"Let’s FREE HUG"

I was having a beer and sharing some laughs with my pal, Patrick, when he showed me his favorite YouTube video of the week.

Now, I’m a pretty jaded YouTube fan. Everyone has their favorite video that you have to watch, which you inevitably do, until you realize you’ve spent at least a minute watching garbage. It has its gems, though. To Patrick and I, this is one of them.

FREE HUG certainly waranted a forward to my blog-crazy husband…. but I had to dig a bit more myself. Who is Juan Mann? And how much publicity is Sick Puppy getting from FREE HUG??

Of course, YouTube, had the answer. (Aussie news, sweet!)

As of this post…4,667,042 MILLION VIEWS! How does one cash in on this kind of pubilicity? Yes.. I know I should stay misty eyed and compelled to hug someone.. but with close to 5 million hits to this video two things are very evident. One. There are millions of more people hugging each other every day. Super cool. Two. You can’t get this video or the song out of your head. Now that’s PR magic. Pure and simple.

Mr. Mann’s FREE HUG campaign has inspired others to hand out their affections… which brings me to why I was inspired to post this blog. JINWOO filmed his version in Seoul, Korea. Korean culture doesn’t really celebrate public displays of affection, still, I could feel the love… or at least their urge to.

His YouTube description says it all:

“I made Korean free hugs video in South KOREA. here is SEOUL. Let’s free hugs ^^ I’m Korean. I saw free hugs music video(Song by Sick Puppies. Title is ‘all the same’). I feel so good.”

“(Ending Korean comment mean this like:
Free Hugs
In this place, there is love
In this place, there are smiles and happiness
To find this place, you need not money
You just need alittle courage
Stop. Look around and see your friends and family
And share the love

Lets Free hugs!)”

I LOVE IT!!

It’s only a couple of weeks old and already it has gotten close to a hundred thousand hits.
Brilliant.

Now go give out a FREE HUG.
(and inspire others to do the same)