How we are using 'Hitler reacts' video to convey our startup's positioning | Hacker News Reader

How we are using 'Hitler reacts' video to convey our startup's positioning

blog.priceshred.com

11 pointsabhimir12 comments

You're using copyrighted content in a commercial/promotional video. Did you get permission from the copyright holder (ie. the movie studio/company)?

There are now thousands of video which use this content, and the copyright holder Constantin Films chooses to not strictly enforce its copyright, due to the publicity the movie itself gets from these parody videos. Youtube asked us to sign a declaration stating that we are using this content in a totally different context, under fair use rules, this is allowed. So like thousands of other Hitler reacts videos, we hope we are in clear.

Firstly the other videos are non-commercial parodies, whereas your video is a promotional video for commercial purposes.

Also even if Constantin Films does not enforce it's copyright, you are still breaching their copyright. Constantin Films have previously enforced the copyright on this video, and a quick check of Wikipedia shows there was a report yesterday that they have started doing so again.

You're actively and obviously breaking copyright laws.

Agreed. If Constantin Films take us to the courts, then we will have a very slim chance of winning, just as every other video creator. They can enforce their copyright if they want, and make it stand in a court of law, with all the resources they have. About commercial usage, we believe we are just sharing our view on the Indian E-Commerce and ReCommerce industry through a humorous take. So whether this is a commercial/promotional video or not, is something, I believe, we can agree to disagree.

So by admission of your own guilt, you are: A) Stealing copywritten material, and B) Don't care

Also, just fyi, jumping on a joke that is many years old, doing a pretty poor job of repeating it, then dedicating an entire PR move to pointing at said joke and explaining to everyone how witty it is just comes across as sad.

Also, you should give some thought to your company's reputation...

Now you've ripped off another company's copyrighted material; I think you're running an immoral company, with total disregard for the law. Your company is one I wouldn't want to do business with.

Only recently a startup, Curebit, ripped off 37 Signals; and they got lots of damaging media attention because of it.

Fun idea, but I think you guys might have missed the mark.

Humor only works if it's funny, and what's funny varies based on the individual. Humor based on the "Hitler reacts" video works because the videos frequently feature some product or scenario that the viewer is deeply attached to.

The most successful (judged by number of YouTube views) parodies involve some massively popular product (XB Live), person (Michael Jackson), or scenario (meta-rant about "Downfall" parodies being removed from YouTube). The people viewing these parodies are involved somehow, so they feel some attachment/empathy to Hitler's reaction. My analysis of the humor: in this case, it is derived from the cognitive discord resulting from identification with such a horrible human being.

When I watched your video, the subject matter was selling a mobile phone. This is a chore. I'm not particularly attached to the method I use to sell my mobile phone. I felt some empathy with Hitler's reaction, because I've felt the frustration of selling something online before, but I didn't find it funny, because my emotional involvement in the task/scenario was too low.

I think this quote explains why you guys would find it much funnier:

"So we decided to make a video, a humorous take on answering the simple yet profound question ‘Why PriceShred.com?’"

You consider the question, "Why PriceShred.com" to be profound. I don't consider the selection of an online merchant in any way profound. I consider it mundane. Selecting an online merchant is so mundane, that I'll continue using current channels, even if they're sub-optimal, just to avoid the drudgery of evaluating a new channel. Not to mention the risk.

Humor might still work for you as an advertising strategy, but sadly I think this particular example just won't hit home with your audience.

I agree with what you are saying about the involvement in the task/scenario being low. And that is the reason, a lot of people do not even bother selling used electronics, they just throw it away. We are trying ways to educate people that selling online does not have to be a chore, it can be simple, easy, and fun (in the sense of 'making some easy money' fun). It is a learning process for us, and we will keep trying till we get the right mix of humor and involvement.

I enjoy an over-captioned Hitler Reacts video as much as anyone, but it seems somehow in poor taste to use it to promote a business.

I am the creator of the video, and also a member of PriceShred. We are trying to highlight a problem with 'online selling in India' which our customers have repeatedly mentioned to us, and which we are trying to solve. This video tries to drive home the message, that online selling, in its current avatar in India, is broken and there is a need for a better solution. This is where PriceShred with its motto ‘Making selling online easy’, comes into the picture. Also as one of the pioneers of ReCommerce in India, we hope that this video will help in creating awareness about the online selling problems in India, why now is the time to start talking about this, what market dynamics have lead to creation of these problems and possible solutions.

And calling out other businesses(FlipKart, LetsBuy etc) when promoting their own business makes this video unwatchable.

Our main aim with this blog post was to create awareness about our market, the 'online selling' market in India. To depict the problems that customers which are trying to sell online face, we used an adjacent market, the 'online buying' market to compare and contrast, and to show how 'online buying' has been made easy by FlipKart and Letsbuy, and why their is need for a similar revolution in the 'online selling' side. Also as Flipkart is the pioneer in E-Commerce in India, we have a lot of respect for them, and this is our hats off to them. And Flipkart took in in good humor, and even tweeted about the blog and the video, to its followers. So I think we did that part right.

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