Apart from one whinge, I’ve been studiously avoiding commenting on the Eppendorf pipetting video (despite receiving a dozen emails pointing to it in the last week alone). Then I discover that the inestimable Maxine has blogged about it in response to a News piece in Nature and I thought, okay, maybe I should take a look.
I lasted about 30 seconds before the shivering heebie jeebies struck. It’s naff, isn’t it? I mean, really really naff. Frankly, if not being associated with things like that makes me seem like an alien species then pass me the face-hugger and Natasha Henstridge.
But a more serious thought. I’m afraid we’re likely to see more of this kind of rubbish, because, let’s face it, boy band-style pop, like rap, is (a) crap; and because of that, (b) easy to do.
And marketing executives only do marketing because they can’t actually produce anything.
So, there’s actually some talent here, isn’t there? August. No boy band, no rap: Gee on keyboard, Rohn on vocals and lead, Pinto on rhythm. Shame Brooks can’t make the blogging conference because he’s a wicked drummer, but maybe someone else can step in.
I’m thinking either a Led Zeppelin D’Yer Maker-style piece or maybe something along the lines of Janice’s Me and Bobby McGee.
I’ll be the manager and lyricist because, like marketeers, I’m crap at actually producing stuff.
The video scared me. Nothing like reinforcing the negative geeky female scientist image…or the sleezy boy band one.
This is the first time I’ve seen either the Eppendorf video or the BioRad one, and my problem is that I can’t decide if they’re meant sincerely or represent a kind of self-denigrating piss-take.
At any moment I expected Rob Reiner to appear with his U. S. S. Coral Sea baseball cap and say “Hi. I’m Marty di Bergi. I’m a film-maker. I make a lot of commercials. You remember the one with the buttoned-up girl scientist and the cheesy boy-band and the very phallic Gilson pipettes? That was one of mine.”
In which case a more realistic one would be if the girl scientist looked like Amy Winehouse and the band were some sleazy goth metal outfit, wearing enough leather to have depleted a herd of Friesians for a year.
Years ago when the world was young and the world was reeling with the fake and proletarian sentimentality following the death of Princess Di, and Elton
BogJohn re-wrote Candle In The Wind in her honour (I mean, how low can you go?), I wrote a letter to Q magazine asking if they could confirm the rumor that Motorhead was going to do a similar tribute single, basically re-recording Ace of Spades, re-titling it Queen of Hearts and changing all the words except for the hook “That’s the way I like it baby/ I don’t wanna live forever“.Q printed my letter in full (and even improved my punctuation) adding the rider that as far as they knew, Motorhead had no plans to release such a record. But what Lemmy and Co could do with a Gilson … now, that hardly bears thinking about. Even the attempt makes my eyes water. And the Bio-Rad thing. “Who’s the Daddy”, indeed. How desperately rock’n’roll. Not.
I can’t decide if they’re meant sincerely or represent a kind of self-denigrating piss-take.
The latter of course. I actually find them pretty funny. (And, hey, they got everyone’s attention didn’t they? Not to mention a story in Nature News. That’s much more than most ads achieve.)
It’s fine to find them unfunny – that’s a matter of taste – but if you find them naff then I think you’re missing the point – and the joke. They’re deliberately, knowingly naff. That’s why they made me laugh, and why people keep emailing them to their friends.
There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with advertising and marketing. There’s certainly bad marketing as well as good. But to my mind, this is an example of pretty good marketing – more imaginative than most (though that’s not actually saying a lot) and entertaining to at least a subset of the people they’re trying to reach. Hats off to Bio-Rad and Eppendorf for not just sticking their product catalogue online and leaving it at that.
I agree with Timo there. They’re deliberately daft and attention catching…
anway, don’t write me out of The Band yet! I might miss the Blogference, but I can still hook my electric drums to Pro-Tools on my Mac and simulcast it to the gig! If someone can lend me $1000 for a Mac and $3000 for Pro-Tools…
I might miss the Blogference, but I can still hook my electric drums to Pro-Tools on my Mac and simulcast it to the gig!
Bloody hell. It took much head-scratching and consultation of the instruction manual just to tune my Hammond up 8 cents. Can’t you just drum very loudly from where you’re from?
I thought Graham Steel was a dab hand at something-or-other musical, and he’ll be there, he says……..
Ah, Timo, the “I meant to do that” defence.
Excellent.
I was taken to task privately over the title of this post. Fair comment, so I’ve changed it subtly. I will, in my own defence, make a comment about good marketeers (example), bad marketeers, and the people with whom I worked when I was in industry in Cambridge, who would have thought that such videosongs were the pinnacle of their career but didn’t have the imagination.
Then,
MaineMaxine, we can call it the Steel Band.I have a portable recording studio/thingy and I’m not afraid of using it.
Well, I’ll be bringing the laptop, with Garageband on it…
Show-off. I also have a portable recording studio thingy.
A portable recording studio thingy, yesterday.
It’s a lot more portable than yours, but I am afraid to use it. I tried this weekend after a long absence but it was impossible without the manual — which I’ve lost. Doh.
So seeing as we’re not having a Grant/Gee face-off at the conference, we’ll have to make do with a Gee/Steel recording duel?
Oh. I was very much looking forward to that Grant/Gee face-off. I’ve already bought the herrings.
No one told me we were allowed weapons!
Damn you, Gee. I will have to rethink my strategy.
Ah, Garageband. Boy could I do with a copy of that Grant. Now, what could I offer you in return from my
weaponmusic store????mmm…
I’d do nearly anything for beer and good conversation.
I’d do nearly anything for beer and good conversation
I’d do anything for
lovebeer and good conversation. But I wouldn’t do that.and might I say how grateful we all are for that?
Get back to the point, chaps: the Eppendorf viral video is crap, while the Biorad PCR song is far better (I use it for teaching).
I foresee a whole new trend of advertising of laboratory equipment and, I am sure, reagents: HOWEVER, trendoids and young folk must NOT be allowed to run it. Black Knight, are you out there? We need some more stuff along the lines of “Pee, pee, pee – pee, PCR…” and “This is the end…beautiful friend, the end…of polymerase that stalls, the end…”
We CAN take control.
Show off?? Moi??
From this recent interview
(bonus points for spotting the odd one out)
What are you main instruments?
“Over the years, I became less interested in playing keyboards and much more interested in recording. As such, my main ‘instrument’ is my VS-880, and secondary, my keyboards.”
What other gear do you have?
“98% of my recordings were done before I got my first PC. But, here is what I have now:
“Music Hardware: Roland VS 880 Digital Studio Workstation, Yamaha SY85 Motherboard, Roland SH101, Ensoniq EPS Sampler, Alice 12.28 12 channel mixing desk (for live gigs), Digitech 256XL Effects Processor, dbx MC6 Compression Unit, Shure/AKG/Sennheiser mic’s, Roland TR 626 drum machine, PleXWRITER 12/4/32 CD Writer/Data backup, Creative Computing Rainbow 7 PC, USB 2.0 500 G hard drive (back up), LARGE microwave.
“Music Software: Reason 2, Protools, Audacity, Sonic Foundry Acid Pro 4.0 & Vegas Video 4.0.
Yikes.
Hammond XK1
Korg TR61
Carlsbro combo
Zoom MRS4
Clavinova in the sitting room
er …
… that’s it.
What would we/you sing?
feed the world? (Do they know it’s network time?)
Get Myself Connected
Child of Nature (Well, it is by the Beatles)
?
Good comment, Ed, and thanks for staying on topic. Are you saying that there’s a need for people who really understand science and who also can compose good tunes and catchy jingos? Could this be a new ‘alternative career’ for scientists looking to get out of lab? A scientist turned advertising pro working for an ad agency or even an equipment/reagent company? There probably are such individuals out there already, right?
Henry, Graham, Scott, do you have any comments on this topic?
Corie, I suggest you and Matt sign up Gee, Steel and Grant (or do I mean Guns, Germs and Steel?) to record the Nature Network song “Viral Video” after the science blogging conference (not during it, please 😉 ). If Jenny is feeling strong, she can perhaps contribute some vocals. I have not seen the Eppendorf video, but from the still shown at the Nature Newsblog, I am sure our Nature Networkers can give these people a run for their money.
Indeed Ed, thanks for getting us back to the point.
My $0.02’s worth.
I know Jack Shinola about marketing so I won’t go there.
I think it’s fair to say however that objectively, online advertising is going to continue to grow rapidly.
Stripping it down to core issues on this very incrementally engaging thread:-
a) song
b) video
c) take home message
Re. a) and b), may I cite this seminal example from the team of Not The Nine O’Clock News – Nice Video – Shame About The Song
(hint hint, when will we be able to embed videos at NN?)
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As a network, we are very well equipped to produce our own viral video
Where better than before/during/after the Science Blogging 2008:London Conference to shoot some high quality visual/audio material.
From experience, I have always found that really good raw
sewagefootage is essential for any such project.—
Our own Eva Amsen has very recently posted this awesome self produced video on her blog that scores well on a), b) AND c)
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Unrelated as this happened before this thread started, here is one recent new viral video that I found over the weekend that I found most engaging.
At least from here, I think it’s very strong namely on c) and relies on a) but contains no b).
So, something like this with a bit of b) plus our own a) and c)
—
Is that logical or do you find this highly illogical?
Call just in from the Simon Le Bon from
ThRushDuran Duran who sayeth:-It Doesn’t Have to Be Serious from 2019.
If Richard is ‘Gun’ then does that mean I have to be ‘Germs’? I might leave the group, citing immunological differences.
You can’t leave the group before we’ve even cut our first single.
Actually, maybe you can. Now that’s a rock and roll legend; split before we’re even born.
Meanwhile, I’m warming up my vocal cords. Or I will be after this cold wears off.
Jenny. Have you uploaded anything to the web featuring your vocal talents??
I just read a post on Sceptical Chymist blog (the blog of the chemistry editors at the various Nature journals) in which they discuss a set of videos of the periodic table, with one for each — well, they are still looking for a few. Here’s the post
One for JoVE perhaps, in addition to the “Nature Network Viral Video” by Guns, Germs, and Steel (_sans_ Germs) plus Jenny on vocals?
ha ha – this will confuse you.
@ Guns. We’ve rescheduled the discussion, same time, same day but a week later. u ok 4 the 24th?
Should be OK, yes.
Periodic Element videos:
Oh my. It’s like the 1970s all over again. Terrible presentation – mixed with 1990s unsteadycam.
Having no musical talents whatsoever, apart from an ability to manipulate a CD player, I am more than happy to await the debut of GG&S: The Supergroup. And the video. To kickstart the REAL songwriting process, then, I diffidently offer the following:
Researcher Blues Redux:
Dwindle, dwindle little grant
How I wonder why you aren’t
Like a dwarf star in the sky
First you fade, and then you die
Dwindle, dwindle little grant
How I wonder why you aren’t….
…for the Xmas album, naturally. Right up there with Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody”.
PS: I am a recorded songwriter, honest!
I’m going to go wild in the country where I can record my critically misunderstood solo album.
You can’t leave the group before we’ve even cut our first single.
Actually, maybe you can. Now that’s a rock and roll legend; split before we’re even born.
So if Gee aka Germs can put aside their immunological differences I wonder whether GG&S might “reunite” for a comeback single/album?? Or will he remain doing this in Cromer….
One science-ish track from my vaults Give Me Your DNA might be worth reworking. Apart from an able guitarist, this was a solo project from 1994.
I was thinking of Traffic. Bow Wow Wow is something to do with dogs, I believe.
Man, you must have the Nine Lives gene Gee.
—
As correctly alluded to above by Ian Brooks though, it’s pretty easy these days to collaborate musically through the inter tubes. Doing it already.
Pinto – you up for a NN musical collab??
—
Now, back to the point of this thread for some fresh
applesthoughts from globe-trotter “Guns” aka The Management.