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No one expected it would become one of the most effective promo videos ever recorded.

Opening shot: A young woman sitting on an office windowsill holds an iPod -nothing groundbreaking there. Her colour is washed out. The camera jolts and sways. An amateur job.

In the background, the Manhattan skyline lingers. To her right leans a board game called Beeropoly.

Off camera, there's pandemonium. Office workers scurry and giggle like unruly kids.

"Tighten up!" yells one taskmaster.

With a press of her iPod , the overdubbed drum roll that starts Harvey Danger's 1998 hit Flagpole Sitta crashes to life in full stereo sound.

Within minutes, an Internet sensation was born and the woman's workplace, New York-based Connected Ventures, would enter the fleeting annals of Web-video history as one the world's best places to work.

Originally shot and posted online in April, the Connected Ventures clip was the genesis of the office lip dub, a new genre of Internet video.

In these videos, office workers perform a choreographed lip sync to an overdubbed tune in one long camera shot. The clips have garnered millions of hits.

Combining the melodic exuberance of High School Musical and satirical elements of The Office, the workplace lip dub began as an unconventionally creative way for an office to pass time. But now the likes of Microsoft and Hugo Boss are looking at lip dubs as a way of freshening up their corporate images.

You can track down office lip dubs on YouTube, but several of the best have found a home at OfficeLipDub.com, a site created by French marketing executive Arthur Kannas, who plans on posting dozens more as a hobby.

"This is a new way of making your company look cool," said Mr. Kannas, founder and chief executive officer of Heaven, an online marketing company. "When you look at the original Connected Ventures video, you either want to work there or do business with them."

For companies, lip dubs could become a way to lure young talent. "I think it's a great idea," said Leandra Lackie, vice-president of human resources at CNC Global, a recruitment company that coaches companies on how they can shape their corporate culture to attract more clients and recruits.

"We're all hearing about the war for talent. You have to think about these kinds of ways of getting people in your front door."

In the Connected Ventures video, the iPod girl eventually stands up from the sill and paces to her left. She's stares into the camera, lip-syncing the tune: "Fingertips have memories, mine can't forget the curves of your body. And when I feel a bit naughty..."

Over the next three minutes, the camera travels the office of Connected Ventures - the developers of CollegeHumour.com - focusing in on casually dressed employees belting out lyrics. As a finale, a few dozen of them swarm to open office space and jump, thrash and mosh to the song.

The clip proved to be a powerful recruiting tool. As soon as the cameraman, Jakob Lodwick, posted the clip, everyone wanted to join in. Any office capable of a midday mosh was the place for them.

"I'd like to apply for a job...?" reads one post on Vimeo.com, a video-sharing website that Mr. Lodwick founded. "This is cool. I soooo wish I could work for CV," goes another.

Justin Johnson, an associate producer at New York-based Next New Networks, was in the same boat. "At first you think, 'These people should be working, not having so much fun,' " he said, "and then you think 'damn, why can't my job be that sweet?' "

Imitators were quick to follow. First up was Mr. Kannas's Heaven, which took two takes to perform a one-shot lip dub of Weezer's Undone - The Sweater Song. Even though Mr. Kannas - the boss - was behind the production, a few of the company's 80 employees bowed out due to shyness.

"Ours is not as good as the original," he said, "but it shows we have a unique culture here." The Heaven clip led to the creation of his website, he says.

Two of Heaven's marketing clients, Hugo Boss and Microsoft, took notice right away and have solicited Mr. Kannas's advice for producing their own office lip dubs.

Soon after the Heaven knock-off came a German office. Then several more French ones. Now, there are more than a dozen online examples of office workers lip-dubbing on the job.

And the online fad shows no signs of slowing down.

Mr. Johnson, who helped produce a dub for his office called Internet People, thinks the office lip dub phenomenon may soon break out of its micro-trend status.

"This is our work, to show that we're a unique voice on the Internet," he said. "It's not going to end here."

Office lip dub: The Top 5

Choreographing an office lip dub is no easy task. First, you have to recruit no fewer than a dozen co-workers. Then you have to make sure they all know the lyrics. And finally, you have to shoot the entire video in a single, long shot. Here are five of the best:

1) Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger (Connected Ventures)

The undisputed granddaddy of all office lip dubs, it's also widely regarded as the best. Fuelled by a few after-work beers, the kids at Connected Ventures make every other job on Earth look boring.

2) Undone — The Sweater Song by Weezer (Heaven)

In an attempt at intercontinental one-upmanship, the 80 workers at this French marketing agency get points for mass participation, but lose a few for shifty camera work and some unconvincing performances.

3) Internet People (Next New Networks)

The New York-based office performs a song written in-house and accompanies it with cartoon sketches of various YouTube movie stars. A winner in the creativity department, but too many flubbed lines to rival the top two.

4) L'Amour a la Française by Les Fatals Picard (AOL France)

After hearing news of mass layoffs, the staff at AOL France performed this bittersweet number, which ends poignantly with a shot of a sign reading à louer, or for rent.

5) Everything's Under Control by Peregrine (ADSTV)

An office of attractive Germans struts through a well-choreographed number that still feels somewhat off-the-cuff.