How do you sell your brand to the world? Kendra Eash laid out the basic rules for McSweeney's last month. Her article This is a Generic Brand Video describes a familiar formula. Scientists holding beakers, high-speed trains, people from diverse backgrounds, time-lapse footage of cities, and vague inspirational words all combine to create advertisements that say nothing about what a company does, but attempt to incite confidence that it knows what the future holds.

Eash's cutting parody of the advertising world is now itself the subject of an advertisement for Dissolve, a company that specializes in supplying filmmakers and brands with stock video footage. Although it's a superbly cut take on the original article, creating an intensely generic video with the footage it sells is an odd move a company that aims to "change the perception of stock footage from so-so to spectacular." Regardless of motive, Dissolve's video is entertaining, and has definitely been successful. It's already been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people who have now been exposed to the stock video brand. If you're interested in crafting your own generic video, a complete rundown of the clips used in the spot is available at Dissolve.