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MURRAY — Remember Chuck Testa? The taxidermist and his dead animals were one of my first memories of the world wide web as a 90s kid.
Testa stole the internet’s heart with a commercial so deadpan and low-budget people could hardly believe it was real. While Testa’s video was actually created by YouTube comedians Rhett and Link, there are plenty of truly cringe-worthy marketing videos out there on the interwebs with the same kind of potential.
And local videography company Bideo wants the best of them.
The Murray-based company, an online marketplace of video pros, is sponsoring a contest to find the worst marketing video on the web.
Utah startup Bideo is ‘Uber for videographers’
In early January, Utah entrepreneur Dan Chipman and his team launched Bideo — an online marketplace of video pros.The person who submits the winning video will be awarded $1,000, and the company featured in the video will win a $2,000 credit to use for a new marketing video through Bideo. All companies featured in the submitted videos will receive 10 percent off if they choose to use Bideo’s services.
“We hope people have a great time with the contest and find hilarious videos, but we’re not doing this to hurt anybody’s feelings,” said Bideo founder Dan Chipman. “We know how hard it can be to produce a good video. We’ve had a few flops of our own. Hopefully, the next result is a little laugh for everyone involved and an idea of how to move forward on the next video project.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, the contest had 23 submissions, two of which were Chuck Testa. The contest closes at the end of April, and participants can encourage friends to vote for their submission — though voters can only do so once per video, per day.
The video in the lead has a grand total of six votes and is one of the more fascinating things I’ve seen this week. The only catch … it’s a commercial promoting a couple’s video-making skills.
The video is a strange conglomeration of 2000-era animation, green screens, odd cuts, deadpan delivery, the Loch Ness monster and Canadian accents. And it has nearly 2 million views on YouTube.
The video currently in second place is a recruiting video called, “Yes, We’re hiring!” Yet it appears the company is only hiring women with low-cut tops, short skirts and long legs — though, come to think of it, that’s probably the marketing technique.
It’s an exceptionally strange Dutch video with a deep man’s voice dubbed over all the women speaking in the video.
My personal favorite is a wholesome video about the service of selling from the Belfield Music Shop. It’s three minutes and seven seconds of pure joy. Enjoy.
To submit a video and view the rest of the submissions, visit www.bestworstvideo.com.
