“Where The Hell Is Matt?” 2008 Edition

I’ve written about Matt before in 2006 when his silly video of him dancing in various exotic locations around the world first went viral. It was infectious in the simple joy it seemed to contain. Since then Matt has gotten corporate sponsorship and has put out additional videos with the latest from this year gracing the Where The Hell Is Matt? website.

This time Matt includes a few friends:

Yes, I know I’m posting a lot of video clips today, but there were lots of good ones today that I wanted to share. And that’s leaving out the trailers for video games announced during the Spike Video Game Awards show last night.

I keep watching this one over and over.

Updated: There’s a short five minute presentation by Matt on how he made the latest video that he gave at Gnomedex back in August that I’m including after the jump.

Very cool.

10 thoughts on ““Where The Hell Is Matt?” 2008 Edition”

Love “Where the Hell is Matt”, always enjoyable, heart-warming videos.

All his videos always make me happier with humanity when I watch them.

All his videos always make me happier with humanity when I watch them.

Funny, that’s exactly the feeling I get.

The music’s lovely too.

And he was in Auckland too – WOOOT! Though him dancing in the DMZ in Korea and with the Papua NewGuineans was probably a bit harder to set up!

Hi Les,

I was a big fan of Matt as well and watched his lecture. He seems like a genuine guy and his project was heartwarming. Never the less I did feel let down when I saw the latest sponsored effort (financed my a well known credit card company) which somehow detracts from the original by being over produced and ….well…sponsored.

I wish him happiness but I wish also that he and/or the company could have made something new and different with the budget they had available.

He was sponsored by a credit card company? I haven’t seen that. All I’ve seen is Stride chewing gum and they only get a brief mention at the end of the video.

Here:

Oh shoot, now it will go viral for sure 🙁

That’s a commercial he did for Visa for the Asia Pacific region:

In the new commercial Matt celebrates the hassle-free joy of the unnecessary currency exchange due to the mass acceptance of Visa, as he travels around the world. The advert debuted in Hong Kong and Korea and will be broadcasted in eight countries and territories in the Asia Pacific region over the next few weeks.

[…] For his 2008 video Harding spent 14 months travelling to 42 countries, just months after he returned from a world tour of 39 countries for his second internet video. Harding has been hired since to appear in several travel agency advertisements and by Google showing off his favourite dancing locations and by Yahoo, where Nicki Dugan dragged Matt hither and yon across the Yahoo! campus to shoot 33 scenes in less than seven hours.

Many created their own video with the goofy dance or made hilarious spoofs like Where The Hell is Matt’s Girlfriend?. And even local businesses tap into the Matt Harding mania such as South Brisbane real estate agent Bees Nees, hoping to get the same viral success.

[…] For the Visa project Harding travelled just two weeks to China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam with his girlfriend, keeping a diary on his blog. “It was sort of like a paid vacation,” he said.

The ‘travel happy’ dance continues in a second Visa commercial and will feature cruise operators, hotel and restaurant staff, tour guides, and taxi drivers from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam.

Honestly, the guy has to make a living somehow so I can’t blame him for taking on that project. It allows him to go to a lot of places I’ll never see first hand.

He would make a good ambassador for health. :o)

Haaaargh. In another example why copyright protections fail, I just wanted to buy the song on Amazon.

1. Step – DRM-free mp3s, whoo!

2. Step – “Not available outside the US.” Great.

So should I now be looking to pirate it somewhere? I am sorely tempted to.

Step 3: Find somebody inside the U.S. who will buy the song for you. Or find a proxy server in the U.S.

chief on 15 December, 2008 at 5:23 PM said:

Love “Where the Hell is Matt”, always enjoyable, heart-warming videos.
AngryArchaeologist on 15 December, 2008 at 9:49 PM said:

All his videos always make me happier with humanity when I watch them.
ingolfson on 16 December, 2008 at 1:08 AM said:

All his videos always make me happier with humanity when I watch them.

Funny, that’s exactly the feeling I get.

The music’s lovely too.

And he was in Auckland too – WOOOT! Though him dancing in the DMZ in Korea and with the Papua NewGuineans was probably a bit harder to set up!
Dave on 16 December, 2008 at 6:38 AM said:

Hi Les,

I was a big fan of Matt as well and watched his lecture. He seems like a genuine guy and his project was heartwarming. Never the less I did feel let down when I saw the latest sponsored effort (financed my a well known credit card company) which somehow detracts from the original by being over produced and ….well…sponsored.

I wish him happiness but I wish also that he and/or the company could have made something new and different with the budget they had available.
Les on 16 December, 2008 at 9:30 AM said:

He was sponsored by a credit card company? I haven’t seen that. All I’ve seen is Stride chewing gum and they only get a brief mention at the end of the video.
Dave on 16 December, 2008 at 10:44 AM said:

Here:

Oh shoot, now it will go viral for sure 🙁
Les on 16 December, 2008 at 10:57 AM said:

That’s a commercial he did for Visa for the Asia Pacific region:

In the new commercial Matt celebrates the hassle-free joy of the unnecessary currency exchange due to the mass acceptance of Visa, as he travels around the world. The advert debuted in Hong Kong and Korea and will be broadcasted in eight countries and territories in the Asia Pacific region over the next few weeks.

[…] For his 2008 video Harding spent 14 months travelling to 42 countries, just months after he returned from a world tour of 39 countries for his second internet video. Harding has been hired since to appear in several travel agency advertisements and by Google showing off his favourite dancing locations and by Yahoo, where Nicki Dugan dragged Matt hither and yon across the Yahoo! campus to shoot 33 scenes in less than seven hours.

Many created their own video with the goofy dance or made hilarious spoofs like Where The Hell is Matt’s Girlfriend?. And even local businesses tap into the Matt Harding mania such as South Brisbane real estate agent Bees Nees, hoping to get the same viral success.

[…] For the Visa project Harding travelled just two weeks to China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam with his girlfriend, keeping a diary on his blog. “It was sort of like a paid vacation,” he said.

The ‘travel happy’ dance continues in a second Visa commercial and will feature cruise operators, hotel and restaurant staff, tour guides, and taxi drivers from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam.

Honestly, the guy has to make a living somehow so I can’t blame him for taking on that project. It allows him to go to a lot of places I’ll never see first hand.
Logan Quinn on 16 December, 2008 at 8:23 PM said:

He would make a good ambassador for health. :o)
ingolfson on 29 December, 2008 at 5:44 AM said:

Haaaargh. In another example why copyright protections fail, I just wanted to buy the song on Amazon.

1. Step – DRM-free mp3s, whoo!

2. Step – “Not available outside the US.” Great.

So should I now be looking to pirate it somewhere? I am sorely tempted to.
elwedriddsche on 29 December, 2008 at 3:46 PM said:

Step 3: Find somebody inside the U.S. who will buy the song for you. Or find a proxy server in the U.S.