Standard Mischief

I have mixed feelings about linking to this. If genuine, this is a graphic video of the hanging of Saddam Hussein. It appears to have been made by a cell phone or other small camera.

My feeling is that the US presence in Iraq has a certain facade that they try to keep up. The US may have had the guarding duties for Saddam throughout his imprisonment, but actual, official custody was, at least on paper, with the legitimate government that was elected by the people of Iraq. Likewise with the trial, although put on trial by Iraqi judges, I have no illusion about who was pulling the strings from the background.

So Saddam was to be hanged, and custom and the facade that we try to uphold is that he gets hung by the Iraqi people, and respect for human decency causes us to release video proof to the press, but only edited before and after pictures.

Then, a low quality, jittery clip is released – “leaked” – to teh seedy underside of the tubes of internet for PR purposes.

So here’s the actual link. Go forth and create buzz. Pretend that some sneaky witness wholly unconnected to the US presence pulled a fast one over everyone.

If you want to see more examples of this kind of viral marketing (which, up to now seemed to be primarily to consumer advertising), I’d like to direct you to:

• The SportKa decapitating a cat video that was (*cough*) “accidentally released” somehow to the public [Snopes page]

YouTube – Decapitated Kitty 0:29 min.
View video in a pop-up window | Direct link

• The video clips released by Josh Wheaton to help create buzz for the release of the movie Serenity
• A fake, computer generated cat gets flung around by a ceiling fan to promote Nokia brand mobile phones [Snopes page]

YouTube – cat Vs Fan 0:40 min.
View video in a pop-up window | Direct link