Marina Shifrin’s ‘I Quit’ Video Goes Viral; Company Responds With Parody Video

Marina Shifrin spent 18 months working for the Taiwan-based video journalism company Next Media Animation before she decided to quit in a video that went viral. Ironically, her job at Next had been creating viral videos.

Shrifrin, who graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, became fed up with working the night shift as NMA’s International Content Editor, where her focus was less on content than on clicks. "I went crazy a little bit," Shifrin told Daily Riverfront Times . "I snapped, and that was the video."

"It was horrible," she added. "I've always used humor to deal with anything that's difficult in my life. In that video you're genuinely seeing me unravel and the end result was… it was just so silly."

In the video, made at 4:30 a.m., Shifrin dances throughout her office – from a recording booth to a bathroom stall – to Kanye West’s “Gone.” Prior to uploading the video, which now has over 9 million views on YouTube, Shifrin gave her two weeks notice to her boss’ boss, who said they’d pay her through October but that she need not return to the office.

To respond to Shifrin’s video – and to get some final clicks off their erstwhile employee – NMA posted a copycat YouTube video. In the post, Shifrin’s boss dances around the office with the other employees, who make light of the daily grind. NMA executive Mark Simon further address Shifrin’s allegations in a letter to Gawker. Simon, while stating he likes Shifrin, doesn’t want her video to misrepresent the company as a sweatshop.

On her blog, Shifrin states that after six years in the journalism business, she’s hanging up her hat. "I am not saying that all journalism is bad. I am saying that most popular “journalism” is bad. You can’t blame the writers, though, we’re scared into it. We’re the ones writing the stories about the poor job market, we’re the ones sitting in classes that have adopted the motto, 'Journalism is dead,'" she wrote, adding, “ I am stepping aside and making room for the real journalists.”

Shifrin plans to move to New York and pursue a career in standup comedy.

– Chelsea Regan

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