If there's one thing that says breaking news in the era of social media, it's an old white guy smoking cigarettes on a boxy television. That's the ironic and all-around odd approach BreakingNews.com takes in the promo video announcing its new site and app design.
The two-minute clip, posted Monday to Breaking News's blog, features an old-school news-anchor type describing the customizability and social features of the real-time news service, which was purchased by NBC News in 2010. "It's on your Internet," he monotones. "It's on your pocket telephone."
The stand-up bass soundtrack gives the whole thing a weird beat-poetry vibe, and his occasional pauses to smoke or ruminate make the pacing quite slow for something as frenetic as 24-hour breaking news. But hey, at least we didn't have to watch a hackneyed walk-through with some too-cool-for-school hipster showing off the app while blasting a track from some bland indie band.
UPDATE: The video was created by Adam Lisagor of Sandwich Video, who also brought his love of retro to bear for the recent Karateka remake.
