[August 01, 2011] The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va., Bryan McKenzie column Tweet Jul 31, 2011 (The Daily Progress - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The emailed pleas are earnest and the urgency is, well, urgent. And while lives aren't on the line, a cool million dollars is. And the deadline is noon today. It seems three local guys, who attend different colleges, made a video on behalf of Gain detergent in a contest with a $1 million prize. To win, they need as many votes as possible before noon today. The winner will be announced Tuesday at the soap's Facebook page. Considering how hackers hacked a local candidate's email and made her friends think she was getting mugged in London while she was sleeping in Albemarle County, I didn't trust the electronic missive at first. Hey, maybe this whole thing was an elaborate hoax to find out that my password is "Rosebud." As if it wasn't easy enough to lose your dough, the Internet has created a multitude of new methods for crooks to steal your money and your identity, although I have none of the former and hackers have twice returned the latter. But I knew this baloney wasn't phony when local itinerant musician and silk-screened T-shirt mogul Bob Girard sent a fairly direct email soliciting help to "MAKE MY SON A MILLIONAIRE." Bob exhorted all in his email contacts file to go to the Gain site on Facebook and vote for the video listed under his son's name, Parker G. "I think you might have to actually be on Facebuck but I'm not too sure," Modern Happy Bob admitted. "I started a fake identity on it because I think it's important to make Facebark a bloated leviathan incapable of rapidly adjusting to the needs of its constituents." Right. So how did all this happen and why did it all end up in my inbox? "Two friends and I decided to enter Gain's Smell Like a Million Bucks contest because it seemed like a great opportunity that was being overlooked, especially compared to other video contests," said Julian Taboada, now a Vanderbilt University student. Mr. Taboada joined up with the aforementioned Parker G., a James Madison University student, and Forrest Pando, from Virginia Commonwealth University, and started working on the project. "The three of us had collaborated on videos before, and we went from concept to finished video within a few days," Mr. Taboada said. "The only requirements of the contest were that the video be under 60 seconds and that we declare our love of Gain in an inventive way, using the phrase 'I use Gain and I smell like a million bucks!'" The phrase makes me see does and deer in the backyard, but other thoughts come to the young men's' minds. "We started by thinking of feasible video ideas we could pull off in the short timeframe and came up with the idea of using the classic secret agent with a bag of money trope, all revolving around the alluring power of Gain's scent," Mr. Taboada said. Not the secret agent with a bag of money! That's the oldest trope in the book. It's kind of cute, though. The agent sits in shades on the park bench like Forrest Gump. A man sits down next to him. A bag of money changes hands. So does a shirt. The agent breathes deep of the Gain while the man walks away with a gain of, you guessed it, a million bucks. OK, it's better than it sounds. Check it out yourself by going online to facebook.com/gain, "like" the page, go to "contest" on the left side of the screen and click on "click here now." You'll get to the video list, find Parker G. and vote. The boys, and Bob, will appreciate it. And, while the money would be sweet, the boys think winning will also inspire a whole nation of young filmmakers who want to foist their trope on the public. "I think winning could be a great opportunity to show other young people what they can achieve just by spotting opportunities and using the resources immediately available to them," Mr. Taboada said. Including the proper use of an email contact list, I'm sure. To see more of The Daily Progress or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailyprogress.com. Copyright (c) 2011, The Daily Progress, Charlottesville, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]