Flash Mob or TV Commercial Shoot? « Jayvee Fernandez

Flash Mob or TV Commercial Shoot?

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at February 17th, 2009

Last week I dropped by Market! Market! after attending an IT Summit. Met up with a few friends to have lunch and witnessed the video you see above.

This next line is important —

What it is: a TV commercial shoot. What it looked like was a flash mob gone wrong.

Okay, okay I know what Mike Abundo would say — you can’t (always) manufacture the viral. In fact you can’t classify something as a “viral video” when it hasn’t even become viral.

There’s a fine line between manufacturing something that aims to be viral and letting something out that just becomes viral. For the more Internet savvy, a shoot like this would have been a flash mob fail — cordoned off area, directors shouting orders to the camera men “hidden” on the different floors, audio cues from all over the place, and actors that both play the flash mob “freeze” and the “victims” who check them out. I certainly felt that way – flash mob fail. But I figured that this wasn’t the objective. It was, for all intents and purposes a TV commercial shoot – and it had all the components necessary for that.

You COULD say that it was one of those more creative productions – as there was some sort of audience participation where the director would shout “OK palakpak!” (OK, clap your hands!) to the entire mall — and everyone obeyed, and did more, with cheers and cat calls. Filipinos are in love with the TV and I guess the hope of being seen, even for a split second in that commercial when it airs is golden. To say that “I was there, and here’s the vid I captured on my phone!” is golden. Having the honor of being part of an experience is definitely golden.

Of course, you can always argue the fact that the mob AND the shoot can be done all at once. Well, what I have to say is that maybe we’re not there, maybe not yet.

Maybe next time, we’ll have a real flash mob. Just maybe. It’s all good.