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OK Go Super Bowl Video Illustrates Collision Between Content, Technology

What do you get when you mix the desert around Mojave, two months in a Van Nuys warehouse, an MIT engineer, and a band which has risen to prominence as a YouTube phenomenon? Not a tech startup, but one of the more intriguing ads debuted during the Super Bowl on Sunday. OK Go, whose combination of music, Rube Goldberg, and technology have made it a favorite among technology geeks, debuted its video for new single Needing/Getting as part of an ad push by sponsor Chevrolet during the Super Bowl. The video was posted yesterday on YouTube.

According to Car and Driver, which detailed the back story behind the commercial shot in its February issue, OK Go spent two months in a Van Nuys warehouse perfecting the gadgets behind the shoot, which was filmed outside Los Angeles in the Mojave desert. The video was just one of a number of ads filmed in the Los Angeles area for the Super Bowl, which is not unusual as its center for the entertainment and advertising industry. However, it does illustrate the increasing influence of technology and online media on entertainment, and how much the two worlds are colliding. Companies such as Los Angeles startups Machinima, DECA, Demand Media, EQAL, Katalyst, Maker Studios, My Damn Channel, and many others are all aiming at that combination of content and technology--and YouTube--as a principal part of their business plans.