Some days, it seems like everyone wants to turn everything into TV. The latest from Singapore: soap operas on cell phones.

Can cell phones drive the next television phenomenon? Why not? The Crazy Frog ringtone is #1 on the U.K. music charts, so maybe we’re living in an age where everything really is converging with everything.

Before we rush to converge everything with everything else, though, shouldn’t we stop to undertand that thing for what it is in the first place? Shouldn’t we take a breath to try and understand crawling before we try running … or running a marathon?

For real understanding, look to the innovators who smartly use the particular medium’s singular qualities. Ernie Kovacs did it with TV. On the Web? They’re out there, and you know them in your gut when you see them, from monoliths like eBay to brilliant small sites like Postsecret to that niche online community you’re compelled to visit four, five, six times a day.

So: Is the frog a prince? Maybe, but my bet’s on him being not the leading edge of a trend, but simply just another weird anomaly … like the dancing internet baby, the lambada craze, and William Hung.

Oh, yeah, and that noisy newfangled rock ‘n’ roll music.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2005 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Marketing Stuff.