If you've not yet heard of the Harlem Shake internet-meme-cum-dance-craze then let us educate you (and possibly stop you from doing any work for the rest of the day...).
It all began last May when New York producer Baauer's dance tune of the same name was released to little fanfare. But in the last few weeks it's inspired a bizarre video meme that has exploded around the web and become a genuine global phenomenon, catapulting the track into pop charts worldwide.
Masked insanity
The meme involves the upload of videos to YouTube - currently around 4,000 a day - of one person, often in a mask, dancing alone, ignored by everyone around them. Then when the bass drops, the room suddenly goes wild.
Design agencies have certainly not been immune to the trend, and now a Tumblr site has brought together Harlem Shake videos created at design agencies worldwide, from Kazakhstan to Cape Town, and including such big-name agencies as Saatchi & Saatchi, Ogilvy, W&K, Red and DDB.
At time of writing, we counted 120 agencies on the site, but we're expecting this to grow as more and more people get the Harlem Shake worm in their heads.
A number of agencies are already putting their own twist on the meme, including this Rickrolled video from Oligvy Cape Town, and we particularly liked this specially animated version by Koff Animation:
However, if you're the kind of person who spent the entire of 2012 hiding from Gangam Style, we suggest you might want to invest in some noise-cancelling headphones right now...
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Has your agency uploaded a Harlem Shake video yet? If not, why not? (We're just not going to buy the 'too much work' excuse...)
