Yesterday, we presented a clip pretending to be a film from the ’60s. Now, here’s a clip that’s pretending to be from the ’90s. Are the ’00s really that bad that we can’t own up to making films in this decade? Perhaps, but I still love both retro recreations. Today’s video is part of the viral marketing campaign for The Wackness, a movie set in 1994. And fitting for its period, the promotional clip is in the form of a mock public-access show hosted by the film’s protagonist, teenage drug dealer Luke Shapiro (as played by the film’s star, Josh Peck).
It’s been a long time since I last watched public-access television (though it had to be more recently than ‘94), so I never thought about the idea that it was almost like the predecessor to YouTube, on which we are now all watching this fake public access spot. Think about it: Wayne’s World today would be about two guys taping an internet-based talk show; Tom Green would have been famous first on YouTube; and ten years ago, all your favorite YouTube stars would have had to go to the local college in order to broadcast themselves. Only they wouldn’t have reached a fraction of the population they reached through the internet.
Viral Marketing will never be the same. Id like to look at this again in 20 years.