Don’t Stop the Party Rock
by Josh Levine
How sick is this video?
I’m a little biased. I’ve known Red Foo for 20 years. Been to his mom’s house. Gave him career advice (which he probably didn’t need and certainly didn’t follow), when he was a teenager sleeping on the floor of a studio off of Crenshaw Blvd. He produced a track for my first record deal — a demo deal with (then Columbia Records a&r) Randy Jackson for a girl group I managed. Okay, I know a demo deal isn’t a real record deal; that’s not the point.
The point is I want this guy to win, and he is. Big. People all over the world are unable to keep themselves from dancing to this track. Even the Kia Soul hamsters are in on the fun. So what’s the problem?
I don’t get Kia. It’s obvious that want to be cool so bad. And they’re close. The first round of Soul commercials (sock monkey, robot) weren’t bad. The hamsters are brilliant. Then they have some half-assed experiential programming — you know, hire the usual guys to do the usual parties, get coverage on the usual blogs. Who cares? They’re like Scion-lite with better TV spots.
What if they facilitated these Party Rock flash mobs? Set-up shuffle contests and impromptu dances everywhere? Capture it all on camera and really take that movement to the fullest? Make Kia Soul synonymous with dancing your ass off. Start with the shuffle and move on to other kinds of dances, done in public for fun and profit. That’s a brand that sounds like fun.
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