Web Famous

Famous for the searingly brilliant video for single Here It Goes Again, Ok Go would be well within their rights to be a bit peeved about this:

In case you’d forgotten, here’s the brilliant original:

Flattering eh lads?

When Brad Jakoby was asked to remove a T-shirt depicting a Transformers cartoon character before boarding a flight at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 he thought it was a joke.

Brad, from Bayswater, central London, said he had to change before boarding as security officers objected to the gun, held by the cartoon character.

He wrote about the incident on his blog, which some might say is fittingly called The Edge of Madness and it was picked up by the mainstream media.

Go through security, get pulled to the side. I’m wearing a French Connection Transformers t-shirt. Bloke starts joking with me is that Megatron. Then he explains that since Megatron is holding a gun, I’m not allowed to fly. WTF? It’s a 40 foot tall cartoon robot with a gun as an arm. There is no way this shirt is offensive in any way, and what I’m going to use the shirt to pretend I have a gun?

Now here’s the stupid part. I was only taking carry on luggage, so my clothes were in my bag, so I said I’d get changed. So I stripped off at security and changed t-shirts, putting the “offensive” t-shirt in my bag. Now I haven’t been a dick so far, I’ve done what they’ve said. No point in arguing with the drones.

The supervisor comes over and is now a dick to me, telling me if I put the shirt on I’ll be arrested. I then told him that I wasn’t going to waste time arguing with him and he wasn’t worth the effort and didn’t have any power to change anything anyway. With hindsight I should have said, yeah arrest me, great publicity for you guys to arrest a bloke wearing a transformers t-shirt.

The incident, which happened a few weeks ago, has no doubt left the BA press office in a tailspin, with news coming on the day that Giovanni Bisignani, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, described service at the airport a “national embarassment.”

He’s the most controversial blogger in the world and reportedly makes millions but Mario Lavandeira, the flamboyant gossip columnist behind PerezHilton.com, admits: “I always want more.”

As his popularity continues to soar (his site is number 20 in a list of the 100 most linked to blogs) and his ambitions take him further into the world of TV, radio and film, the prolific blogger has hired his younger sister Barbara as his assistant and his mum Teresita is reportedly moving from Miami to help him out. He’s also considering hiring writers for his famous site so that he can make the most of his burgeoning fame.

Lavandeira caims his website, famous for barbed snipes at celebrities like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, regularly gets eight million hits a day, though doubters have questioned his stats.

Whatever the numbers, his blisteringly successful blog has sealed his notoriety on both sides of the Atlantic.

Gossip about musicians, actors and celebrities as well as tabloid photographs over which he has added his own captions or “doodles” are the usual fodder, while his apparent policy of “outing” closeted homosexual celebrities has left Lavandeira open to criticism from all sides.

The eldest of two siblings from a working-class Cuban-American family, Lavandeira was recently hired by ITV to give his irreverent views on hit US show Gossip Girls and has a book, radio show and film Another Gay Sequel in the pipeline. His recent trip to the UK caused a mini fuss and he hints that he may be unleashing more on his UK fans.

Not bad going for the tender age of 30.

“After the first time I got on television it was like wow my little blog is being read by a lot of people. I thought I should maybe work really hard at this because maybe I’ll get on TV a second time,” says Lavandeira from his flat in Los Angeles.

It worked. And he did, landing regular spots on some of the biggest US shows like The View.

“Of course, it’s not really a job for me,” he says. “It’s where I get to express myself and be creative and entertain others…”

But how does he feel about joining the ranks of celebrities he so enjoys mocking?

“I don’t like the word celebrity. To me a celebrity is just famous for being famous. I work on my website really hard,” he says a touch defensively.

“I am coming out with a book in the fall, I have the film, I am doing this new radio programme, I’m gonna have my own record label and I am about to announce a new venture too.” He won’t be drawn on the details but needless to say, they will make waves because that’s what Lavandeira does.

According to Henry Copeland, the ad sales representative for Perezhilton.com, Lavandeira’s blog commands as much as $9,000 a week for a single advertisement and $45,000 for the most expensive ad package. His demographics - a largely female readership, with an average age of 26 - lure ads from fashion brands, spirits companies and Hollywood. So is he rich? “I am rich in spirit,” jokes Lavandeira. “I still drive the same Toyota Camry and live in the same two bedroom apartment.”

With such a hectic career and his obsessive blogging habit does he not worry about burn out?

“No, not really because I love what I do. Those days that do become a bit much and I need a break I just take a break. That’s the great thing about being your own boss,” he says.

“Hopefully in the next year or so I’ll have people helping me because I do want to branch out and start other sites. It’s not realistic to continue to work at the pace I do for the next five, ten, fifteen or twenty years. I put in 18, 19 hour days. I’d like to work like a normal person eventually, maybe ten hours a day,” he adds.

Lavandeira has officially endorsed Hillary Clinton’s White House campaign and was invited to the correspondent’s dinner at the white house recently. He counts Paris Hilton, the star after whom his blog is named, among his friends.

But when it comes to new frontiers Lavandeira clearly thinks Britain has rich pickings.

He describes Posh and Becks as “good fun” and loves the way the Princes “go out and get drunk.”

“I love British celebs. In the UK the concept of celebrity is much more attainable. In the UK the WAGS (wives and girlfriends) of the football players are really famous. Look at Colleen McLaughlin - she is very, very famous. And there are so many reality stars in the UK - it’s a lot more attainable. Also, you expect your stars to go out and get drunk and misbehave. In America there is this notion of trying to perpetuate the idea that celebrities are perfect…but we know they are not.”

Weezer persuaded some of the biggest stars of the web to take part in the video for their latest single Pork and Beans. 

The video coincides with the launch of a new Weezer channel on YouTube.

Web celebs including Tay Zonday (Chocolate Rain), Lauren Caitlin Upton (Miss South Carolina), Judson Laipply (Evolution of Dance), Chris Cocker (Leave Britney Alone), and Numa Numa guy feature in the vid, as well as  Diet Coke & Mentos, hamster, GI Joe parody, Soulja Boy, Kevin Federline, Daft Hands and Peanut Butter Jelly.

The You Tube channel features additional B-roll material, band introductions, shoot footage and archived videos. Frontman Rivers Cuomo reportedly sees the YouTube presence as a chance to keep the Weezer buzz alive. 

“It was mayhem making the video,” guitarist Brian Bell explained. “We were performing with all these amazing YouTube celebrites, and I felt like I had walked into my own computer.”

No longer is fame reserved for stars of TV. These days, thanks to the internet, anyone can become famous - and the marketing effect on brands can be extraordinary. Below is an interview I conducted with one of the new stars of the Internet, Tom Dickson. Tom utters the catchphrase “Will it blend?” before putting all manner of objects from an iphone to a garden rake into his blenders to demonstrate their effectiveness. His videos have been a huge hit on YouTube.

Will It Blend?

WF: When did you first realise you were ‘Web Famous’?

“Probably June of 2007 at the Internet Retailer Magazine convention in San Jose, California. I did a presentation on the history and success of the Will It Blend viral campaign to an audience of 2800 people which was enthusiastically received. I also did a live Will It Blend demonstration to thunderous applause. I think that’s when it hit me that people really got a huge kick out of the idea of putting crazy things in the world’s strongest blender to see if they would blend.”

WF: How did your fame come about? Was it part of a cunningly devised viral marketing ploy, or slightly more organic?

“We started out with the idea of raising brand awareness and demonstrating the power and durability of the Blendtec blender. For years I have been doing a test where I start the motor then jam a long piece of wood into the blades to test the strength of all the drive components and the jar blade assembly. So we thought if we showed some other fun things being blended people may find it amusing and entertaining and at the same time see what an amazing machine we offer. We started with 5 videos and put them out on You Tube and also on a website we developed - Will It Blend.com. The response was not immediate, but within a short space of time people began sending them to their friends and they began to spread virally through the internet. I don’t think any of us thought it would become the international phenomenon it has grown into.”

WF: Has you fame translated into more mainstream media, or is it pretty much confined to the web? If so, what mainstream media interviews and appearances have you done?

“It has been amazing how much interest has come from mainstream media. We have received inquiries from many different media outlets all over the world for interviews and appearances. In the U.S. I have appeared on television on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Today Show, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, CBS News Sunday Morning, and iVillage Live. News articles have appeared in numerous magazines and periodicals including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, and Internet Retailer. We have been nominated for a CLIO award and were a finalist in You Tube’s annual awards, and won .net Magazines award for Best Viral Video of 2007. We were recently featured on The History Channel for an episode of Modern Marvels called The World’s Strongest III, and German television sent a film crew to do an entire segment for a show called Galileo on PRO7 television.”

WF: What has your fame done for Blendtec as a brand / company?

“Probably the best example of that which I can share with you is the increase in our website sales. Since we released the first 5 videos in late 2006, we have seen a 500% increase in our sales of the Total Blender, the machine which is featured in the videos. It has given us instant recognition with a large segment of the population. When we go to trade shows, or do live demonstrations people come up to us and say, ‘Oh I know you guys, you are the ones with those videos on You Tube. Those are so cool.’ Immediately people understand what our product represents and it is easy to show them how all the power translates to what they can do for foods they blend in their own home or in a business.”

WF: What do your friends and family think of your new-found fame?

“They are very proud of me, especially the grandchildren. I have 11 children and 28 grandchildren and they all have seen the videos and made comments (at least those who are old enough to talk). They constantly have input on what to blend next and can’t wait for the next video.” 

WF: What’s next for Blendtec? Do you have any other plans? For example, will we soon be able to see live product demos?

“Blendtec is known as an innovator and a continuous improvement company. With a large engineering department as part of our internal staff, we have projects in the works right now that will continue to put as at the forefront of the industry and maintain our reputation as the leader in blending technology. As far as live demos, we have done those at trade shows and in the future we could possibly have live webcasts and podcasts which would include some fun WiIl It Blends.”

WF: Did you ever imagine that your home appliance company would cross over into entertainment with such great effect?

“Never. We are proud enough our blenders are in the finest coffee shops, smoothie shops and food establishments around the world, that’s wonderful. But now to have this whole new paradigm that includes a tremendous following of young people all over the world is just incredible. When we first released the initial five videos on a $50 budget our marketing director came into my office and said “We just hit a homerun on You Tube with 6 million views in five days” and I replied “who tube?” At that time I didn’t even know what You Tube was, and now we are the 12^th most subscribed channel all time on You Tube for directors and 25^th most viewed all time overall on You Tube. It just goes to show the power of the internet and the way it has transformed how people are entertained and receive information.”