Pop Culture Meets Startups?

So I may or may not have upset a few Britney Spears fans yesterday afternoon with a single tweet stating I had a leaked official Hold It Against Me (HIAM) video on my page.  I admit, it was wrong. I just wanted to see what kind of clicks I would get from a single tweet with lots of hashtags on trending topics.  The results were surprisingly not as large as you would think.  This probably demonstrates the fact that twitter is and should be used conversationally.  Mass promotion is certainly a difficult sell, especially if you are lying about the end content.

That said, I’ve been listening to Hold It Against Me probably about 5 times a day since its release at the beginning of the month (my brother @StephanPaul92 and roommate @bfaerb1632 are obsessed with Britney, so it pretty much runs constantly in my apartment).  Before the video was released it never once occurred to me that the song could have anything remotely to do with technology, startups, and especially dating sites.  And then BOOM- right at the peak of the song out of nowhere comes PlentyofFish.com? What?  Now I don’t know very much about POF, other than its a free dating site, based out of Vancouver, started a long time ago (2003), and reportedly was hacked by an Argentinean who stole a bunch of usernames and passwords at the end of January 2011.  It’s also possible that they have over 15 million accounts, but that is besides the point.

My question is why?  Why Plentyoffish.com?  Did the Britney Spears production staff have a sudden urge to incorporate technology into one of her videos, and they decided this was the best opportunity to do so?  Is Plentyoffish.com such a brilliant site that it was destined to fall into the hands of the queen of pop?  Is Britney secretly one of those 15 million users on POF and one lucky fan could potentially find themselves on a date with her?  Either way, there are so many amazing startups in NYC, Silicon Valley, and the rest of the world that if Britney was really going to endorse the technology scene, her staff could have done a little bit more research on the startup market.  Honestly, there were enough televisions around her for Youtube (although not a startup anymore), VYou, Qwiki, justin.tv, Blazetrak, or any startup for that matter to all get a piece of the action!  Not to mention that this wasn’t PlentyofFish’s first debut on a music video.  They were also featured in the official Flo Rida ft. Akon song titled “Available” back in 2009, which may or may not actually be a PlentyofFish advertisement.  Seriously, look at it below, the entire video is about online dating.  Nonetheless, considering POF looks like it hasn’t had a UI update since its birth in ’03, you’ve got to hand it to them.  Whoever is in charge of attracting new users at POF is hitting it right on the money.  Where better than to put your brand/logo than a video that will be viewed by millions worldwide and enter a lifetime of infmay with the B-Spears empire.  Why spend millions of dollars on an ad spot in the superbowl if you can be in a Britney video?  POF, possibly the most unlikely candidate of all, has put a lot of companies to shame this time.

Reposting Britney Video Was Disabled by Youtube follow the links below to watch:

Britney Spears Official HIAM Video

PlentyofFish @1:27

Flo Rida “Available” Video

Writing about this has sparked my interest in the relationship between celebrities and startups and the positive/negative effects influential people can have on young companies.  I would like to write another post examining this relationship and if anyone would like to contribute information or examples where it has or has not been advantageous to join forces with celebrities, it would be much appreciated!

**Note: This post would be better suited for sites like TheFatBrat.com but I decided to give it a shot at pop culture with a bit of my own spin.