John McCain's 'Obama Love' fund-raising video was a hit on the web this week, so it's a surprise to find that it's been zapped from the campaign's YouTube channel.
According to Unruly Media's viral video tracking service, the McCain campaign's 'Obama Love' video was the hottest presidential candidate viral video on the web this week.
Nevertheless, the video has been removed from YouTube. The fund-raising videos also appear to have also been removed from the campaign's web site.
Unruly Media reports that the video has been viewed almost 260,000 times since its release Tuesday.
It's not clear why the video was deleted, but there's a good chance that the campaign's use of Frankie Valli's hit tune Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You had something to do with it. Licensing such hits is expensive, and the tune is frequently used in television commercials.
There were two versions of the video, and both appear to have been taken down. Viewers voting for their preferences for the two videos generally preferred the one accompanied by the Valli tune.
The McCain campaign did not return a call or an e-mail for an explanation.
If the video were taken down due to a copyright violation, it wouldn't be the first time that the campaign has run into a wall with its online fund-raising mash-ups.
link:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/mccain-campai-1.html