Well, the title “An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West” wasn’t designed to go viral on its own, but the video its attached to presents a fun combination of song and dance that’s captured the attention of much of the industrialized World.
In just three days, Marina Shifrin’s “An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West” video has went from zero to over 2 million views, and the web and television media has taken to write and video about her, if only to get on the viral bandwagon she started.
Marina Shifrin, who was International Content Editor at Next Media Animation of Taiwan, the folks who brought you the Tiger Woods tree crash video in 2009, obviously got fed up with her job, and didn’t like that she was forced to make videos that gained views over quality, decided to make a video that, well, gained views.
Quality of the video, as I said above, is in the eye of the beholder. My parents, whom I am visiting, doesn’t see what the fuss is about and don’t think the video is all that great. I disagree. It has all of what we seek in videos: a hot girl who can dance to a rap tune. Period, end of story.
In making “An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West” Marina Shifrin proved she was wrong. Video views matter. She also proved that social media is still the best way to get a message out to a lot of people in a short time. It’s cheap: Marina Shifrin’s expenditure was of time, not money. And it’s effective: her video has gained over 2 million views to this writing.
But she quit her job. If Next Media Animation had any good sense, it would have hired her back. She did what her boss asked her to do: make videos that gain views! That Next Media Animation didn’t do that casts a bad light on Marina Shifrin’s boss, and the firm.
Now, the question is what will happened next for Marina Shifrin?
I don’t think of her as a hero, but more like Edward Snowden: someone in their 20s who’s upset the World doesn’t work the way she wants, and in the process of trying to stick it to her employer, proves her employer was right all along.
Marina Shifrin’s a comedy writer, who this video should morph into some work for her in that area. Hell, she’s cute and can dance to Kanye West. Maybe Ye will hire her?
But it doesn’t look like YouTube’s going to pay her for the viral video because of the fact that she used Kanye West’s music.
Ouch.
By the way, what does Kanye West think?
Stay tuned.