“This is a Generic Brand Video” contains pretty much everything there is to hate about corporate marketing videos. It surely would work equally well for many political candidates.
The parody is created entirely from stock footage from Dissolve’s royalty-free stock footage. Here’s the script on Timothy McSweeney’s blog.
Clips that are cobbled together feature big words to convey progress, scientists with test tubes to depict advancement, people planting trees to show how companies help the environment, and lots more of the boilerplate this type of video always includes.
It’d be funnier if we weren’t going to see a few thousand more of them produced in the next year.
via PSFK
But is it truly a parody? At the end of the day, Dissolve is promoting its stock footage, hoping that people will use it.
FYI, I’ve linked to Paul O’Flaherty’s comments on the video, and what it says about us. It’s not that a thousand videos will be produced in the next year – it’s that a thousand videos have already been produced, and this one is better than most of them.
Yes, it’s a parody. And it’s a brilliant promo for Dissolve’s royalty-free stock footage.
There’s no reason not to use stock footage, there’s just no reason to use it to create a bland, boring video. I’m happy to have you on my radar, and will add your blog to my RSS feed :)