can’t be everywhere at everytime. But a good school should have enough teachers around the grounds that they do get to see if bullying is happening, and making sure there are severe consequences for those who do bully.

I wonder how successful it was? Hat-tip: Spare Room

Hat Tip: Dan News

Simply incredibly to see the cars get taken one by one as the river floods. The video is from Toowoomba.

This is very well done.

What do you do when it is 11.45 pm at night, and you suddenly find out you have to give a speech on a Customs bill. The MP for Tauranga did well in the circumstances!

Do you remember the Rainbow children’s TV series? They ran from 1972 to 1992. This is an episode that never made it to air.

Watch this video of a cat taking on an alligator.

Hat Tip: Andrei at NZ Conservative

Those who have played Angry Birds on an iPad or other device will love this.

From the Daily Telegraph:

This is very enjoyable. It’s pro-Obama, but done in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan.

This ad was produced by Citizens Against Government Waste. The chinese language with english sub-titles makes it very effective, as you really tune into it.

Also they mention no politician by name, yet you know whom it is effectively blaming.

The CAGW also produce an annual “Congressional Pig Book” which details all the pork-barrel spending.

Fleggaard is a retailer in Germany that sells cheap stuff to Danes. Their commercials have become legendary amongst Danes and the one above has been subbed by some the best commercial ever made!

NSFW but very amusing.

And just to be even handed, this one may appeal more to female readers.

Don’t agree with it, but I have to say a pretty damn effective attack ad. I wonder if that is a professional actress – too good to be an amateur I reckon.