The clip below, titled "This Is a Generic Brand Video," was first posted on the YouTube channel of Dissolve Footage on March 21, and as of this writing has only 4,613 views. But this morning it popped up in my Twitter feed several times and I have a feeling it's on the verge of blowing up big, because it's pretty awesome and everybody who works in advertising needs to see it right now. As Dissolve, a purveyor of royalty-free HD footage, explains in the video description,
"This Is a Generic Brand Video is a generic brand video of 'This Is a Generic Brand Video,' written by Kendra Eash for McSweeney's Internet Tendency. No surprise, it's made entirely with stock footage. All video clips used are from dissolve.com."
So, yeah, it's a parody of commercial clichés that's also a commercial itself -- intended to attract budget-conscious creators of commercials who are looking to insert a few commercial clichés into their own commercials. Got that?
Simon Dumenco is the "Media Guy" columnist for Advertising Age. You can follow him on Twitter @simondumenco.