Another Fake Video is an Ad

No sooner did I discuss the growing number of online videos that are actually ads than I was forwarded another one this morning. Turns out that this video, which has been making the email rounds, is actually the beginning of a web viral video campaign for Gatorade.

In the online video world, just remember, if something looks to good to be true, it’s probably an ad. A news report indicates that in this video, the woman’s leaping ability was helped by a harness and cables which were edited out later.

Catchy Tune

I’m sure this has been out for a while, but I was surfing YouTube the other day with my 3-year-old and we both found this video/song extremely entertaining…

Real vs. Fake Ads

It’s getting harder and harder to tell what’s real and what’s fake anymore in terms of new media advertising. There seems to be almost a free-for-all in terms of web videos.

A viral video that’s been making the rounds supposedly shows survelliance camera footage of an office worker freaking out. It turns out that it was actually created by Timur Bekmambetov, the director behind the upcoming movie Wanted, starring Angelina Jolie. Apparently it was a viral stunt about breaking out of your workaday drudgery, as the geeky main character does in Wanted.

Even more surprisingly, a fake tv commercial for JC Penney recently won a bronze at the Cannes Lions International advertising awards show. JC Penney has publically reprimanded its agency – Saatchi & Saatchi – for entering the spot in the awards, saying it was never intended to be seen by anyone. The spot is clever, but seems to promote teens having sex.

With all this crazy marketing going on, it makes you wonder whether or not this was really planned or not.

Moved Hefe to Secondary

Last week was busy and I had a wedding this past weekend, so I finally moved the hefeweizen over to the secondary after 2 weeks in the primary. Again, I’m experimenting a little… I went to a local flea market and bought a 5 gal. carboy for $6. This allowed me to split the 6 gallons into 2 carboys – 1 with 2.5 gal. and one with 3.5 gal. In the secondary carboy with 2.5 gallons, I added 1 can of Oregon red raspberries with juice to make a raspberry hefeweizen. Again, I’ll let you know how it turns out when I bottle it in a week.

I’ve already purchased the ingredients to brew an IPA this weekend… This is partly because of my excitment that my local homebrew shop finally has a new supply of hops. I bought several packs of Cascade hops for my upcoming IPA recipe. I’ll post the recipe next week after I brew.

Moved Hefe to the Secondary

Last week was busy and I had a wedding this past weekend, so I finally moved the hefeweizen over to the secondary after 2 weeks in the primary. Again, I’m experimenting a little… I went to a local flea market and bought a 5 gal. carboy for $6. This allowed me to split the 6 gallons into 2 carboys – 1 with 2.5 gal. and one with 3.5 gal. In the secondary carboy with 2.5 gallons, I added 1 can of Oregon red raspberries with juice to make a raspberry hefeweizen. Again, I’ll let you know how it turns out when I bottle it in a week.

I’ve already purchased the ingredients to brew an IPA this weekend… This is partly because of my excitment that my local homebrew shop finally has a new supply of hops. I bought several packs of Cascade hops for my upcoming IPA recipe. I’ll post the recipe next week after I brew.

Say No to Bud InBev Deal

I’m not sure if you’ve been following the news lately regarding Anheuser-Busch, but they could be taken over by InBev. Here’s the story…

Why discuss this in my media, marketing, advertising, online marketing, homebrewing blog?

Anheuser-Busch has been a pioneer within the digital media space. Despite the fact that Bud.tv failed, both AB and the online marketing community learned quite a bit from its branded online video effort. You can’t have continued success without a few failures, and AB took the failure in stride and appears to have grown to be better online marketers because of it.

From all accounts I’ve heard, InBev is good at making these types of companies work more efficiently. Most analysts are pretty sure that InBeb will implement its cost-cutting measures at AB if it purchases it. Most of the time, cost-cutting measures start with marketing budgets. You can be sure that if this is the case, you won’t see nearly as much experimentation coming from AB in terms of online marketing (and certainly not to the level of investment as Bud.tv). While it’s obvious that larger companies have still not completely jumped into online marketing, it will be disappointing if experiments like Bud.tv no longer allowed to take place.

Mars Needs Ditchdiggers Too

You remember this scene from Caddyshack…

Well apparently, Mars needs ditchdiggers too Danny. The Pheonix Mars Lander touched down on the red plant a couple weeks ago and has set out to doing work. It’s digging a ditch and then testing out the soil samples.

The reason I write is not that scientist working on the project lamely named the less than one square foot, 3 inch deep ditch the ‘Dodo-Goldilocks Trench’, but to report that they’ve struck a white substance believed to be ice. How exciting!

My Friends Can’t Read

I had to write a quick blog about this… A couple of weeks ago, I added a new application to my Facebook page called Visual Bookshelf. It lets me enter what I’ve read, or am reading, review things I’ve read, and even shows a graphic of the cover of the book.

The funny part is that underneath what you’ve read it says, “Kevin’s Friends who Read,” and it shows only 10 friends (out of the 97 friends I currently have in Facebook). So, according to Facebook, only about 10% of my friends can read… I guess that shows you the riff-raff I associate with.

Hefe Weizen

Brewed a Hefe Weizen. Here’s the recipe…

Steeped
.5 lbs Briess Wheat Malt crushed 6 row (lovibond 2.2)
.5 lbs Briess Dextrine Malt crushed 6 row (lovibond 1.5)
for 4 hours in 6.25 gallons of hot water from the tap
Brought water to 155-160 F and let rest for 30 min. and brought to full boil and removed grains
1 oz. Vangard pellet hops A.A. 4.4%
1/2 cup of Malto dextine
2 cups of corn sugar
Boiled for 30 minutes
3.3 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat LME
3 lbs Munton’s Plain Extra Light DME (7 EBC)
1 cup of corn sugar
.75 lbs Munton’s Plain Wheat DME (55% wheat/45% barley, 9 EBC)
Boiled for 15 more minutes
.5 oz Willamette pellet hops A.A. 4.6%
Boiled for 10 more minutes
.5 oz Willamette pellet hops A.A. 4.6%
Boiled for 5 minutes and cooled
Pitched Munton’s Gold Yeast directly into Wort at 68F

This made about 6 gallons, and I forgot to measure my original gravity before pitching the yeast. I think I’m going to add a half can of Oregon canned raspberries to 1 gallon in the secondary for a raspberry hefe. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Brewed a Hefe Weizen

Brewed a Hefe Weizen. Here’s the recipe…

Steeped
.5 lbs Briess Wheat Malt crushed 6 row (lovibond 2.2)
.5 lbs Briess Dextrine Malt crushed 6 row (lovibond 1.5)
for 4 hours in 6.25 gallons of hot water from the tap
Brought water to 155-160 F and let rest for 30 min. and brought to full boil and removed grains
1 oz. Vangard pellet hops A.A. 4.4%
1/2 cup of Malto dextine
2 cups of corn sugar
Boiled for 30 minutes
3.3 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat LME
3 lbs Munton’s Plain Extra Light DME (7 EBC)
1 cup of corn sugar
.75 lbs Munton’s Plain Wheat DME (55% wheat/45% barley, 9 EBC)
Boiled for 15 more minutes
.5 oz Willamette pellet hops A.A. 4.6%
Boiled for 10 more minutes
.5 oz Willamette pellet hops A.A. 4.6%
Boiled for 5 minutes and cooled
Pitched Munton’s Gold Yeast directly into Wort at 68F

This made about 6 gallons, and I forgot to measure my original gravity before pitching the yeast. I think I’m going to add a half can of Oregon canned raspberries to 1 gallon in the secondary for a raspberry hefe. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Bottled the Dunkel

I’m not sure if it would be considered a dark hefe weizen or a dunkel weizen, but anyway, I bottled my Dunkel Weizen today (I always put the month it’s ready to serve as the month it was bottled on the label so friends don’t think it’s too old). I decided to call it “1474 Dunkelweizen” in honor of an upcoming fraternity event at the end of July at which time I hope to finally crack one open. It’s currently being aged in basement at around 65F. It smelled and tasted pretty good when I checked final gravity. Based on some very basic calculations, I’m estimating the final alcohol by volume to be around 6.5%.

I’m also experimenting with a different way to label my bottles. The logo to the right is my label for the Dunkelweizen. I printed it off on the computer on regular paper, cut it out and then covered the entire thing on the bottle with packing tape. Hopefully the packing tape won’t stick too much when trying to take the labels off, but will prevent water from getting to the label if I decide to put these on ice. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Bottled the Dunkel

I’m not sure if it would be considered a dark hefe weizen or a dunkel weizen, but anyway, I bottled my Dunkel Weizen today (I always put the month it’s ready to serve as the month it was bottled on the label so friends don’t think it’s too old).  I decided to call it “1474 Dunkelweizen” in honor of an upcoming fraternity event at the end of July at which time I hope to finally crack one open.  It’s currently being aged in basement at around 65F.  It smelled and tasted pretty good when I checked final gravity.  Based on some very basic calculations, I’m estimating the final alcohol by volume to be around 6.5%.

I’m also experimenting with a different way to label my bottles.  The logo to the right is my label for the Dunkelweizen.  I printed it off on the computer on regular paper, cut it out and then covered the entire thing on the bottle with packing tape.  Hopefully the packing tape won’t stick too much when trying to take the labels off, but will prevent water from getting to the label if I decide to put these on ice.  I’ll let you know how that goes.