There has been a recent re-emergence of ads depicting a so
called 'Freeman' family (see, who said there were no 'Free men' in Australia) who
apparently are subscribers to a service
called Freeview.
Business must not be that good (for Freeview) if they need
to let people know about their product, otherwise it would be selling like hotcakes
or maybe they should just close down and actually start a hotcakes business instead.
So what are they actually showing you?
Well, that you can watch the same junk over and over again
on whatever portable internet connected device you have, totally oblivious to
your surroundings where over a period of time you could develop tunnel vision from watching their crap;
1). On the bus
2). At School
3). In the car
4). At Dan's house
So, the burgeoning questions could be; Who's Dan? Is she a cheater? A possible candidate for Jerry Springer trash tv?
It may seem they are promoting your child to be glued to their device
where if you're 'addicted to your device / 'free tv' and you are getting of
a bus / tram / other public transport, and NOT aware of your surroundings you may get
killed.
Or another opinion could be that they are teaching the children
of the cannon fodder to be nice little subservient corporate slaves, BRILLIANT
idea Freeview peoples.
Here's what others wrote about this 'Freeview' farce, just
in case you missed it;
An article from 10 Mar 2009 from gizmodo.com.au of the
headline:
Did Freeview
Pull Down That Parody Ad? (UPDATED: Yes, They Did)
So, you'd think that would be the end of it. But no. Hours after Freeview denied threatening legal action, YouTube pulled the video for allegedly violating terms of use. Asher Moses over at the SMH is convinced that the only way that could have happened is if Freeview requested YouTube to pull the clip down, while Freeview has explicitly denied any such action to Margaret Simons over at Crikey.
The end result of all of this, of course, is that a funny video that would have only lasted a few days in the eyes of the Internet has now received mainstream coverage for five days or so, amplifying the message that Freeview is a joke.
So who's telling the truth? Ultimately, it doesn't matter, because as any online evangelist will tell you, once something goes online, you can never take it back. The original parody, although pulled from YouTube, has shown up on several other sites, expanding its audience even further. The real question is whether Freeview is actually going to learn from the experience - my heart hopes it does, but my gut knows it won't...
UPDATE:Turns out those bastards at Freeview did have the clip pulled down. In an email to Margaret Simons at Crikey, Google spokeman Rob Shilkin said:
I wanted to confirm that we received a DMCA notice for lawyers acting on behalf of Freeview Australia Limited to remove the video in question.
So, essentially the Freeview lawyers (and the people who pay them) are lying douchebags. Kind of makes me glad I have Foxtel, really.
An article from 9 Mar 2009 from smh.com.au of the headline:
YouTube yanks Freeview parody clip
A screen grab from the Freeview ad.
Freeview is the free-to-air TV industry's marketing group for its 15 "new" digital TV channels. The campaign has been widely criticised because although 12 of the channels are already available, they only contain a smattering of new content.
Critics have dubbed Freeview a marketing ploy designed to stem the flow of viewers towards pay TV and convince people to switch from analog to digital television.
Dan Ilic, a freelance filmmaker and comedian, and Triple J presenter Marc Fennell, distilled many of the criticisms into a satire video that used footage from Freeview's ads but with a different voice over.
"With up to 15 digital channels, you can watch the same thing on up to four different channels ... you can watch sports you've never heard of , news you can't understand and even question time!" it says.
The video attracted almost 12,000 views in just a few days before it was removed from the site.
However, Freeview's attempts to quash its momentum are likely to backfire as new versions of the clip have already been published on YouTube and other video sharing sites such as FunnyorDie.com, Dailymotion.com and Break.com.
"I think Freeview pulled down this video as one last ditch effort in an attempt to combat new media and I think it's only the first battle in a war that they're going to lose," said Ilic.
"Now i'm going to tell my friends to download the original version [of the satire video] and put it on YouTube, so hopefully there'll be a few hundred more versions of the video on YouTube and other sites by the end of the day."
Ilic said he and Fennell made the clip for a stand up routine called Massage My Medium, which they will be performing during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival between April 21 and 26. He said the show was "all about the death of television".
Freeview did not return calls requesting comment, however, it is understood the satire video was removed from YouTube following a copyright violation claim from the company.
Google, which owns YouTube, will only remove YouTube videos on the basis of copyright if it is satisfied that the objection has been lodged by the original owner of the copyrighted material.
______________________
So where's this ad they're all on about?
It's called:
Freeview: More of the Same Sh#t
available for download at:
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