A video promoting Birmingham has become an unexpected viral hit, with over 78,000 views
A video created to promote a Birmingham radio station and highlight recent developments in the city has become a viral hit, but for all the wrong reasons after critics panned the online effort.
Titled ‘Birmingham – Best City Ever’, the video from local station Free Radio garnered a unexpected number of online shares following its publication on Friday and, by last night, had generated over 78,000 views; completely overshadowing other videos on the station’s official YouTube channel.
The Free Radio video promoting Birmingham is titled ‘Best City Ever’
Despite being praised by city organisations including the new Library of Birmingham and West Midlands Police, the video was criticised by members of the public, some of whom described it as ‘embarrassing’.
The video features members of the Birmingham Community Gospel Choir
Tunnel mantenance workers were featured singing and dancing in the video
Staff from the new Library of Birmingham were also featured in the ‘music video’
Consisting of locals miming to a specially written song while dancing on or around city landmarks, the video received it’s initial boost in views after a resident of the city, upset by the effort, shared it on social news site Reddit.
The video became viral after being featured on social news website Reddit
However, despite some support for the “tongue-in-cheek” offering – which is said to have been celebrating recent city events including the re-opening of tunnels, the opening of the new Library of Birmingham and the 10th anniversary of the Bullring shopping centre – the video received over 1,000 dislikes and just over 100 likes a short time after being uploaded.
Comments and ‘likes’ on the YouTube video were disabled following angry comments from viewers
Despite praise from official quarters, many have lambasted the video and the station’s decision to disable feedback
There was a backlash following the disabling of comments on the station’s YouTube page
The video received over 1,000 dislikes and just over 100 likes, not long after being uploaded
Student Dan Chorley, who described the video as “cringeworthy”, tweeted: ”The saying goes ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity’. Shame you’ve put so many off Brum!”
The video was accompanied with the Twitter hashtag ‘Best City Ever’
Not everyone agreed the video depicted the city of Birmingham in a positive light
While Birmingham born-and-bred journalist Richard Franks, editor of music magazine Counteract, complained: ”This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. If I lived elsewhere and I watched that video I would never, ever go to Birmingham.”
Birmingham editor Richard Franks felt it was “the worst thing I’ve ever seen”
Not long after the backlash, Free Radio removed all comments from the video and disabled any new comments, explaining: ”We’ve disabled the comments due to vulgarity and swearing. We’ll review this tomorrow”.
The promotional video features Free Radio presenters Foxy and Giuliano
Local cabaret artist Carrie-Anne McNally appears in the video, singing at the Bullring shopping centre
The station also disabled the ‘likes/dislike’ feature on the video’s YouTube page and added “This is not a video intended for tourists” to its promotional presentation.
Have you seen the video? What do you think of it?
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Adam Yosef
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