I had the opportunity to "sit down with" -- read: e-mail -- Jim Gilliam of Brave New Films about the Fox Attacks campaign to hit the "news" channel where its advertisers are. The campaign has taken blogistan by storm, which Brave New Films seems to have down to a science. So what's the magic behind the curtain? Read on ...

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Ah, the holidays, and a responsible fiduciary agent's thoughts turn to tin-rattling. It's the time of year to fatten up the nonprofit calf on one too many slices of pumpkin pie, and at least at my family's table, shyness never got you seconds. So, braced for the inevitable onslaught of garlanded maudlin pitches of a thousand charities worrying the inbox, what to do to stand out? New times call for new thinking. It wasn't but five years ago that online fundraising was itself regarded as a touch addle-headed. So why not be the first on your backhaul to try out the new toys? I'm Your Singing Telegram! The only singing telegram I've ever actually seen was in Clue. But the ubiquitous YouTube embeds can not only spruce up a donation page, but let your users send friends a clip of It's A Wonderful Life instead of the boring ol' e-postcard.

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Free Range Graphics -- DIA's old landlords -- just dropped this YouTube to promote the upcoming release of Fast Food Nation. Free Range always does tight video agitprop. The movie's got another nice viral hook with DoYouWantLiesWithThat.com, which solicits admissions of on-the-job indiscretions. (You can get the site itself to "confess" that it's actually a marketing page.) [Sort of like Allan Benamer's "confessions box" on the Confessions of a Nonprofit IT Director blog. Something about the idea of anonymously baring the soul is powerfully -- even mythologically -- alluring...]

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