Tobias Fünke’s ‘Insert Me Anywhere’ Could Be The Best Viral Marketing Campaign Ever
(But only if people know how to use it.)
Arrested Development‘s non-fourth-season is like the Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby of the TV world: with such a huge marketing campaign behind it — posters, behind the scenes photos, a trailer and, yes, a travelling banana stand — it seems doomed to disappoint.
Except for that it is not Baz Luhrmann’s Gatsby, it is Arrested Development, and there is no way it will disappoint and I don’t even know why you’d suggest something like that. Get out.
The latest project, which was just made for virality, was unveiled via the Twittergram of one Ron Howard who, like many others, enjoys a cameo in the upcoming episodes.
The YouTube he’s linking to is the showreel of budding thespian Tobias Fünke (David Cross), advertising his new audition innovation with its excruciatingly Fünke name: ‘Insert Me Anywhere’.
Go along to InsertMeAnywhere.biz and you’ll find Fünke’s desperate series of “audition tapes”: clips of the actor in front of a green screen as six different characters, encouraging James Cameron, Ron Howard and all of the other directors to just slip him into their films.
“We’ll talk about payment later. I’m quite happy with the back-end. Any back-end you give me, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it.”
Each has a page on the website in which Fünke introduces the specific character, and then offers up two or three stills and five videos of said character involved in different activities in front of a green screen.
Meaning it is basically its very own meme generator, waiting for you to play.
An image is especially easy; the program allows you to upload a photo of your choice, and you can resize Fünke and move him around at your leisure. This, for instance, took me all of a minute.
The clips are a little more complicated, in spite of the how-to — but Slate has already had a go, inserting Average Fellow into the end of this Mad Men clip (warning: spoilers.)
And then he had a spell in North Korea…
Whether or not it takes off depends on how many people have the know-how and drive to transplant one of the 30 clips into various pieces of footage. Which in hindsight was a ridiculous sentence to write; we all know how the internet works. This will take off.
[UPDATE: This gif was sent in by friend of Junkee, music legend and master of cinema SPOD, who has just won the entire internet. Well done, SPOD! The internet is yours!]
May 26! May 26! Illegal downloads are bad! May 26!