Posted by sam at March 7th, 2006

Have any of you seen the Natalie Portman Rap video?  It was on SNL this last weekend, and quickly appeared on the net hosted by youtube.  Within a few days, Youtube got a cease and desist from NBC to stop giving them free advertising and to remove the video.

I can’t help but think it is really retarded on NBC’s part to discount the power of free guerilla marketing.  I mean, Youtube was almost single-handidly responsible for making the “Chronic-What?-Cles of Narnia” video an instant hit and boosting SNL ratings (which have been faltering in recetn years).  Do they not enjoy the publicity?  Do they not enjoy the word getting out that the show now has better writers?

The funniest part is that after making sure the video was available no place else, they made it available on their own website with some stupid message about how convenient it is to have it in only one place, instead of available on a bunch of different sites.  Kinda the same as how it’s convenient to only have one McDonalds in Flint, MI - and everyone in the US has to drive there to get a big mac.  Man, I’ll never have to drive around looking for a McDonalds again, there’s 1’s of convenient locations in Flint, Michigan!

To add insult to injury, the rap was a rip-off of “No More Questions” by Eazy-E, but they did not credit him at all.  So it’s okay for them to borrow and distort copyright, but when youtube does it, fully giving SNL credit, they get hit with a cease and desist.

My final comment is that I do not want anyone here telling anyone about my blog.  No linking to me, no quoting me, no nothing.  I just want all of my thoughts to be available in a single convenient location.  I don’t want to gain more readers by exposing people who don’t already visit my blog to things that I write here.  I want to gain new readers by magic, like NBC.

Perhaps NBC execs should enroll in a marketing class.