Have You Seen This? Pizza Hut’s selfie stick PSA

(Pizza Hut/YouTube)


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SELFIEVILLE — Remember the days when we were annoyed when fellow concertgoers held up huge iPads to take pictures, blocking your view? Or when “duckface” littered your Instagram and Facebook feeds?

Well now there’s a new offender in town: selfie sticks.

We have accepted the selfie as a norm in our society, but getting the “perfect” selfie that includes 15 of your closest friends within a wide-shot of your location with the help of your phone attached to a telescoping stick is a dangerous development. At least that’s the message in Pizza Hut’s new video, “The Dangers of Selfie Sticks PSA.”

“Selfie sticks create the illusion that other objects, places and even people exist,” the video states, tongue-in-cheek. “The curiosity generated by this new point of view leads our self-focused friends out into a much wider world, and that leads to disaster.”

I’ll let you watch the video for the whole message. And the selfie stick aftermath.

Of course the video is using a new cultural phenomena to help promote Pizza Hut’s Big Flavor Dipper Pizza, but that doesn’t mean the video isn’t a well-produced journey of hilarity. And the reason this sweet spot of entertainment exists at all is Provo-based marketing company, ShareAbility.

The company is a marketing agency that works with “big brands to help them create content specifically for YouTube,” said Spencer Streuper, assistant creative director for ShareAbility.

While ShareAbility has offices in Provo and Los Angeles to “execute marketing in over 20 languages and to over 100 countries around the world,” CEO Cameron Manwaring likes to film in Utah as much as possible, and this Pizza Hut PSA was filmed entirely in Utah.

"Most of our clients are located internationally. However, we chose to retain our offices in Provo because of the innovations that are happening in the city and the talent located in the area,” Manwaring said.

Since riding coattails is a time-tested way of self-serving, here’s my own PSA: No matter what new contraption or behavior annoys from younger generations annoys us next, it will never be as bad as portrait-shot cell phone video. Please shoot landscape video with a cellphone for the sanity of all humanity. Thank you.

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UtahHave You Seen This?Entertainment
Martha Ostergar

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