The Brooklyn Chicago group OK Go first came to many people’s attention with its 2006 video for the song "Here It Goes Again," which featured the band members doing a cool choreographed routine on a bunch of treadmills. Four years later, few people know the band for anything but that video. Now, they’re back with a new video for the song "This Too Shall Pass" that, we might as well just say it, is a pretty direct ripoff of the famous 2003 Honda "Cog" ad from Wieden + Kennedy’s London office (which was itself of questionable provenance). Whether the band’s nonetheless engaging video will work the same magic as "Here It Goes Again" remains to be seen, but there’s an interesting backstory: Last month, lead singer Damian Kulash Jr. penned a New York Times op-ed that bemoaned the fact that OK Go’s record label, EMI, now frowns on using YouTube as a promo channel. (In fact, in 2006, the band released the video without the label’s knowledge.) "In these tight times, it’s no surprise that EMI is trying to wring revenue out of everything we make, including our videos," Kulash wrote. "But it needs to recognize the basic mechanics of the Internet. Curbing the viral spread of videos isn’t benefiting the company’s bottom line, or the music it’s there to support." Apparently, though, OK Go has found a way around this barrier. The latest video is sponsored by State Farm, the insurer. So, to recap: Here is a video from a band that rips off an old commercial but is, in fact, a commercial of sorts for State Farm.
—Posted by Todd Wasserman