One song that's not the same
While it's not really my thing to criticize former clients of my employer, I've got to say that this video of an employee at Bank of America / MBNA singing a re-done version of U2's "One" featuring lyrics about the merger of those two banks is not something I'd ever want to see on the Internet were I working for that company. There are a lot of times where "any buzz is good buzz" when it comes to people talking about your company, its products, or its executives on the 'net is a good thing, but I'm not sure this is one of them. It's obviously unclear at this point whether this was put out on purpose by someone who was in attendance at the event featured, or if someone "leaked" it to be mean. What is important is that it's out there, and in a big way. In fact, it was the closing item on the episode of E!'s The Soup that I watched on Sunday afternoon.
Whether you like or dislike the song and this rendition, what's important to note here is that this is the sort of stuff that companies are up against in today's new media revolution. Hell, on the E! show, it looked like they had a high res version of the video, not something they pulled off YouTube or Vimeo. Where'd they get that one?
There are plenty of consumer generated things out there that draw attention to brands and should be left alone because they work, for the most part. In this case, if you follow any of the comment threads which you can find starting here at Jaffe Juice or over at Technorati [here is the Technorati search for "Jim Dubois," the singer involved], the general consensus is not so good. Additionally, keep in mind that just because something seems like a good idea, doesn't mean it is. It might be relevant and special and important to those of you in a particular space, but it might not be, let's just say in a base sort of way, "YouTube-ready." Put it this way - there are a lot of things said at company events that you wouldn't want to be posted on the Internet - keep your eye on the fact that what you say, do, and show on film (or audio) can (and may) show up on the Internet.
[update: 11/15/06 11:51am] A co-worker just let me know that the Vimeo link above - the one that was the original, as far as I can tell, place where the Bank of America spot was located - is now dead, and there are no video copies on that service of the version of "One." I've contacted Vimeo for comment and will post if I hear anything back about this.
