Ok, this is kind of funny. As you may know, back in the beginning of July my wife and I decided to shoot and submit a video for the Tiki brand Dance Contest. Tiki brand is the company that makes Tiki Torches and Citronella candles. They’re having this little video contest through YouTube to promote the company. Well, since Colleen and I are natural born hams, with years of theater in our souls, we decided to shoot something silly and fun. We did a sort of Louis Prima/Keely Smith routine, where she dances very beautifully while I act like a complete idiot all around her. We even got our parrot, Rio, in the shoot. And our cat (named Tiki) decided he wanted a cameo. We shot the video on the lanai around our (outdoor) Tiki Bar, and made sure the (electrically lit with flickering bulb) tiki torches were on.
So we upload the video on Monday, July 13 and wait. Days go by. No video on the contest site. So I email them, and get no response. I twitter them, and get no response. I email them again, nothing. Twitter again, nothing. Post on their Facebook fan page, nothing. Finally, after a week, I found the company’s commercial website, and contacted their home office, asking if the contest had been cancelled, or if it ever was an actual ‘real’ contest to begin with. BINGO! Finally, after 10 days, I get a reply…they are sorry, I should have received an email stating why my video was REJECTED!
Why?
“It appears that your video violates our usage instructions on torches. Our instructions state that we cannot accept videos that show anything contrary to the intended use of the product. All of our torches that we sell are strictly for outdoor use only, and it appears that you have torches lit indoor in your video.”
Are they bananas? LIT Tiki Torches? in my HOUSE? I guess there are people out there dumb enough to do that, but not this kat. So I replied with a very friendly “You guys are nuts, it’s outside and electric”. I didn’t get a response. So, tonight I reshot a few things, did some creative editing, and re-submitted. The contest ends on the 31st, and the last ‘weekly’ drawing is tomorrow, so I’m probably not going to get my video up on the site on time, since it seems to take them a very long time to do things. I guess they are very laid back at Tiki brand. Anyway, I hope ours does get in, because we put a lot of time into it and had a lot of fun doing it. It would be a shame to be excluded because someone erroneously thought I was trying to burn down my house.
Here’s the NEW Video. If you’d like to see the original, longer version click here!
Thanks to everyone at Tiki brand for getting back to me and answering my questions! We’ve had a lot of fun putting our video together, and hope everyone else in the contest did too. Good luck to everyone who entered (especially us!)
Hey Chris,
This is a representative from the TIKI Brand and I stumbled upon your post here. I want to apologize for taking so long to get back to you on your requests. We are in the midst of TIKI Torch season, but I just wanted to let you know how greatly we value your participation and support.
I got some GREAT NEWS for you. Your video has been chosen as one of our weekly winners! Partyonastick.com will be updated soon showing off you as our week 3 winner. For your awesome video, you will be receiving:
-$250 Visa Gift Card … Read More
-4 Island King™ Torches
-6 64-oz. bottles of Bitefighter® Fuel
We will be contacting you next week via email with some more details. Thanks again for the entry, follow up, and congratulations! Don’t be shy to write another post showing off your WINNING VIDEO!
Thanks again!
I sure hope those dangerous flickering light bulbs don’t burn down all of South Florida. At least I might be safe way up here in North Florida.
Thanks…I thought the welding mask would be just sarcastic enough to get my point across 😉
classic! with the welding mask…good one!