Sunday, May 29, 2011

Don't mess with Grand Rapids

Back in January Newsweek published a list of the Top 10 American cities in decline and the folks in Grand Rapids didn't take kindly making the Top 10. But instead of writing a lot of angry letters (actually, they probably did that too) about 3,000 of them got together to create a Lip Dub to refute the charge.

The result is a pretty amazing piece of work that really makes you want to visit the city. It certainly doesn't look like it's a dying town. Here's the video:

It's also fun to read some of the coverage about the video, which is now well on its way to going viral.

The Grand Rapids Press gives us some of the back story, as well as some details on some of the folks in the video.

Awesome YouTube lip dub proves Grand Rapids is awesome from MSNBC gives a good overview of the back story, as well as including a response from Newsweek, which was posted on their Facebook page:

To the Grand Rapids crowd:

First off, we LOVE your YouTube LipDub. We're big fans, and are inspired by your love of the city you call home.

But so you know what was up with the list you're responding to, we want you to know it was done by a website called mainstreet.com--not by Newsweek (it was unfortunately picked up on the Newsweek web site as part of a content sharing deal)--and it uses a methodology that our current editorial team doesn't endorse and wouldn't have employed. It certainly doesn't reflect our view of Grand Rapids.

The Daily Mail online also has a review of the video, including some more comments about the various scenes.

Anyone who tells you that social media is just a fad - well, that's just silly. Welcome to the revolution.

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