Discussion

By Noel on Jan 16, 2008

Nice. Edgy. In your face. Well shot. Good editing. He could leave out the bleeped out swearing as that detracts from the message. But the guy is definitely a hard core printer. And we need more with that passion!

By Eric Vessels on Jan 16, 2008

Yeah. There have been others who have commented on all the bleeps. I personally think it adds to it, but that is personal preference I guess. Maybe a clean version would be good like they do rap songs. ;-)

By Peter on Jan 17, 2008

omg what a great video. Going straight into the del.icio.us pile for sure!

By Brian Regan on Jan 17, 2008

I liked it for the most part. It is definitely geared to a specific crowd, but I happen to be in that crowd so I get the humor. Not sure it will sit well with certain people, but if he is looking for a specific demographic this is a good attempt. Bet he is fun to hang out with.. :)

By Adam Dewitz on Jan 17, 2008

Someone needs to nominate Warren for a Kodak Print Ambassadorship.

By Warren Werbitt on Jan 17, 2008

Thanks for all the comments. Just to let you know we made this video for fun and to promote print in an unconventional way.

The video was to be a little edgy and off the wall. We do all other types of print and promotional marketing but this piece was meant to be viral and make people laugh!

I will tell that there are over 9000 people who have seen it on YouTube. We must have received over 300 emails from people - all positive. People telling us “they laughed so hard their faces hurt” and that “they peed in their pants from laughing.” One person said the video was “therapeutic”. It’s been 3 days of hearing that people are laughing and there’s no better feeling then that.

We don't laugh enough.

Truth is we work in an old industry with old ways and some old leadership that has yet to "get it." We need to bring Printing into the new age. We need to make it fun so we can attract young and creative people. We can't have Google hiring everyone, can we? Our computers are bigger and better. We don’t let people bring their dogs to work but I bet you we laugh a lot harder here.

By Eric Vessels on Jan 17, 2008

Thanks for stopping in Warren. The clip is simply brilliant. Glad we could help give it some shine. When I made this post it had just over 1200 views. Later that day it had over 4000...now 9000. That's viral my man! Glad we could help people get to see it. I even posted it over at PrintPlanet, where someone else had received it via email and made a post about it as well. Good stuff.

By Patrick Klarecki on Jan 19, 2008

Warren, you nailed it - both the video and your comments. Our customers demands are changing, the technology we use is changing, and our overall business model is changing. It is time to change the way we lead this industry. As the head of Ferris State University's Printing and Imaging Technology Management Department, I can tell you we are not getting the number of the best and brightest young people into this industry that we need. Partly because of the perception of our industry being old and passe, and partly because other industries offer young creative people better opportunities for a more personal fulfilling experience. Warren's video has done wonders for our students morale and excitement about their chosen profession. I put it up on facebook as soon as I saw it - Great job.

By julius friedman on Jan 22, 2008

I too love printing, the sounds the smell of ink been doing promtion for printers nd paper houses for 30 years It pains me to see fine book printing ggoing over seas great video I feel your pain!!!!!!!!! julius

By Coudal Partners on Jan 23, 2008

Too bad the video is a complete and unacknowledged rip-off of someone else's work. Sheesh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAJXki87vgw

By Mike on Jan 23, 2008

Isn't that what youtube is about? People mash it up, rip it off, and claim it's their own.

By Eric Vessels on Jan 23, 2008

So let me get this straight. You post a video on YouTube and then whine when people riff on it? Please. Stop whining. What a pathetic bunch of insecure [BLEEP]. How long have you been on the Internets and YouTubes anyways?

Boxes was good too. Relied a bit much on cursing, but was still pretty good. I think Warren took it and mashed it into printing and improved on it. The boxes vid was a bit depressing, where Warren struck an optimistic tone. Steve should be glad someone was so inspired by his work. This "we got ripped off" tone is silly.

The "http://www.schadenfreude.net/2008/01/23/wtf-time-to-mobilize-for-the-soul-of-schadenfreude.php" rel="nofollow">Soul of Schadenfreude". LOL. The IRONY of Schadenfreude. I'm sure Warren and Co. appreciate the additional exposure. That was the point afterall, right? One is "art" and one is "marketing" - or is it all the same?

Next up. Printing on boxes!

By John on Jan 23, 2008

Eric, Schadenfreude is a sketch comedy group in Chicago that actually get paid to do this work. It's fine if you call it out as a homage or parody (or mash) but I don't see that anywhere. This is an ad for a company, not a YouTube viral video. I'm sure Schadenfreude would have no problem if this were a video response, but it's not. It's being pawned off as an original.

By Elizabeth McQuern on Jan 23, 2008

http://www.thebastion.org/2008/01/steve_delahoydes_youtube_copyc.html" rel="nofollow">Chicago media has picked up on the fact that this story is a clear ripoff of Steve Delahoyde's video. Not a parody, not an homage, a ripoff.

And it's not "just a YouTube video," it's a film that's been entered in festivals, and is someone's original idea.

Hire an agency to come up with some actual creative concepts. This makes your company look bad.

By Eric Vessels on Jan 23, 2008

John: Thanks for the comments. I found out who Schadenfreude is and checked out a bunch of their stuff. Might even try to see them sometime or buy some stuff. They are quite good. Funny thing is, I probably never would have known about them had Warren not done his video. Funny that. The Pizazz vid is both an ad AND a viral video. Obviously. I'll leave it to Pizazz and Schadenfreude to fight over who knew what and when. Seems irrelevant to me. If anything, Warren is exposing them to a whole new audience - and vice versa. Should "Boxes" have been credited if it was the inspiration (and it sure appears to be)? Yes. I think so. Is it a big deal? No. I don't think so.

Elizabeth: Thanks for commenting and visiting Print CEO blog. I think what Warren did was quite creative, even if he was inspired by "Boxes". Maybe someone at his company saw Boxes long ago and it influenced them to pitch Warren this idea. Maybe Warren saw the Boxes video and remixed it for print. Who knows? Who cares?

The best bits are ripped off, riffed on, and spun in new ways. It's what makes life interesting. These comedic types seem incredibly uptight for some comedic types. You'd not think you'd have to tell this group to lighten up, but lighten up! Sincerest form of flattery and all...

Or maybe see if YouTube thinks it violates some copyright and have them take it down. That's what the big boys do! It'd be unfortunate. We'd all be sad over here in the little old printing industry that the big bad comics came with their baseball bats to break up our insurgency and reclaim their turf.

By Eric Vessels on Jan 23, 2008

Elizabeth, where's the full disclosure in your comment? You edit "The Bastion". So not really so much "Chicago media" as "Elizabeth McQuern". Nice little one-two punch with the post and the comment though. ;-)

By John on Jan 23, 2008

Well said. It seems to have blown over. Schadenfreude posted an update saying they resolved it with proper attribution (which seemed to be their point the whole time). I would say though that the world of comedy and especially underground comedy is cutthroat. They work very hard to execute their ideas independently. This means they have very little institutional protection of their IP. They protect it. If this was an homage from the get-go, they would have no doubt been tickled. But pawned off as someone else's idea? That's tough to swallow and I'll bet it would be in your business too. So the lighten up comment is kinda harsh. But it's over.

By Eric Vessels on Jan 23, 2008

John: Understood. I'm actually thrilled to get turned on to Schadenfreude - bizarre as it was. I'm also thrilled that Warren did his video. Our industry has surely enjoyed and needed something like this.

Warren, as expected, did the right thing. He really did come off as a stand up guy to me in this video and some email exchanges. Was a crazy bit of worlds colliding though. Can we go back to the printers being boring and the comedians being funny again? I was scared there for a bit...

Maybe Schadenfreude should start a viral marketing consulting biz. ;-)

I also got turned on to a certain T shirt I'll be ordering from Coudal's Lowercase Tees...so I'm making out here!

So glad to be able to go to bed not arguing.

By Warren Werbitt on Jan 24, 2008

Regardless of what anyone says we are not, nor have we ever claimed to be in the video business. This was our first attempt on YouTube. We are in the print business. This video was created to show our passion for print and to make people laugh. After we started to see the comments yesterday we realized that there was a problem. At first we weren’t sure what the problem was. However it quickly became clear why everybody was upset - "Printing's Alive" did not give proper credit to "Regrets: Boxes". I immediately contacted Jim Coudal, of Coudal Partners and Filmmaker Steve Delahoyde and we fully resolved the misunderstanding. I took full responsibility and explained that “Printing's Alive” is a respectful take-off of “Regrets: Boxes". We then added the proper credit which was approved by Coudal Partners. What did I learn? The internet can be a very dangerous place. One has to be careful about what they say as things can be taken out of context. I’m happy that I dealt with the situation right away and that all parties involved are satisfied. We all live and learn.

By Eric Vessels on Jan 24, 2008

You did a great job Warren!

By Elizabeth McQuern on Jan 28, 2008

Eric, two other (and bigger) Chicago websites mentioned this, as well, but, like me, decided to pull those posts once the company decided to give credit where credit was due. No harm, no foul.

By Dr. Litho on Feb 06, 2008

What a work of ART! My brother and I ran a big press together several years, starting in 1980. We'd often quote some Artsy east coast guy (a printer with his own old, big offset press with open gears, can't recall his name) who said, "I LOVE PRINTING!! Why, when I die, I'm going to have my ashes mixed with printing ink and printed on a live job!". Does anyone remember who said this??

Bro's a big time large photo guy now, I travel around for a large graphics company, as 'Pressroom Sales Specialist". I sincerely love this art and craft of ours. I mourn the passing of true craftsmanship in our industry. Folks who successfully ran old Harris, Miller, Crabtree presses--those guys were printers, man!


Thanks, Warren, for shouting from the rooftops: "I Print, and I'm PROUD!!"

-JB