I feel like a lot of people in my circle of friends are hip to memes. It’s seldom now that I have to send a link when I reference the latest internet phenomena. They spread rapidly across multiple networks and channels within the internet without the aid of a publicist in a completely democratic way.

And what’s great about memes is their ability to make people feel like they have content ownership over something they don’t really own. Trending memes are commodities, and everyone wants to feel like they’ve ‘greenlit’ the content when they decide to share it.

This seems like the perfect opportunity for advertisers to step in and relate to their audience. Suddenly, ADT Home Security is masquerading as your best friend and re-posting the Bed Intruder video. ADT wants you to know, “Hey! We’re cool! We have a sense of humor! But we still take home security very seriously. Hide your kids, hide your wife, but don’t hide your wallet because we’re having a sale!”

Maybe that was a bad hypothetical example. Let’s look at some real-world figures:

I’d never seen this ad, but it’s legit. Notice Rebecca Black’s popularity peak on Google Trends.

That would be nearly immediately after her appearance on Good Morning America in mid March of 2011. Now, this Black Friday ad would have run in late November. Well past Rebecca Black’s prime.

Just for a control element, let’s see what happens when we look up a popular meme and image macro, “courage wolf”.

Courage Wolf’s popularity never sharply declined. It’s sustaining really well.

Why? Because Courage Wolf has not yet been co-opted by Generation-X’ers to try to tap into a market they don’t understand. And what’s most disappointing is that memes typically see greater success by being of poorer quality. If Rebecca Black’s “Friday” had been produced by Dr. Dre and the video shot by Michel Gondry, she wouldn’t be a living joke. If the Tron Guy (Jay Maynard) worked out and had a more complex costume, he would just be a cool photo on some dude’s Flickr.

Speaking of the Tron Guy, let’s look at his popularity graph and compare it to a commercial for Duct Tape he starred in airing in late August 2011.

And lastly, let’s look at Dr. Pepper’s use of Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain”.

There is no incentive in polishing a meme, but advertisers feel the need to dress it up because they hold their brands in such high esteem. And so we reach a fork in the road; use the meme as-is and risk becoming the next Faygo, or dress it up to where it’s barely recognizable and pander to your newly-betrayed audience.

The solution? Turn around. Memes are one type of trend that are tricky – at best – to integrate. Stop it. You’re killing meme.

Some of the most controversial art campaigns from the 1960s were lead by Mr. George Lois. Still going strong, nearly 50 years later, and holding (in my opinion) some of the best magazine covers of all time under his belt, Lois still has talent! This time around, it’s not only a cover, but an entire book. The book, Damn Good Advice (For People With Talent!) is set to be released in March, 2012. It will house everything from practical advice to inspiration, life lessons, facts, anecdotes and ways to succeed in life and business for those who hold the gift of creativity.

I always look forward to new books coming out. Especially those that have to do with design and advertising. Since The Wall Street Journal dubbed Lois the “prodigy, enfant terrible, founder of agencies, creator of legends,” and as he has constantly delivered in the past, it sounds like this holds promise. After working all day at a digital agency, it’s sometimes nice to have that tactile element in your hands.

Have something to look forward to! You can preorder the book at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714863483/

Normally we avoid politics at SBS Studios, preferring to keep our personal opinions separate from the work we do. Today we’re breaking that rule to talk about legislation that has the potential to fundamentally break the internet we all know and love–yes that even includes Tumblr. You may have caught a tweet or a Facebook status about these destructive pieces of legislation, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), or the Senate version PIPA (Protect IP Act). Hopefully that was enough to compel you to educate yourself and take action. If you’re still unsure as to what these bills propose or why we of the internet community view them as so destructive, don’t worry, you’re certainly not alone. As long as you have four minutes to spare, this video from Fight for the Future will explain everything.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

As a digital agency, the rapid pace at which the internet moves and evolves is at the core of everything we do. SOPA and PIPA could dramatically impact that pace in several ways. These bills have the potential to stifle the creativity of user-generated content as every video, music or blogging network has to actively filter content or face countless lawsuits from copyright owners. Under the threat of lawsuits, few sites around are going to worry about the provisions of copyright law that allow for parody or fair use. The instant nature of social media may slow to a virtual crawl under SOPA and PIPA as networks are forced to heavily filter status updates, tweets and media uploads. Perhaps most damaging are the immeasurable impacts on the continuing evolution of the web. Will the next Twitter or Tumblr be able to make it in a post-SOPA United States?

As one person, you may not think your voice matters, but we’re here to tell you you’re not alone and together we can save the internet, and yes, that includes Tumblr. Today some of the largest sites on the web have gone dark to raise awareness and stop SOPA and PIPA. Today is the perfect day to speak up and be part of the largest online protest in history. Make your voice heard now: http://sopastrike.com/

And SBS Studios reigns supreme in the weird category. SBS was selected as a finalist in three different categories of the Pixel Awards, an esteemed web awards competition judged by a prestigious panel of judges consisting of executives, creatives and visionaries from some of the most celebrated agencies. The vaunted panel selected us as finalists in the following categories:

• The “Funny” Category – Snowball of Duty: White Ops
• The “Weird” Category – Snowball of Duty: White Ops
• The “TV” Winner – River Monsters The Game

And we our truly humbled that you, your friends, your family, and probably some complete strangers and people that simply love to click their mouse, felt that we were the creme da la creme, the champion, the blue-ribbon recipient of the “People’s Champ” honor, and we can not thank you enough. The galvanized support helped push us past some incredible competition from some highly visible, talented agencies like Big Spaceship, HUGE, Jib Jab, Happy Cog, Sony Imageworks and Euro. Being named “People’s Champ” means a great deal to us because it was voted so by the people, not just named so by a panel of judges.

We love creating something that resonates as much as Snowball of Duty: White Ops and appreciate you giving it such a wonderful nod. We also appreciate the folks at the Pixel Awards for recognizing our work and choosing SBS as a finalist alongside such fantastic work. And rest assured, we’ll be keeping it weird, doing our best to keep it funny and continue to push those pixels in all the right ways.