This week PBS Digital Studios released a designed-to-go-viral video that remixes old clips of Mr. Rogers into a new, auto-tuned song called "Garden in Your Mind" that has become an instant hit on the Internet.
The video, created by auto-tune artist John D. Boswell, went live on Thursday at 9 a.m. EDT and has already racked up more than 700,000 views on YouTube as of Friday morning. It was on the top of YouTube's trending video list, and was also on the front page of Reddit.
"The past 24 hours have been completely amazing and gratifying," said Kevin Dando, who handles social media for PBS. "And the video has just been completely embraced by social media."
Dando said the organization's strategy for promoting the video was pretty basic. They teased the video on Twitter Wednesday night and then published it to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus at about the same time.
A few celebrities tweeted the video early on, including Neil Patrick Harris, Alyssa Milano and twitter celebrity Guy Kawasaki.
Then the media took over and by Friday morning, the video was shown on "Good Morning America" and the "Today Show."
It also helps of course that the video itself is completely awesome. It's weird and catchy, and nothing like you think it's going to be while still being totally Mr. Rogers appropriate.
"Garden in Your Mind" is the first video on the PBS Digital Studios channel on YouTube, but it won't be the last.
"There will be more, and there will be other kinds of videos," said Dando, although he wouldn't tell us what is coming next.
He did add that due to popular request, PBS is working on making "Garden in Your Mind" available on MP3.
June 8, 2012, 1:52 p.m.
