Appreciating Irony

Take a good look at a slacker video produced and posted by the California tax man. Indeed, the California Franchise Tax Board is among a growing number of public agenies that have been experimenting in public with engaging the public on the its terms. Exhibit A: YouTube videos. They are not your father's public service announcements because they are not intended to run on your father's medium of choice - television. Instead, they have a young, hip and urban sensibility more typical of viral videos that are now common on the Internet. And yes, the critics have had their say on why agencies should stay away from YouTube. This from the Christian Science Monitor:

"The state's YouTube videos vary in usefulness," says Jack Pitney a political scientist at Claremont McKenna College. "The public service announcements are slick but unhelpful. Who goes on YouTube to seek propaganda from a state agency? Just because you can go on YouTube, doesn't mean that you should."

Propaganda? A harsh assessment for what remains well within the tradition of PSAs - public health, public safety and, in the present case, filing taxes. It is surely hyperbolic to lump propaganda and PSAs together in same virtual bucket. The audience can figure it out even if certain college professors cannot. And that may be what ultimately matters. This YouTube experimentation by public agencies should not be judged by its production values (although a sophisticated audience is discerning on this front) or even the use of a video platform that comes without cost to the taxpayer rather than building their own (although that should be applauded).

This slacker video matters because it reflects an appreciation of irony, the defining characteristic of the demographic cohort that is coming of age at a time when YouTube is outdrawing the old tube. Public institutions continue to fight the fight for relevancy in these times -- and some are helping themselves by taking a calculated risk to act more like the people they serve.