Finding a Gold Mine in Digital Ditties - NYTimes.com

Finding a Gold Mine in Digital Ditties - NYTimes.com: "Joel Moss Levinson always knew he had a calling in life. But it took cheap video cameras, YouTube and some desperate corporations to show him what it was.
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Nicholas Roberts for The New York Times

Joel Moss Levinson has won nearly a dozen sponsor contests for commercials.
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My Water Cooler Loves to Dance All Night (YouTube.com)Video
My Water Cooler Loves to Dance All Night (YouTube.com)
Mr. Watermelon, Party Fruit (YouTube.com)Video
Mr. Watermelon, Party Fruit (YouTube.com)
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Joel Moss Levinson's YouTube Page (External link)

Among Mr. Levinson's entries were YouTube videos about how much he loved Israel, above, and his water cooler.

Mr. Levinson’s skill is turning out homemade corporate commercials — what advertisers call a form of “user-generated content.” Companies, frantic to connect with younger consumers, sponsor contests seeking these commercials to find new ways to advertise their products, often attracting hundreds of entries and lots of attention.

So far, Mr. Levinson, a college dropout with dozens of failed jobs on his résumé, has won 11 contests — earning more than $200,000 in money and prizes. His success has made him into the digital age version of Evelyn Ryan, the woman from Defiance, Ohio, who supported her fam"