With the (Canadian) Thanksgiving long weekend now over and done with, it’s time to head back to work. For many of us, this isn’t especially good news. But fear not, because my bi-monthly video segment is here to alleviate your work week woes. Last time, we kept the ball rolling with duelling pigeons, generic news, a coming out, and a girl with a particularly violent dragon fetish. And now this week I bring you devastation, jubilee, misunderstanding, and…well, a pretty enjoyable cell phone ad.
CAPTION FAIL
Did you know that YouTube has a closed captioning option for most of its videos? Hell, I sure didn’t know that, though now that I do and have tried using it, I can attest to the fact that it’s an option of last resort. The audio transcription tool does a lousy job translating, but the results are pretty hilarious nonetheless. These two gentlemen make that very point in their video “Caption Fail 2.”
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MOUNTAIN BIKER BUST
Listen, folks: If you ride a bike, then wear a helmet. There’s nothing more puzzling to me than a father who makes his young son or daughter wear a helmet while riding a bicycle, but refuses to wear one himself. The following video just proves my point, because you really never do know what you’ll run into, or what will run into you.
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WOODLAND MUSIC
I don’t own a cell phone, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate cell phone ads, especially when they’re pretty damn creative, such as this one here. Personally, I’m not sure that this ad would convince anyone to buy the advertised phone, but a forever-long xylophone in the woods will put a smile on my face any day of the week.
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THE SWEETEST SOUND
Life is tough, and so it’s always great when something good happens, even when that “something good” happens to someone other than yourself. This video features a 29-year-old woman who was born deaf, but is able to hear because of a new hearing implant. This is the video of them turning the implant on.
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Vlog & Video is a rotating segment where I post a new Vlog for two weeks of every month; during the other two weeks, I post and comment on my favourite videos from around the web. Please leave a comment or question—all opinions are welcome, and all contributions are greatly appreciated. If you like what you read here, please subscribe.
zs roe 
Well, I found the xylophone to be a brilliant piece of ingenuity and engineering, but I’m hoping that it is the unedited version of the commercial. Simply way too long, nor am I sure what the point is.
I was happy for that woman who could hear herself. Funny how we just take our hearing for granted, or any senses for that matter. I good reminder as I begin this week. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Scott Roe (@ScottWRoe) | October 11, 2011, 8:35 amoh absolutely. I fiugred you were trying to mix it up a bit as most of your posts are written. It would be interesting to look at the metrics of your vlogs, seeing how long people are watching for, and resetting the presented info to fit that length or pull them back in with something at that time marker. Video is always a tough one, I needed to do a series for a conference I was working on. Many people don’t realize that a 12 minute talking head is a killer and that was part of the challenge. Also expectations I titled the last seminar I gave very tongue in cheekily as web 2.0 I hope it goes viral . Explained to the attendees that the title was based on the fact that every one of them was going to hear those phrases from their president, CEO, Board of Directors etc and they were there to learn how to explain that those phrases were NOT the case any more. And why their 7 minute newscaster style video was the exact opposite of United Breaks Guitars . And how to make their social media work for them.Keep it up!
Posted by Siatat | April 12, 2013, 7:38 pm