COLUMN: Lip dups are lame
Hey, MAC TV? The public access channel in Mount Pleasant? We need to sit down and have a talk.
Stay right there, entire city of Mount Pleasant. You had better hear this too.
The whole “lip dub” thing, where you film a large group of people lip synching a song — it is really lame.
I know, it’s hard for you to hear. It worked so well for Grand Rapids earlier this year, and got them national recognition, so why not film one for Mount Pleasant? Heck, why not film one for Central Michigan University while we’re at it, too?
I’ll admit, Grand Rapids pulled off something special.
Lip dubs were already passé by the time Grand Rapids had filmed theirs. The fad originated in 2006, peaked in 2009 with The Today Show’s lip dub to “I Got A Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas and were enough of a dead fad for “The Office” to poke fun at the idea in 2010.
Grand Rapids pulled it off with massive support from the community, notable local personalities and, oh, a $40,000 budget.
Now this is going to be hard to hear, so sit tight: We are not Grand Rapids.
It is the second-largest metropolitan area in the state, with a strong local culture and is a state center of business, health care and manufacturing.
Mount Pleasant is just not that. We are a great town; I love this place. We are a small, blue-collar town supported by a few large businesses.
Not only is recording and releasing a lip dub video now jumping on a bandwagon from a few years ago, but it reeks of “me too” in relation to Grand Rapids.
Internet fads are a hard thing to manufacture; there’s no telling what will catch on, when or why. If you do something the exact way they did, it is almost a guarantee you will not be as successful as they were.
It will be okay, guys. Mount Pleasant is a great town, and if we want national recognition, we can find a way to get it on our own terms, and it will be better that way.
Have you thought about this “planking” thing?
