Marist College is "Happy" #redfoxpride

Have you seen the 'Happy' trend that has been sweeping the nation?!  

Pharrell Williams, known as Pharrell, came out with a new track titled 'Happy' which was originally written for the G rated animated film, Despicable Me 2.

In November of 2013, Pharrell decided that his song was so infectious from lyrics like "clap along if you feel like happiness is a truth," that he wanted to create a 24 hour long music video titled "24 Hours of Happy" which you can view here.  This music video features a huge cast such as Magic Johnson, Odd Future, Steve Carell and Jimmy Kimmel, dancing through the streets of Los Angles to his toe tapping hit.  With the diverse cast and location of the video, Pharrell wanted "to show that whoever, whenever and wherever you are, you can be happy."

At first, one wonders how it can be done- making a 24-hour music video.  The answer is filming over 400 dancing extras with a steadicam across eight miles of Los Angles over the course of 11 days.  The song, just four minutes long, is repeated on a loop through the entirety of the video.  A blogger pointed out that by the end, Pharrell has exhorted the viewer to "clap along" 8,640 times.

His four minute cut of the video instantly went viral when it debuted in November, and has since prompted people around the world to create similar dancing videos in their own cities and schools.

There have been many versions of Pharell's "Happy" video, but the one shot and edited this past week at Marist College in New York and Italy by Eric Croci, class of 2014, has got to be my favorite. #redfoxpride

Taco Bell and McDonald's viral feud

Taco Bell's unleashing of their new breakfast menu was surrounded by much excitement. According to Taco Bell'S CMO, the company is happy with the feedback and is looking forward to expanding their breakfast menu even more. Currently, the three best-selling items on the breakfast menu are the A.M. Crunchwrap, the Waffle Taco, and the Cinabon Delights. Although this is interesting, what is getting the most attention is what many have deemed "The Breakfast Wars".

Along with their fun marketing stunts created to launch the product line, Taco Bell decided to take a jab at one of their most well-known competitors, McDonald's. According to Digiday, McDonald's accounts for 25% of the fast food breakfast market share and is the number one fast food brand. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Taco Bell would run three commercials depicting people named Ronald McDonald enjoying their breakfast menu items. Here is the most popular Ronald McDonald Taco Bell Spot:

How did McDonald's respond you ask? By posting this picture on their Facebook:

Picture via Digiday

In addition to this picture, McDonald's is also offering free coffee during breakfast hours until April 13. No matter if you find this war immature or clever, there is no denying that it has brought success to both brands and is raising the word of mouth surrounding their breakfast menus.

April Fools Pranks by Google

Every year, Google goes all out for April Fools Day.
For this week's blog post, I've compiled all of Google's 2014 pranks to share with all of you!

Google Magic Hand:

Google introduced a new method of input for smartphones in Japan... Just use this magic hand and it does all the work!  Check out this video!

From what I have gathered from the video, the nonexistent input device comes in right or left handed versions can replace your thumb, pinky, cat paw or back scratcher. 

Here is the release that Google put out on March 31, 2014 - yes, it is in Japanese! 

Google Maps Pokémon Challenge:

The Maps team at Google launched a Pokémon Challenge for IOS and Android users to become Poké Masters and 'catch em all' with the help of Google Maps. 

 When launching the Google Maps app, tap the "Search" option at the top of the screen and "Press Start" next to the blue Pokéball icon.  From there, you can use the map feature to catch the Pokémon by personally going to the location and adding them to your Pokédex... If that seems far too complicated, check out this video for a better explanation.

Google launched this Pokémon Challenge on their blog with a hilarious quote that said:

We value employees who are risk-taking and detail oriented, have deep technical knowledge, and can navigate through tall grass to capture wild creatures.  It turns out that these skills have a lot in common with another profession - that of the Pokémon Master.  With that in mind, we've worked with Pokémon and Nintendo to develop a new training tool to help people hone their Pokémon-capturing abilities using Google Maps... Dozen of wild Pokémon have taken up residence on streets, amidst forests and atop mountains throughout Google Maps... 

The two images below are examples of what the Goolge Maps feature looks like.

Gmail Shelfie

The email service Gmail was launched on April 1, 2004.  So, to celebrate Gmail turning 10, Gmail launched the gmail shelfie on their official gmail blog, which stands for SHareablesELFIE.  Last year, the Oxford Dictionairies named 'selfie' the 2013 word of the year so Gmail decided to take this one step further.

Google claims that they are responsible for the selfie, saying that Gmail is "the pioneering platform for selfies" and explained how the trend began by saying:

When custom themes launched back in 2012, we urged you to find "your perfect image and make Gmail your own."  And you did.  Many of you rushed to take photos of yourselves to upload as your Gmail Custom theme, which you started referring to as selfies.

The Google team even included this very scientific graph to back up their claim:

What do you think of Google's 2014 Pranks?  Are they better than last year?  Tell us what you think!