Ben Relles, creator of Obama Girl and Barely Political, spoke on a panel today about viral video at Streaming Media East.  When we met, Relles noted my tendency to trash BarelyPolitical, a website which, I maintain, was once a waste of my time.  I did not mean to disparage Mr. Relles, however, who is indeed a marketing genius with an intuitive instinct for creating videos with zeitgeist potential, and someone with a very creative style.



Remember the MeowMix theme song created by Shelley Palmer? It’s probably the last thing I’d ever put in my Ipod.  (S#^%, now it is stuck in my head.)  Even though I find the song annoying and generally worthless (I never liked cats), I admire it.   I visit Palmer’s blog, MediaBytes, almost daily; I even listen to the podcast. 



And Barely Political, which launched with a killer name and URL and a brilliant marketing campaign, but not a shred of enduring entertainment value,  has indeed found its bearings.  It was haphazard and confused early on, but the brand has become a tangible entertainment property with legs.  This is due largely, as Mr. Relles readily acknowledges, to his partnership with people who truly understand the process of building entertainment brands, NextNewNetworks

A new Barely Political video, Bill O’Reilly’s Producer (Unseen Footage), screened by Relles during the panel, exemplifies what Barely Political does best and should be: a satirical response to our collective conversation with a wink to its absurdity… not a series of videos devoted to a vacuous chick lip-syncing catchy songs.  The latter is marketing, I think.

Good stuff.