What’s the most popular piece of footage to remix on the planet? Well it’s hard to say exactly. In the United States, the German film “Der Untergang” (the source for the infamous Hitler Downfall Parody videos) is a major contender but in Asia, there’s no doubt that the Chinese Red Army Choir wins. Take a look at the original footage of the choir playing the Long March Song Cycle (长征组歌) filmed in 1976.

The Red Army sync version of Michael Jackson’s hit “Beat It” is definitely the most popular with well over 10 million views on ToDou.com alone. (If videos don’t load re-fresh the page).

Beat It – The Red Army Version

Although a handful of ripped copies of the Red Army’s Beat It have made their way onto western sites like YouTube in recent weeks, the vast majority live on the Chinese site Tudou (土豆网) (which translated literally means “Potato Net”). It’s without a doubt one of the largest video sharing sites in the world – claiming to be about five time bigger than YouTube.

A quick search on ToDou.com for “Red Army Edition” (红军版) returns hundreds of remixes including this extensive playlist. Beyond Michael Jackson hits you can also see the Red Army Choir doing their rendition of Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Usher as well as classic songs like American Idiot, We Will Rock You and Never Gonna Give You Up – all in varying remix quality. A few of our favorite “Red Army Versions” are posted below. (They may take some time to load but are worth it).

As for the deeper cultural meaning – perhaps these remixes serve as a commentary on Chinese government authoritarianism or on the virus-like nature of American corporate pop culture. Maybe they are just making fun of old Communist Party propaganda or perhaps it’s all of the above. Not being versed in Simplified Chinese, it’s hard to tell what the true intentions are, but the Red Army might very well be the most remixed video on the planet. Mao Zedong is undoubtedly spinning in his grave (perhaps even in sync to the music).

Poker Face (Lady Gaga)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Theme song)

Wavin’ Flag (Coca-Cola World Cup celebration mix)

Prague Square (布拉格廣場) by Taiwan stars Jay Chou & Jolin Tsai

Category: music video
Topic Tags: china, copyright, corporations, fair use, pop culture, pop music

The internets have been busy over the past couple months creatively re-branding and correcting the corporate identity of the company formally known at British Petroleum. We have seen some hilarious logo re-design, mock print ads and of course the ever entertaining BPGlobalPR spoof Twitter feed. Not to be outdone online video remix has also played a part in the raging Internet vs. BP brand battle. So we here at PRV have collected a handful of our favorites.

The first of several more honest re-cut versions of the now infamous “Message From Tony Hayward” PR propaganda commercial that BP is trying to infect the internet with by buying up all the search terms relating to the disaster. Listen carefully to the audio editing in the remix below which transforms Tony’s words into something perhaps a little closer to the truth.

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Last week, BP CEO Tony Hayward went before Congress in round one of the oil company’s Congressional hearings. As if the 60 day oil geyser hemorrhaging into the Gulf and the lack of solutions for stopping it weren’t enough, Hayward adds insult to injury by simply re-using his own words that “A Message from Tony Hayward” ad as his opening statement to the House.

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One more remix of “A Message from Tony Hayward” ad – this time with a new overdub of Hayward’s “last words” includes a call to action to revoke BP’s Corporate Charter which you can do here.

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BP’s massive $200 million rebranding campaign handled by Ogilvy & Mather in July 2000 won the PRWeek’s 2001 “Campaign of the Year” award for re-imaging the brand’s identity  to communicate that “BP can be a friend — listening to consumers, speaking in a human voice“. Here, the BP campaign is accurately adjusted to illustrate a more fitting identity correction.

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An emotion-filled anecdote created by editing Hayward quotes with the song, “End of the World” by Skeeter Davis for the organization NRDC.

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News footage and photographs are combined with Disney’s animated feature The Little Mermaid to provide a new meaning to the hit song Under the Sea.

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In “A Whole Day Of Tony Hayward’s Obfuscating In Four Minute”, Ben Craw of the Huffington Post, illustrates how Hayward refuses to answer question and gives intentionally ambiguous responses to House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Because it seems that’s the real role of a leader at BP.

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Have you seen other BP remix videos online? If so please post links in the comments!

Category: news segment
Topic Tags: advertising, BP, corporations, energy, environment, identity correction, oil

Can a political remix video help effect actual change in the world? YES!

Unilever’s personal care brand Dove is the again target, this time being called out by GreenPeace for the corporation’s role as the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, and thus, a major contributor to the destruction of rainforests because of massive palm oil plantations.

Greenpeace spoofed Dove’s Onslaught ad with great success: thanks to the public support of the campaign and the remix (which received more views on YouTube than the original ad with over a million) Unilever agreed to an “immediate moratorium on deforestation for palm oil plantations”. They also agreed to help clean up the industry by contacting the other major companies calling on them to support the moratorium. Companies like Cargill & General Mills though have still not gotten on board.

The remix did have a budget and does not actually re-edit any of the footage from the Unilever ad but it does re-create it almost shot for shot. The Greenpeace version even re-writes the lyrics for the song LA Breeze by Simian which Dove used as their soundtrack. The new updated song titled “There They Go” (referring to trees) was made specifically for this video by the Czech band Ohm Square.

Thanks to the staggering public support for our international Dove campaign in April 2008, Unilever has now agreed to play their part in saving the Paradise Forests of South East Asia. As the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, Unilever has a special responsibility to help clean up the industry that’s behind so much forest destruction. – GreenPeace

Category: tv commercial
Topic Tags: advertising, corporations, ecology, environment, forests, greenpeace, identity correction, television, unilever

Over the past two years the Unilever corporation has been one of the favorite targets for parody videos online. This is primarily do to the fact that the multinational company makes both Dove and Axe, two brands that present diametrically opposing values and views of women.

In 2004, Unilever launched their Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a marketing strategy wrapped in a feminist package. Their tag line: “challenging today’s stereotypical view of beauty“. The marketing tactic included the online video Onslaught, that warned consumers about the beauty industries negative effect on young girls.

Rye Clifton noticed that Unilever also makes Axe Body Spray, a product whose brand identity is steeped in misogynistic notions of masculinity. Interestingly enough, the spray is accompanied by a sexist advertising campaign featuring exactly the kind of depictions of women that the company is supposedly criticizing with its Dove brand. So Rye re-edited the Onslaught ad replacing all the images of women with footage from Axe tv commercials. The remix exposes the inconsistency and deep hypocrisy of Unilever’s corporate brand identity. Clearly the only value Unilever is really interested in is money – they will say anything to get you to buy their products. Clifton’s remix was even featured on CNN’s the Situation Room a couple years ago.

Below is the original Dove Onslaught ad for those that have not seen it.

Category: tv commercial
Topic Tags: advertising, corporations, gender, sexism, television

Our favorite political pranksters The Yes Men have spoofed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland with an official looking imaginary website. As part of the project they have also created these fantastic re-dubbed video interviews with global economic, government and corporate leaders where each appear to speak in brutally honest ways about real problems and solutions. The remix video of Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) CEO Patricia Woertz apparently did not sit well with the agro-business giant  because they quickly filed a takedown notice to have it removed from Youtube. Luckily for us the video is still live on vimeo.

ADM CEO Patricia Woertz (1:10)
http://www.vimeo.com/9011666

Klaus Schwab (1:03)
http://www.vimeo.com/9008921

Queen Elizabeth II of England (0:52)
http://www.vimeo.com/9008826

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (0:53)
http://www.vimeo.com/9008981

See more re-dubbed videos on the Yes Men’s parallel WEF site.

Category: news segment
Topic Tags: capitalism, corporations, economics, environment, government, identity correction

I recently helped the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) re-dub Royal Bank of Canada’s new Olympic Flame Trail commercial. The new and improved voiceover better represents the bank’s dirty investments: since 2007, RBC has given about $17 billion dollars in loans to companies operating in the Alberta tar sands – more than any other bank. Not only is it one of the most environmentally destructive energy projects on the planet but expansion of the tar sands is trampling the rights of Indigenous peoples, destroying North American water systems and significantly increasing Canada’s carbon emissions.

Category: tv commercial
Topic Tags: advertising, banks, corporations, energy, environment, identity correction, oil

Eugene Jarecki, a documentary filmmaker who’s work includes the 2005 documentary Why We Fight, created this remix after making the connection between the current big bank bailout that fostered record profits and the story in the classic Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life. In the film, community banker George Bailey helps the people of Bedford Falls escape a predatory banker Mr. Potter. With support from top financial analysts and the Huffington Post, the idea grew into this project: Move Your Money.

If enough people who have money in one of the Big Six banks  (JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley) move it into smaller, more local, more traditional community banks, then collectively we, the people, will have taken a big step toward re-rigging the financial system so it becomes again the productive, stable engine for growth it’s meant to be. — Move Your Money Campaign

Category: short film
Topic Tags: activism, banks, bush, capitalism, corporations, economics, identity correction, obama