Every once in a while, someone comes up with a neat little marketing gimmick. It always is commercial as hell, and gets old really quickly. But it will get a smile on your face the first time you see it.

Our network manager today added a nice little video to the site coming from Isilon Systems, a NAS storage firm. In it, some chap gets what appears to be a tour from an... enthusiastic... IT guy in the Isilon data center. The guest then pulls something off, and the reaction of the IT guy is just so genuine that it could not have been acted.

<object width="512" height="328" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" id="ordie_player_ddd74fb8a3"><param name="movie" value="http://player.ordienetworks.com/flash/fodplayer.swf" /><param name="flashvars" value="key=ddd74fb8a3" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed width="512" height="328" flashvars="key=ddd74fb8a3" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" src="http://player.ordienetworks.com/flash/fodplayer.swf" name="ordie_player_ddd74fb8a3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><div style="text-align:left;font-size:x-small;margin-top:0;width:512px;"><a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/ddd74fb8a3/punked-by-a-magician-in-the-it-data-center-cubiclefx-episode-1" title="from stokar">PUNKED by a magician in the IT data center - CubicleFx, Episode 1</a> - watch more <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/" title="on Funny or Die">funny videos</a></div>

And it's not just one-off: they have a full series going, here. True enough, this one was the most elaborate. It includes an explanation of the tricks too.