The Internet meme of the moment is the Harlem Shake. Match was the first dating site I’ve seen jump on the opportunity to dance spastically to the song and post a video. A solid effort, I challenged the dating industry to a Shake-off on Twitter and POF was the first site to accept the challenge.
It’s time for the rest of the industry to step it up. I don’t ask the dating industry for much, but I want to see some booty-shakin’ asap. Zoosk is an obvious contender, so is Are You Interested, White Label Dating, HowAboutWe and it couldn’t hurt Cupid LLC to jump into the fray.
KnowYourMeme has a good Harlem Shake overview to get started. It all begins with the following equation.
[14T x (A1 + V1)] => ? => [14T x (A2 + V2)] => [2T x (A3+V3)]
That means [14 seconds of (build-up music) played as (one person passively dances while others linger around them motionless)] then an instant video cut to [14 seconds of (bombastic dance music) played as (many people dance aggressively)] then [2 seconds of (a slurring sound) and (slow-motion video of the aggressive dancing)]
There will be a prize awarded for best dating industry Shake, but not until I see at least 10 dating site videos on YouTube. Extra points for props like horse heads, helmets, bananas, scooters, costumes and over-the-top hip and arm gyrations. Points will be deducted for efforts deemed lame or by not adhering to the general style guidelines, which will become apparent after watching a dozen or so Shakes.
Here are the Match and POF videos for inspiration, now it’s your turn.
