Viral video has become world's best focus group.(Eastman Kodak Co.)

B to B, February, 2007 by Gillin, Paul

Byline: Paul Gillin

A white-haired gentleman walks onto a darkened stage and begins to speak. As whispy images of children and puppies float on a screen behind him, he talks in velvet tones of the magic of memories captured on film, those ineffable Kodak moments.

But over the next three minutes, his sermon turns into a rant. The grandfatherly speaker turns into a wild-eyed maniac raving about the promise of digital photography, Eastman Kodak Co.'s past misses in the market and its determination not to make the same mistakes again.

A parody? In fact, the video was produced by Kodak, reportedly for internal distribution. But in December, it hit YouTube.com and became a cult classic. More than 210,000 people have watched it on YouTube alone and...

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