CRINGY Video Goes Viral (Again): Service Is Selling

"Service Is Selling" - So bad it's good

I stumbled across this on Facebook on November 16. It's one of those productions that's so bad that the badness level makes it accidentally great. 

Like a cheezie 1950s sci-fi flick or a messy motorcycle accident, you can't take your eyes off it. It holds your attention despite being awful — or, perhaps, because it's so awful. That's why it's going viral again in late 2023.

I initially knew nothing about the story behind this viral cinematic gem. What I first saw was only a partial version (below) of it that runs 89 seconds of the original 3:07 (below). I wanted to see the whole thing and to know the history behind it, so I did some research.

According to a WGN News report in 2022, the video was made as an employee training video for a chain of gift shops in Alaska called "Once In A Blue Moose." The company's president, Vernon Cates, is credited with producing the musical video. He wrote the music and the script. The video was shot at several of the company's stores in Anchorage. 

Fame and Fear in Alaska: According to Cates, some of the employees became overnight "stars" in Anchorage. Strangers would approach them on the streets. So, "for their safety," he blurred out some of their faces to protect their anonymity. In 2011, Cates posted his blurred version on YouTube. He wrote this in the description: "I have added some blurs at this time due to how big this video has gotten and people were legitimately becoming famous and recognized on the street. This may change when the hype dies down again." But the horse, so to speak, was already out of the barn before he blurred faces, and unblurred copies of the video can still be found on YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, TikTok, and elsewhere. 

This video might prove the theory that white folks have no rhythm (or maybe not). Yes, it's "so bad, it's good." To be fair, Once In A Blue Moose has a great website with beautiful products. But that training video - yikes! But to their credit, they good-naturedly acknowledged the wonderful weirdness of the production in their own Facebook post 11 years ago: