Best In Show, Waiting for Guffman Director tapped by US Census to Direct a Series of Viral Videos

Amanda Moshier | March 15th, 2010

It’s not often Hollywood and society come together to achieve a common goal, but when they do, the results are often dynamic, and this is the case with “Snapshot of America,” a video project funded by the US Census Bureau to let American citizens know 2010 is a census year.

‘Census year, what?’ you may be thinking. Is it that important? Well, a lot of people think it is, and the Census Bureau tapped none other than Hollywood mockumentary impresario Christopher Guest (Best In Show, Waiting for Guffman) to direct a series of five videos starring Ed Begley, Jr., Rachael Harris, Michael Hitchcock and Jennifer Coolidge, all whom have worked with Guest before, to get you excited about filling out those census forms!

2 of the five videos are being shown on television with the rest seeded online, and Wpromote is happy to announce our involvement in helping to spread the good word. Check out one of the videos here:

Wpromote’s resident viral marketing machine, Jesse Bouman, gives a little insight into the narrative behind the series:

The story is that major Hollywood director Payton Schlewitt, played by Ed Begley Jr., has come up with the idea to take a ‘Snapshot of America’ and brings his production team together to make it happen. The goal is to get all 300 million Americans in one shot, but an assistant makes it apparent in each video that the U.S. Census is doing the exact same thing already.

The U.S. constitution requires the census to be conducted every 10 years. The purpose? To count every American living in the United States, provide a snapshot of the country in terms of who its residents are and what they do, and help states receive funding for important things like emergency services, bridges, hospitals, job training centers, schools and more.

The census also determines how many seats each state is allotted in the U.S. House of Representatives…pretty crucial stuff.

So, when you receive that census form in the mail, and no doubt many of you already have, take a moment to fill it out — it may seem trivial, but it’s actually very important. Plus, if you don’t fill it out, a census worker could come to your door to interview you, and who wants that??!

For more information on the US Census 2010 video campaign, or to get help with a viral campaign of your own, please contact sales@wpromote.com

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