When brothers Evan and Gregg Spiridellis put a video of George Bush and John Kerry singing This Land is Your Land on the Internet during the 2004 presidential election, they never dreamed of the success it would find. Offering a much-needed dose of bi-partisan silliness amidst a sea of political contention, the video rocketed around the world, from inbox to inbox, racking up over 80 million views before the election was over.
“Life’s been a blur since This Land,” said JibJab co-founder Evan Spiridellis. “Thanks to the support of our fans, we’ve built JibJab from just me and my brother into a 35-person company and our 2008 election video will be our twelfth video on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.’ It’s been a very busy four years!”
JibJab’s latest musical romp, Time for Some Campaignin’ (available at http://www.jibjab.com/), is a rallying cry for both Democrats and Republicans as they head into the election season. A parody of Bob Dylan’s 1960s political anthem, The Times They Are A-Changin’, JibJab points a more jaundiced eye towards the forces of change on politics. Rather than shaking the windows and rattling the walls of Congress, JibJab’s opus ends with the politicians singing:
We spend billions of dollars to make our points clear,
To get you to step up and cast your vote here,
Then we spin you around and poke you in the rear!
Oh, it’s time for some campaignin’!
In addition to the fast-paced gags that made JibJab famous, Time for Some Campaigning’ features the company’s new STARRING YOU!(R) technology that enables users to upload their photos, cut out their heads, and put themselves and friends into the video.
“Our fans love the ability to personalize JibJab videos,” said co-founder Gregg Spiridellis. “They have uploaded over 12 million heads to our website since we launched STARRING YOU. That’s more than the population of our home state of New Jersey!”
STARRING YOU! is part of JibJab’s recently launched eCard product line called JIBJAB SENDABLES(R). Today, there are over 1,000 JibJab Sendables eCards available at http://jibjab.com/Sendables in categories ranging from birthdays and anniversaries to flirts, disses and everyday fun.
“JibJab is more than a comedy website,” said Evan Spiridellis, “Our vision is to create a digital playground where people can find great content, personalize it and use it to express themselves in fun ways.”
Will Time for Some Campaignin’ get more views than This Land? The brothers doubt it.
“This Land was a magical moment,” said Gregg Spiridellis. “Today, we’re building the company for the long run. We believe, more than ever, that the Internet offers a historic opportunity to build a new kind of media company and we’re working hard to help define that future. It’s a very exciting time to be such a small company chasing such a big dream.”
