The Best 404 Error Message on the Internet

The winner of the Best Video Oriented 404 Error Message on the Internet Award used to go to Hulu. When you stumble upon a nonexistent URL on the on demand streaming video service for premium entertainment programming – like http://www.hulu.com/a-fox-program-the-day-after-it-airs (zing!) – you’re redirected to an error message and a montage of Homer Simpson D’oh!s.

Pretty neat-o, right? What could possibly make the unpleasant experience of incorrectly typing in a web address more pleasant than a clip from one of the best television shows of all time? How about an Army special ops scene about a covert operation to track down a missing web page conceived by the creators of an Android/iPhone app that’s more or less a food-centric Instagram that’ll tell you what to order?

Subscribe to get the latest creator news

Subscribe

Alex Cornell, Philip Mills, Dan Clegg, Josh Vekhter, and Michael Chang all played a part in making the above 404 message for the Firespotter Labs’ startup Nosh come to life. They shot the footage with a Canon 7D and edited it all together in one day on July 23. By July 27 they uploaded it online. By today, the clip is up to nearly 400,000 views on Vimeo

.

For the uninitiated into the world of mobile food suggestion applications, Nosh is cooking in the same kitchen as Foodspotting. The company taps your social circle for reviews and suggestions on where and what to eat and accompanies those suggestions with pictures of the food taken by users. Here’s a single-take Old Spice ad-inspired online commercial that explains:

Pretty good overview, right? It’s also a great example of how the startup is using online video and creative marketing tactics to spread the word about its product. But where the above spot centers around Nosh, the 404 message has nothing to do with eating and/or iPhone applications. It’s simply very cool. And oftentimes very cool makes for the best kinds of commercials (whether viewers realize it or not).

If you’re as impressed as I am, you can give Nosh a download here for you iPhone and here for your Android.

Share
Published by
Joshua Cohen

Recent Posts

After cutting 15% of staff and saying goodbye to its CEO, Peloton must figure out what’s next

Peloton is dismissing a chunk of its workforce, including its top executive. Barry McCarthy announced that he is…

12 hours ago

Meta is using AI to power brand and creator matchmaking on Facebook and Instagram

Meta is looking to improve creator and brand experiences on its platform by investing in AI. The…

13 hours ago

Bob Does Sports cracks a cold one with new “Have a Day” tequila line

Bob Does Sports, the self-dubbed home of "brilliantly dumb sporting adventures" hosted by Robby Berger,…

13 hours ago

Billion Dollar Boy launches biz dev community for creators with flagship location in London

Influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy is launching a new membership community that's "dedicated to…

15 hours ago

Millionaires: Giulia Amato on faith, finding her niche, and getting up at 4 a.m.

Welcome to Millionaires, where we profile creators who have recently crossed the one million follower…

18 hours ago

Creators on the Rise: Celestial Sylvia reads the danger all around us

Welcome to Creators on the Rise, where we find and profile breakout creators who are…

2 days ago