I’m sure some of you may have read my earlier paen to Ze Frank, one of the rising stars in the vlogging space. Ze provides a daily 3 – 5 minute snippet that reads like a condensed version of a “Jim Carrey-meets-Jon Stewart” type of show that has earned numerous fans in recent times.

Ze is actually rising fast on my Top 5 list of favorite shows:

1. Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
2. Jay Leno (NBC)
3. Bill Maher (HBO & Amazon!)
4. Ze Frank (The Internets!)
5. Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central)

From a branding perspective, recently Ze had an informative piece on branding vis-a-vis, the Jon Benet case which received a lot of undue attention in the press recently. While traditional, mainstream media focused on the champagne drunk by suspected pedophile John Mark Karr, Ze’s unique 3 minute episode focuses on the reasons behind why he thinks the character parasited the memory of JonBenet with some insight into brand management!

A brand is an emotional after-taste that is conjured up by but not necessarily dependant on a series of experiences.

He then conjures up examples of the “grandma” brand and gives us three criteria for creating a successful brand. Without giving away too much, it is one of the best examples of creating thought-provoking commentary on modern-day news. While a new breed of independent vloggers such as Ze have started “thinking so you don’t have to“, mainstream media in the United States continues to hurtle toward its demise (Courtesy: The Jon Stewart Show).

Ze Extras:

1. A New York Times Interview w/ ze man himself – check out Online Collaborative Comedy

2. Another interview w/ Ze from a web “user experience” point-of-view by Mark Hurst.

2. Church of the Customer links to Colbert’s “freaking brilliance on the web“. But is Colbert paying the sincerest compliment to Ze by imitation?
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