Do Something Good with Your Internet Fame
January 04, 2011
Generally people seeking success on the internet are seeking it for themselves. Occasionally however, these internet stars can use their pseudo-celebrity status to support causes they believe in. My favorite YouTube duo Pomplamoose has recently used their internet fame for good by supporting a local book drive.
Pomplamoose has a history of holiday giving. Last year, they requested that their listeners donate various farm animals to charity to be distributed to impoverished people. Their fans listened and donated over 400 animals to World Vision in exchange for 2 songs they could download. This year, Pomplamoose partnered with the Richmond Book Drive to fill their shelves with needed reading material. In exchange for a book donation, you could download a mini holiday album put out by the singing duo. The campaign was so successful that it got a lot of PR, mainly because so many books were donated. Over $60,000 worth of books (tabulated as of December 19th) went to the drive, filling up a storage locker. In fact, the secondary cause of the campaign is a drive to raise money to store all the books until the school moves to a larger building with a library big enough to house all the donated books. To donate, click here.
If you own a TV, then you have probably seen Pomplamoose recently in some holiday-themed Hyundai commercials. Their internet success in a niche music scene has turned into some mainstream awareness with the additional exposure offered by the commercials. The commercials were filmed in the style of their VideoSongs—a compilation of video and audio where the audio recording is filmed & then layered in a fun fashion showing all the components that go into a song arrangement. Hyundai was apparently awesome enough to even let Pomplamoose do the film editing themselves. That’s definitely embracing the original format that made these talented musicians popular.
