NBC spreads buzz on YouTube with ‘Zeroes’
Cory Bergman March 8th, 2007
A parody of Heroes on YouTube called “Zeroes” — which features “ordinary people with pointless abilities” — is actually the work of NBC’s own promo department. “It was an experiment,” says NBC’s Vince Manze of the clip, which contained no NBC branding. “We wanted to see how far we could go, and we wondered if (the audience) knowing we did it would be a detriment.” Manze said the clip was so clandestine that Heroes‘ creator wasn’t even told about it. “People don’t want to feel as if they’re being intruded upon,” Manze says. “When they find out it’s from us, it’s like, ‘They fooled us.’” Interestingly, NBC’s attorneys are still holding YouTube to the fire on copyrighted clips.
Adds Hussman in comments: “Excellent. You know, it’s funny… when I watched that clip, and saw the ‘Zeroes’ animation at the end I was very impressed because I wondered how the people who did it were able to get such a close match to the ‘Heroes’ animation. In other words, the end animation looked too well done. Still, very clever.”
3 Comments Add your own
1. Hussman | March 9th, 2007 at 6:59 am
Excellent. You know, it’s funny… when I watched that clip, and saw the ‘Zeroes’ animation at the end I was very impressed because I wondered how the people who did it were able to get such a close match to the ‘Heroes’ animation. In other words, the end animation looked too well done.
Still, very clever.
2. thedetroitchannel | March 9th, 2007 at 7:23 am
“Interestingly” too that this will weigh against their defense should they bring an action against poor little youtube.
3. The Tony | March 9th, 2007 at 7:29 am
Our station did a “Zeroes” parody promo for The Simpsons that’s been running for about 2 1/2 months.
Heroes is such great fodder for that kind of thing, I love it.
Well done!
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