Tied for First

Several entries ago I posted the commercial Ben Rush and I made for the Jungle Smash video contest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9pcjYiN3fw

Our video sets up an elaborate, ridiculous situation about people buying toothpaste and then contrasts it with the serenity of actually using toothpaste. I thought it was a pretty good commercial. It was at least good enough to be criticized in the comments for the contest.

Well, the winner was supposed to be announced November 3rd. November 3rd came and went with no update from the creator. Then a few more days went by. People began asking in the comments whether the contest was still happening or not. No response.

I thought the contest must have been a scam after all. Ben and I spent so much time and effort making our Crest commercial and then it was for a contest that wasn't even going to be judged. (I was crestfallen, perhaps.) I emailed the guys from the blog I heard about the contest from and they said they'd pass it on to him.

And then, late last week, our video appeared with a few others as a finalist, with the winner to be announced in two days. Four days went by, and then I got an email saying Ben and I had tied for first. Where do we live so he can mail us a check?

Wahoo!!! Ben and I allotted 80% of our $1000 prize to ourselves--it's like a part-time job that I don't have!--and the rest to our amazing actors. I thought it would be a nice touch to give everyone a celebratory tube of Crest in a gift bag, but then I remembered I can't even wrap presents very well, let alone give a pretty token of our appreciation.

Our video starts with a guy buying some toothpaste so he can enter a contest, and when he sees someone else at the store he somehow gets in mind that if both their videos are good, they could each get half of the prize money. And then in real life the prize is split and we get half the original prize. Correlation or causation? I think Ben and I have a future making commercials together if we can dictate people's responses that closely. We'd be the new wave of marketing: like hiring a Jedi to advertise your product. A Jedi that makes a sweet buck for his work. And one who actually brushes with Colgate.

Wahoo!