I was torn on how this animation would turn out, seeing as I knew that GE just wants me to buy more light bulbs or something.

I was flipping through channels one day and saw a commercial for an animated short called “Samurai.”

The animation interested me. It looks like it was created by the team from “Samurai Jack.” There was the same emphasis on framing and character design I saw in the show. The samurai in the short looked unique, just with a really large white head.

The commercial told me to go to the website www.ge.com/imaginationtheater. Hold the phone; this is a GE plug I thought to myself, just some stupid marketing campaign.

I realized that the samurai looked like a light bulb with a sword. What a crock, I don“t want to go to this site to see some three minute commercial on stupid GE light bulbs fighting with swords.

I was torn on how this animation would turn out, seeing as I knew that GE just wants me to buy more light bulbs or something.

Well their stupid marketing ploy worked. I went to the site and clicked on the “Samurai” video.

I was surprised. Not only was the video good, but GE didn“t plug anything in it either. The video reminded me of a Pixar short - really cute and with some neat little twist in the end.

There were two other short films on the site that were equally as good. I was impressed.

Now it was time to explore the site and see what they really wanted me to buy from it. Here“s the shocker: absolutely nothing. The main content of the site features GE“s efforts for energy conservation.

There were many short video Web blogs from GE. Each one featured a different area of energy conservation they were studying.

Now how fun is watching science videos? Actually it was quite fun. Some of the stuff they are working on is rather interesting.

Did you know that GE has been developing hybrid trains? They may only conserve 10 percent of the train“s fuel, but think about that. Ten percent is still 10 percent, it“s a huge train, and any energy conservation is a plus.

Yes, I know all of you are saying that I am being sucked into their public relations campaign, but the videos were all still entertaining. And this really proves that Internet culture is having an effect on marketing to the masses.

GE has taken a YouTube approach that makes for a rather compelling case. This isn“t all smoke and mirrors. It can even make for some genuinely good entertainment.

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