Watching Puppy Videos increases Performance! Scientifically Proven?

Welsh Corgi Cute Puppy Pic Video
I feel my productivity rising!

Cutest Baby Puppy Videos on Youtube

It’s the justification you have been waiting for. You don’t have to feel guilty about watching puppy & kitten youtube videos anymore, because they make you better at your job. Dog lovers have always had a hunch this was true, but now science can officially back it up.

What if you could reap the benefits of dog or puppy ownership without all the hassle? Although spending Saturday morning on yard duty and shopping at Petco or Petsafe isn’t so bad, there are alternative ways to get your puppy fix without spending the time and money. Pets have been linked to increased health and happiness for years, but new data suggests that the mere act of looking at baby animals can give us an edge-up in life.

The Cute Animal Video Study

The Power of Kawaii (kawaii means cute in Japanese), a study by the University of Hiroshima, set out to analyze the effects of cute images on your brain. 132 university students were divided into three groups and given different tasks. The groups were asked to perform three sets of tasks: a game similar to Operation, a mathematical exercise with number sequences and exercises that determine one’s ability and willingness to work with others. Three separate studies showed that looking at cute baby animals causes your brain to concentrate better. One portion of the study determined whether participants were more mindful of others, and another tested their ability to think, concentrate and complete tasks. The group that looked at cute pictures of puppies and kittens showed a 44 percent improvement in performance and 13% improved accuracy in the numerical sequence exercise over those who looked at pictures of cats and dogs. Not only was the cute pictures group able to complete tasks more effectively and attentively, they completed focused tasks more quickly. Ipso facto, it is in your best interest to watch these videos of puppies playing. Your boss will thank you.

(Watch videos at your own risk! We hold no liability if you choose to watch videos at work and get in trouble!)

Below are videos for your enjoyment productivity.

  • Share your favorite cute animal videos in the comments!

Bath Time For Baby Pugs Video

The pug might be the most ridiculous-looking dog around, which makes for even more ridiculous puppies. The pug has dominated the pages of Buzzfeed and made many a cameo in blockbuster films, and it’s easy to see why.

Corgi Puppies Playing Video

There is nothing like watching a disproportionate puppy try to find its way in the world. A Corgi makes an excellent family pet, but they may try and herd you and your family. As you can see in the puppy video, they thrive on farms, but can adapt to just about any setting as long as they’re exercised.

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Watch the New TV Ad for Microsoft Surface Tablet

New Microsoft Surface Tablet TV Ad

Is Microsoft Trying to Change?

Microsoft just release it’s first television ad for the Surface tablet. It is called “The Surface Movement” where the characters spontaneously enter into a dance routine focused around their unique attachable cover keyboards. The Surface tablet itself wasn’t prominently featured, but the coordination involved in the dance routine is impressive and those keyboards had drawn a lot of interest because it simply made a lot of sense to integrate it into the cover.

Microsoft Surface Tablet TV AdMicrosoft has always had this perception of being an “old” company that doesn’t really change or try new things. However with this new Surface tablet, they have taken a big step towards trying something completely new, with a new interface, a creative keyboard and now this light-hearted ad.

  • What do you think of this ad?
  • Fun? Cool? Or trying to hard?
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Apple iPhone 5 Promo Video’s Social Commentary

Watch New Apple iPhone Promo Video

I found this iPhone Promo video, hilarious, but in the same time a bit sad as it pokes fun at our media-centric culture. Although some of the lines were meant to be hyperbole, the truth in the commentary rings so true.

Don’t want to spoil it so watch it then read the rest of the post!

“People only use iphones to take photos of their food, they are sad and alone so they use pictures of their food to create the illusion of a fulfilling life…”

Ouch.

Yet isn’t that what a lot of people do on facebook? Not neccessarily with food, but with all sorts of pictures & updates?

“…these pictures look so good that no one would never imagine you lie awake at night wondering why you can’t feel happiness”

Double ouch.

Iphone 5 Promo Video - Food“… it’s photos are sure to garner all the likes, hearts, pluses, pins, stars, reposts, reblogs, reretumbles, retweets, that you’ve used to replace the human connections in your life…”

Wow. Painfully true.

  • Watch and share your thoughts? True? False? Poignant?
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McDonald’s Photoshop Burger Advertisment Video

McDonald Quarter Pounder Photoshop Burger

The Perfect McDonald’s Advertising Burger

Dear McDonald’s – “Why does your food look different in the advertising than what is in the store?”

This was a question asked by a customer to McDonald’s. I am sure lot of us always wondered or at least balked at how perfect the burgers look on the ads yet look so flat, small, and less appetizing in real life.

Well folks, we already know the answer. It’s because the burgers are carefully crafted and yes, photoshopped to perfection. That is not a surprise. The surprise is that McDonald’s answered this question by producing a quick video on the whole process.

Was this a good move or bad move by McDonald’s?

Either way, we’ve often talked about famous photo manipulations here at Clean Cut Media especially in terms of how altering photos of people causes us to have distorted view of beauty. This is a different kind of “Beauty”, perhaps not so harmful, but still is pretty fun to watch as they carefully craft and photoshop a quarter-pounder with cheese.

Hungry Anyone? Enjoy the video.

Mcdonald’s Photoshopped Burger Video

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Butterfly Circus – A Beautiful Short Film

The Butterfly Circus Film - Eduardo Verastegui

Butterfly Circus – A Beautiful Short Film

“The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph.”

This is a very well done, beautiful short film which will leave you feeling warm and touched.

The Butterfly Circus Short FilmThe short film “Butterfly Circus” takes place in the Great Depression. A showman of a renowned circus discovers a man without limbs being exploited at a carnival sideshow. He shows him a bit of kindness, a reaction that this limb-less man has never experienced. Starting with this small encounter, this man without limbs is slowly driven to hope despite all of his life experiences telling him otherwise.

The showman is Eduardo Verastegui (Bella) and the man without limbs name is Nick Vujicic. The ladder is a famous speaker of hope and change. The short film won several awards in the Best Short Category & Audience Favorite Category at the Heartland Film Festival, Palm Springs Short Festival, Ashland Independent Film Festival and Grand Prize winner at the Doorpost Film Project.

Again, “Butterfly Circus” is very well done, beautiful score (music) and the story is very heart warming. Wanted to share some good clean media films such as these. The creators are working on making this into a feature film.

  • Give it a watch and tell us what you think below!

Director: Joshua Weigel
Writer: Joshua Weigel & Rebekah Weigel
Producers: Joshua Weigel, Rebekah Weigel, Angie Alvarez
Executive Producers: Jon & Esther Phelps, Jason Atkins, Nathan Christopher Haase, Bob Yerkes, Ed Vizenor & Nathan Elliott
Director of Photography: Brian Baugh
Production Designer: Yeva McCloskey
Editor: Chris Witt
Cast: Eduardo Verastegui, Nick Vujicic, Doug Jones, Matt Allmen, Mark Atteberry, Kirk Bovill, Lexi Pearl, Connor Rosen
Original Score: Timothy Williams (Composer)

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YouTube: Is it Possible to Watch 4 Billion Views a day?

YouTube Statistics - Views Per Day

YouTube – Hits 4 Billion Views a Day

  • How many videos do you watch in a week?
  • How many times have you gone to youtube to watch 1 video and ended up watching 7?

Google confirmed that YouTube is now averaging 4 BILLION views per day. They also confirmed that 60 hours of video is uploaded into the site, every MINUTE.

Back in 2010 we were awed that YouTube hit 2 billion views per day, bringing up many discussions about whether YouTube was helping or hurting our culture as a whole.

Then Back in May 2011, a mere 8 months ago, YouTube celebrate it’s 6th birthday by citing YouTube is averaging 3 billion views per day and 48 hours of video uploaded per minute. Incredible. At the time, YouTube cited this is equivalent of every US Resident watching at least 9 videos per day. That is EVERY US RESIDENT. That means if some guy without internet is not watching a video, someone is watching 18 times. But now at 4 Billion Views, YouTube has seen a 50% increase in views in about less than a year. At this rate, they would probably hit 5 billion within 6 months.

Is there a ceiling to this?

How many videos can one person possibly watch in a day?

That is an insane about of videos. We really need a resurgent of hobbies or find some meaningful work! Anyone have any good stories of replacing mundane video watching with something productive?

Ironically having said that, below is a YouTube video highlighting this latest milestone. HA! Add another view to that figure.

Confession Time

So a little confession time. Let us know below in the comments & poll:

  • How many videos do you think you watch a week?
  • How many times have you gone to youtube to watch 1 video and ended up watching 7?

Don’t leave out those outliers where you watched 25 videos with your two friends around the couch!

[poll id=”16″]

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Improv Everywhere – Mall Santa Musical

Improv Everywhere – Mall Santa Musical

Merry Christmas Everyone! A little Holiday Post for you all! For all your Musical Lovers and Improv Everywhere lovers… check out this heart warming spontaneous musical at a New Jersey Mall. Who doesn’t enjoy random musicals breaking out at the mall? This one centers around sitting on Santa’s lap.

Look! Santa Claus is Singing a Musical!

Santa Claus Sings Musical - Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere – Carousel Horse Race

Also enjoy this fun, feel good Improv stunt where the agents take a regular Carousel and make it into a live, legit horserace. Must have been exciting for the kids riding the carousel and the parents who witnessed this spectacle.

See more Improve Everywhere Musicals Here.

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YouTube Statistics – Growing like a Man Child [Infographic]

YouTube Logo Big

YouTube Statistics – Growing like a Mad Child

By Paul Lee

YouTube is celebrating it’s sixth birthday and the statistics are in… It’s a Man Child.

(e.g. lebron james, greg oden, that 6 foot 200lb “12 yr old” pitcher at little league)

A mere two years ago, we wrote a post called YouTube Statistics – The Ultimate Time Suck. This article is currently the one of the most popular posts on Clean Cut Media. However it is amazing how quickly YouTube has grown. 90% of the YouTube Statistics you see out there are clearly outdated… thus here we’ve gathered some of the most current data, straight from YouTube and from articles dated in the last month. Enjoy!

YouTube History

  • Feb 2005 – Founders register domain name
  • July 2006 – 100M video views per day, 65,000 new video uploads per day
  • June 2007 – YouTube launches in 9 countries. Launches YouTube Mobile
  • Oct 2008 – 15 Hours of video uploaded every minute
  • Oct 2009 – YouTube announced more than 1 billion views per day
  • March 2010 – 24 Hours of video uploaded per minute
  • Feb 2011 – 490 million unique users worldwide per month

YouTube Growth & Ranking Statistics

  • #1 online video content: 142.7 million unique viewer (#2 Vevo @ 55.2 Million)
  • #2 Largest Search Engine (#1 Google, #2 YouTube)
  • #3 Biggest Site on the Web (#1 Google, #2 Yahoo, #3 Youtube, #4 Yahoo)
  • Did You Know? – 1000s of full-length movies on YouTube (WHERE!!??)

Youtube Logo RedYouTube Traffic & Upload Statistics

  • 13 Million hours of video uploaded in 2010
  • Equivalent of 240,000 full length film every week
  • More video content is uploaded to youtube in 60 days, than the three major US TV networks has done in 60 years.
  • 48 Hours of video uploaded every minute
  • Equivalent to nearly 8 years of content per day (100% inc YoY)
  • 70% of YouTube traffic from outside the US
  • YouTube is localized in 25 countries and 43 languages
  • YouTube mobile gets 400M views a day (13% of all views)
  • YouTube past the 3 billion views a day mark…

YouTube Statistics 48 hours Uploaded Minute

YouTube on Facebook & Twitter Statistics

  • 17 million people have connected their YouTube account to a social service
  • 150 years of YouTube video are watched daily on Facebook
  • 500 Tweets per SECOND contain YouTube links
  • AutoShared Tweet results in 6 new youtube sessions

Speaking of Facebook… come check out our Clean Cut Media Facebook Page!

YouTube Opinions Poll

Did you know that the average person comes to watch ONE youtube video ends up watching more than SEVEN?

Youtube is ridiculously addicting. You know it. I know it. Considering how much time is spent (wasted?) on Youtube… OPINION POLL!

[poll id=”7″]

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“Plot Device” Viral Video by Red Giant Software

Plot Device Red Giant Viral Video

Plot Device Viral Video by Red Giant Software

Check out this viral video from Red Giant Software highlighting the use of their Professional Video Tool, Magic Bullet Suite 11. It’s well done and fun to watch! Not only is it fun, but it actually shows you the capabilities of the product itself. Magic Bullet Suite 11 is a tool with built in visual effect plug-ins that are easily implemented into any video product. The company brought in an indie filmmaker named Seth Worley to create this piece called “Plot Device” to show off some the different visual effects. Love sharing some good clean advertising!

Magic Bullet Suite 11 is professional toolkit for filmmakers designed by film director Stu Maschwitz. I highly recommend this product for anyone working on a budget or desire Hollywood quality results for their short films and videos. It’s convenient, easy to use, and really makes things look awesome with very little effort. Magic Bullet Suite helps with color grading, color treatment, removing noise, and adding tons of simple effects such as adding specific glows, lighting, flares, vignettes, shadows and so on.

Intel – The Chase Commercial

Agency: Venables Bell & Partners

Another well made commercial created by Intel to build up buzz around the 2nd eneration Intel® Core™ i5 processor. It is another video where an fun action spot is created but has the dual purpose of showing of the performance capabilities of the product itself. It isn’t as well-done as the previous video, but clever none the less and a creative idea worth sharing.

  • Know of other well made commercials that serve the dual purpose of showing of the product?
  • Please share in comments!
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Improv Everywhere at GEL Social Media Conference. [Video]

Improv Everywhere Social MediaImprove Everywhere Social Media Conference


Something about this video tells me “I Gotta Share…”

Improv Everywhere, a well known improv group that became famous for bursting into spontaneous musicals at random public places, appears at a bonified social media conference in New York called the “GEL Conference” to sing about how connected (obsessed?) we are to social media. It is already a testament to the growth of social media that there are social media business conferences just about social media. Remember just a few years ago, facebook, twitter and the concept of social media was not well known! Enjoy.

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Volkswagen Super Bowl & Verizon Commercials

Little Darth Vadar Stop the Volkswagen Car!

Clean Cut TV Commercials

Here at Clean Cut Media, we not only talk about bad influences of media, but we try to balance it out by promoting good media. We like clean movies, we like clean & awesome commercials, and are happy for the companies that promote such media. Media is part of life folks, just a matter of knowing what to consume, not to consume, and of course how much we should be consuming. Below are a few recent commercials with some buzz that are clean cut and well made.

Darth Vader Volkswagen SuperBowlVolkswagen’s Super Bowl Commercial: Darth Vader

Volkswagen did something most companies would not have thought of. Reveal their Super Bowl commercial before the Super Bowl! One may think, why? It takes away from the hype! Oh, but I see this as a good move on their part. In about 2 days, it already has 6 million views as it gets passed along virally, hogging all the attention, riding on the hype of all the anticipation. Good move Volkswagen. Also kudos on the nice, simple, clean cut commercial. The Video shows little Darth Vadar in his attempts to use the force. Watch it!

Of course the commercial says nothing about the car at all. Just trying to associate warm fuzzy feeling with the car and brand. That is the state of advertising folks!

iPhone Verizon vs AT&T Commercials

A clear shot at it’s “rival” AT&T. You have to love the simplicity of this ad, yet it indirectly emphasizes their differentiator – their reputation as the best network. It builds their reputation and continues to link the idea that Verizon’s service is clearly better than AT&Ts. It doesn’t directly attack anyone, but pokes a bit of fun, bringing out that “ooooHH” feeling we get when someone has a good witty, comeback. Or maybe it’s just me.

Meanwhile Apple laughs at all the excellent publicity they are getting as the two networks dual it out. Apple is the ultimate winner.

I also enjoyed their trailer video. Simple, Clean “cut”, and to the point:

Oh and some old clean Super Bowl commercials from last year.

What do you think about these commercials?
What did you like and not like about them?

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Improv Everywhere Star Wars Scene at New York Subway

Star Wars Improve Everywhere Scene - Leia

Promoting Good Clean Media

Here at Clean Cut Media, instead of just bemoaning and deriding degrading media, we also like to promote and share a good CLEAN ad, commercial, movie or video when we see one. Bad media is often just driven by the fact that things like violence and sex simply sells, so it’s important we support what is good and clean. Other times, we just share because we like it! These Improv Everywhere videos? It’s clean and we just like it!

Who is Improve Everywhere?

Improve Everywhere is a group that organize giant scene stealing events in public areas. Their “missions” are hilariously fun. They unfortunately aren’t always squeaky clean, but the ones they are best known for all are really fun to watch.

Below is their most recent mission “Princess Leia & Darth Vadar Star Wars Subway Scene” as well as 4 other great mission worth watching. Don’t miss out on “Frozen Grand Central” and “Food Court Musical” both are classics.

Star Wars Improve Everywhere Scene - Storm Troopers

Princess Leia & Darth Vader Star Wars Subway Scene

Princess Leia, Storm Troopers and Darth Vader invades the New York City subway car reenacting a scene from Star Wars. Since the white sliding doors were very similar to the doors from the rebel ship, they utilized multiple stations to have different characters enter into the scene. Very well done.

The buildup was great. By the time Darth Vader enters in the third station, every erupted in laughter. Especially as Darth Vader first time hit his head on the roof due to the height of his helmet.

Enjoy the video below:

Star Wars Improve Everywhere Scene - CrowdsI can forsee many more episodes being a huge hit. See the video right below these pictures.

Shot by: Matt Adams, Jason Eppink, Erik Martin
Cast: Princess Leia (Cody Lindquist), Stromtroopers (Patrick Cassels, Brian Murphy, Josh Ruben). Darth Vader (Alex Scordelis)

Grand Central - The Main Concourse - Improve Everywhere


Enjoy More Improv Everywhere Videos!

See below for some of Improv Everywhere’s top missions.

Frozen Grand Central by Improv Everywhere

Imagine walking through one of the busiest train stations in New York then suddenly you realize everyone around you is frozen still! Sounds eerie? This is exactly what happened in Grand Central New York when 207 “agents” or participants all froze at exactly 2:30PM in all sorts of different poses and scenes.

Strangers started to talk to each other trying to figure out what is going on. Others took pictures with the frozen agents.

Food Court Musical by Improv Everywhere

16 Agents create a spontaneous musical in a food court in a Los Angeles mall. The cameras were hidden throughout the scene and their voices were amplified throughout the food court via wireless microphones and the mall’s announcement system.

This mission was spawned by requests from fans that thought it was so random that people just break out in song in musicals. So Improve Everywhere finally took up the call.

The best is the slow buildup where different people from the audience would join in the musical and break into song. Audience reaction was priceless especially during a couple “twists”…

The song was an original written by Scott Brown and Anthony King. Very well done. The choreography was done by Agent Tallaksen.

Song by Scott Brown and Anthony King
Arranged by Jamie Laboz

Best Game Ever by Improv Everywhere

Numerous Agents come to a random little league game and make it into a full major league baseball experience. The teams, coaches and parents have no idea what is going on. A huge crowd shows up, they setup a jumbotron, NBC Sports comes to announce the game over the PA system, and a blimp flies overhead capping this incredible experience for the children. The announcers knew the kid’s names, nicknames and the crowd was fired up throughout. Pretty sweet experience for the kids.

Apologies for the thumbnails of the crazy fans. Why they chose that thumbnail I don’t know, but the video itself is very clean. It was a fun experience for the kids involved.

Grocery Store Musical

6 undercover agents start a “spontaneous” musical in a grocery store in Queens. The musical was shot with hidden cameras and amplified through the store’s PA system.

Song by Scott Brown & Anthony King

Vote for your Favorite Scenes. Multiple Votes OK!

[poll id=”18″]

  • Let us know what you think of the scenes below!
  • What was your favorite part!
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