The Visible Measures Blog

Steve Jobs Tops the 10 Most Viewed Graduation Speeches

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:48:00 GMT

For many students around the country, graduation has either just taken place or it is on the horizon. The ceremony is a symbol of the students' accomplishments and a chance of others to share their wisdom in an address of some sort.

Very few people remember the speeches made at their high school or college graduation. They might remember who spoke, but within a couple of years they probably have very little memory of what that person said.

That, of course, changes with a online video, which allows people from all over the world to view a commencement address even years after it was given. Still, some speeches will be lost to time, but a select few find a much longer life and bigger audience online. So we've put together a ranking of the Top 10 graduation speeches from both high schools and universities to see which of those addresses have done just that.

The list is dominated by comedians. Seth MacFarlane and Will Ferrell both spoke at Harvard and took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. Conan O'Brien gave a speech at Dartmouth's graduation in 2011, just a year into his run on Conan, that comes in at No.6. And Ellen DeGeneres' speech at Tulane's 2009 graduation, in her native Louisiana, makes the list at No.9.

But it's Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University Commencement address that tops the list. The speech by the co-founder of Apple and Pixar has a True Reach of more than 26 million views. That is more than double the next speech on the list, Seth MacFarlane's very funny (and inapropriate) 2006 Harvard speech spoken in the voices of his Family Guy characters.

Jobs tells three stories in his speech.

The first is about connecting the dots in life. For example, Jobs dropped out of college, which led him to take a calligraphy course. That, in turn, influenced his decision to put typefaces on the Macintosh computer, which was a complete innovation of the personal computer.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards," he said. "So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

The second story was about finding opportunities in setbacks. Here he talks about being fired from Apple in 1985 and how it may just have been the medicine he needed. "Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith," he tells the graduates.

The last story was about death. Jobs had been diagnosed with cancer just a year before this speech was given and, at that time, he thought he was completely cured. "Death is very likely the single best invention of Life," he said. "It is Life’s change agent...Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away." His point, of course, was that we shouldn't live our lives by others expectations.

Jobs would die of pancreatic cancer about 6 years later. And watching it now, this last portion of the speech becomes all the more poignant. When he died in October 2011, media outlets all over the world reposted the speech and wrote articles about it. In fact, the main video clip on Stanford's YouTube page went from 4.5 million views to 12.5 million views in one month.

It had become more than a commencement speech.

Wall Street Journal reporter, Nicholas Casey (Stanford '05), said:

[At the time] I was thinking about how hot it was, how dehydrated and hungover I was...But later, by this I mean several months later, I began seeing people posting it on YouTube, people that weren't even from Stanford. Years later it was still rounds, getting deep into the Silicon Valley lore — a world with a lot of smart minds but few good orators. I hadn't known it at the time, but I was watching a famous speech.

Anna North, a writer for Jezebel and Casey's classmate wrote:

Jobs was talking to a group of people who were already extraordinarily privileged in a lot of ways, and he wasn't telling us to use that privilege wisely (which we'd heard) or justly (which we'd also heard, though we could always stand to hear it again), but to use it idiosyncratically, to use it in ways unique to us and what we believed in. This may be an imprudent and even a selfish message, but it's also one that opens up limitless possibility — "do things," Jobs was implying, "that I can't even imagine."

Jobs ended the speech with "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was the legacy he left not only to those graduates, but to the world through his work and this video. Be limitless and impractical and change the world in that way.

Rank	University	Speaker	Video Title	Views
1	Stanford University	Steve Jobs	Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address	26,139,593
2	Harvard University	Seth MacFarlane	Seth Macfarlane's Harvard Class Day Speech	10,548,850
3	Harvard University	Will Farrell	Harvard Class Day 2003 with Will Ferrell	4,370,250
4	Wellesley High School	David McCullough Jr.	You Are Not Special Commencement Speech	1,949,331
5	Carnegie Mellon University	Randy Pausch	Randy Pausch Inspires Graduates	1,516,400
6	Dartmouth University	Conan O'Brien	Conan O'Brien's 2011 Dartmouth College Commencement Address	1,488,045
7	Stanford University	Oprah	Oprah Winfrey's 2008 Stanford Commencement Address	1,133,008
8	St. Lawrence University	Mitch Thrower	The Ultimate Graduation Speech - from Active.com co-founder - Mitch Throw	1,074,752
9	Tulane University	Ellen DeGeneres	Ellen DeGeneres at Tulane's 2009 Commencement	898,043
10	East Jessamine High School	Student	My Favorite Graduation Speech Ever	872,672

Samsung Causes Sexist Controversy with Evolutionary Husband?

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:52:00 GMT

It’s not uncommon to hear critics decry a commercial for its sexist portrayal of women. For years, women have been stereotyped and degraded in ads, as sites like Business Insider point out. But it’s not every day when people get up in arms about the way a man is represented in an ad.

Samsung’s ruffled a few male feathers with its latest campaign, Evolutionary Husband?, which promotes Evolution Kits for the company’s Smart TVs. The hardware lets a Samsung Smart TV owner upgrade his or her TV to 2013 standards without ever opening the TV; it’s just an add-on box with a new processor and RAM.

In the video, a wife imagines that it’s just as easy to upgrade her couch potato, chip-eating husband. Attaching the Evolution Kit to his back – like she added it to the TV – he is transformed to a domestic superman, making cakes, painting, and taking care of a baby all at once.

The campaign tops the Viral Chart this week, garnering a True Reach of 6.6 million views. The high view count is likely a combination of a paid media push, as well as the controversy it has stirred up.

Since the video was uploaded last Tuesday, commenters on YouTube and Reddit have basked the ad for playing too much into the male stereotypes, as well as the female stereotype that all women want to change their husbands.

JudDredd posted the this sarcastic note to the Samsung Australia:

“Hi Samsung! I happened across this ad for the Evolution TV. The one where the guy goes from being a lobotomized cave man to being a lobotomized house maid all through the magic of Samsung Evolution! Great stuff and total lolz…Can you please do a similar ad where I plug an evolution pack into my wife?! Think Stepford wives!! She would go from being a nagging frumpy looking creature to delivering drinks and sandwiches to me and my poker buddies, all whilst wearing something a little revealing! I think everyone would find it hilarious!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd be willing to consult with your awesome ad guys about future ideas.”

fishing-for-downvote wrote:

“That was disgusting. I saw your ‘Evolutionary Husband’ commercial, and that was just despicable and sexist. You guys have already gotten in hot water for being sexist towards women in your S4 launch, maybe instead of humiliating men and saying we are good for nothing until we reach Version 2.0 you should adopt some gender neutral, fair marketing. I have already had a strong dislike for your company and your products, this has just strengthened it.”

To strengthen that point, last year Samsung used the oldest trick in the book to advertise its Smart TV, sex. Seductive Motion, which showed Victoria Secret model Angela Bellotte in a pair of incredibly short shorts, spent several weeks on the Viral Chart last year.

Samsung also has a video at No. 10 this week. Shoot Fast. Share Faster, a campaign for the Samsung Smart Camera, generated a True Reach of 1.8 million views last week.

Rank	Last Week's Rank	Brand	Campaign	Agency	Current Week's Views*	% Change in Views**
1	NEW	Samsung	Evolutionary Husband?	NA	6,670,269	NEW
2	NEW	Old Spice	New Old Spice Shaving Gel	Wieden + Kennedy Portland	6,447,221	NEW
3	NEW	Ryan Lee Chiropractic Center	Cracked Chiropractor	Rhett & Link	3,710,434	NEW
4	NEW	adidas	nitrocharge	NA	2,551,624	NEW
5	7	Evian	Baby & Me	BETC Paris	2,107,905	-17%
6	8	Google	Chrome: For Everyone	72andSunny Los Angeles	2,096,434	-11%
7	NEW	Nike	The Legend Grows	kbs+	2,035,040	NEW
8	5	Heineken	Road to the Final	Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam	1,927,731	-31%
9	1	Dove	Real Beauty Sketches	Ogilvy & Mather Brazil	1,899,167	-83%
10	9	Samsung	Shoot Fast. Share Faster	Cheil Worldwide	1,822,622	17%

Branded Content Brief: Puma Turns Words into Dance

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:32:00 GMT

Puma has created the “Dance Dictionary” to promote its new fragrance. Visitors to the Dance Dictionary microsite can create messages where the words are encoded into dance. The videos then are available to share online.

Brian Shin explains to Mashable why 6 videos, including Pepsi's Test Drive and Dove's Real Beauty Sketches, went viral. The CEO of Visible Measures explains that most of the videos share two things, "discussability" and "relatability."

Adweek interviews Doug Scott, Founder and President of OgilvyEntertainment. Scott, who is also a Clio juror for the Branded Entertainment and Content Category, says, “Branded content is bespoke, something a brand can own.”

Anthony Young argues that 2013 isn’t the Year of Mobile. According to the CEO of Mindshare, it’s the Year of Video. “Video is CPM gold,” he writes, “For publishers, CPMs for video are typically three to four times display CPMs, which is why AOL, Yahoo! and YouTube, but also Vevo and Blip are investing in original video content.”

Newsweek.com is working toward creating weekly long-form multi-media experiences, like the New York Times’ "Snow Fall," reports Ad Age. The site, which has just been redesigned, will be free at first with no ads and will later integrate non-traditional units into the site.

A podcast with Michael Stelzner discusses how social media and email marketing need better synergy to push prospects toward conversion.

When you think branded content, wineries aren’t always the first companies that come to mind. But Brandon Allen, CEO of Santa Barbara’s Slo Down wines intends to change that with his racy (and very odd) videos for the vintner’s “Sexual Chocolate” wine.