Around the Office: Meme-Inspired Commercials, Google+ SEO, 19th Cen. Futuristic Predictions

Caroline was excited to see an advertiser use the popular “Charlie Bit My Finger” meme as the inspiration of a new commercial for Ragu pasta sauce. With its 489 million views, the YouTube video, which depicts youngster Charlie gleefully biting his older brother Harry, has achieved widespread popularity on the Internet. Some have attributed its success to the “visceral emotions it arouses in viewers”. Regardless, it seems inevitable a popular meme would be used in advertising – we anticipate a Double Rainbow/Lucky Charms tie-in.

Andy sees many “pluses” in Google+. One great reason to use this social network is that (partly due to it being run by the world’s largest search engine provider) it can help your website get found in searches. A recent SEOmoz article provides 10 great tips for getting the most out of Google+ for SEO. But one of the main points is that it’s not good enough to just have an account – you have to be active on it!

Knowing that great art is always on the forefront of social changes, Daveed was only a little surprised (and entirely delighted) to see 19th Century French artists predict the technological wonders world of today in a series of postcards. Among the predictions are: a machine to transcribe spoken language into print; mechanical musical instruments; and a projector that lets you see and communicate with the person on the other end in real time. These are just some of the things that more-or-less came true. The predicted robotic make-up artist and hairdresser, however, still remains to be invented.