The title of this Nike sponsored stunt of Laker Kobe Bryant jumping over an Aston Martin going 50 miles an hour states:

Laker Kobe Bryant attempts massive stunt…and succeeds! Real?

This tactic of creating a controversy (i.e. a viewer would question if the stunt Kobe pulled real or faked) is a good way to use YouTube to increase video views. The video description also reinforces that skepticism:

When an Aston Martin is coming at you at 50 miles per hour, what else can you do but JUMP! That’s what Kobe does, but is it a special effect or is he that talented?

Of course the person who uploaded this film knows the answer, but the technique of creating a question that draws people in to view the video is a very smart tactic in viral marketing.

Also note that Nike products are subtly mentioned just at the very beginning of the clip, and not even mentioned in the tags. Did it work for Nike? Guessing so, with over 1.7 million views in 4 days, and top honors on YouTube (#7 of most viewed on YouTube this week). Overall, a very nice deployment on Nike’s behalf.

Google has recently opened up their iGoogle themes so you can create your own custom themes. There aren’t a ton of themes right now, but there are a few designed by fuseproject designer Yves Behar, simplicity design guru John Maeda, Boing Boing writer Mark Frauenfelder, and Troy Lee. All are very pretty! I installed Behar’s which is a cool dynamic projection of the world. Very smart for Google to include these design stars in launching a new functionality from a marketing POV - I’ll bet that it will help in both the adoption and design of new themes.