May 30, 2008

R.I.P. Harvey Korman

Too many of these this week. Here's to you Mr. Korman. Thanks for the laughs.

Sidenote: There's a "thing" in theatre about "breaking character." Sure, Conway is chewing the scenery here. But the real laughs come from Korman going ahead and laughing at him. Korman knew exactly what he was doing.

Posted by John on May 30, 2008 at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Movies , Pop Culture , Television , The Creative Life

May 13, 2008

Nazi UFOs and a social way to get a movie made.

So, you want to make a movie based on deep Forteana legends about Nazi UFOs (aka foo fighters) but don't have the cash? No problem. Just make one hell of a trailer and then ask the world to finance your creative efforts. Sounds like a plan to me. And, hey, if I were a major studio head I think I'd want to talk to these guys. The concept is at least as interesting as this.

Posted by John on May 13, 2008 at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Movies

April 29, 2008

Marshall, Will and Holly!

Will Ferrel meets Land of the Lost! Pop culture worlds colliding. Delicious.

Posted by John on April 29, 2008 at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Movies , Pop Culture

February 24, 2008

And the Oscar for Best Ad on the Oscars goes to...

Tonight, is a big, big night for brands.  Star brands, studio brands and marketer brands all mix on the red carpet. We can count on the Nicholson brand doing well tonight. It's a tradition to cut to him grinning in the audience. His smile is as iconic as the Clydesdales. But what about the marketers that are making their big bet with this event instead of the hyper-hyped Super Bowl?  Follow a live chat with the pundits on Adfreak's new OscarFreak. If you are so moved, leave your opinions on the winners and losers here or as an audio comment. We'll update this post with our own opinion in the morning. In the meantime, we already know what Judd Apatow thinks of the whole thing.

UPDATE: I'll be honest, Sunday night laundry made me miss a lot of the spots. The one I caught that I found really intriguing was MasterCard "searching eye." It's paid off online here.

Posted by John on February 24, 2008 at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Movies , News of the Ad World , Opinion , Television

February 11, 2008

Will Ferrell smells like a turtle cage.

Will Ferrell + Old Spice + Semi-Pro Co-brand + user participation = pretty fuckin' awesome. Check it. You really gotta hand it Old Spice and WK. This is one helluva brand renovation that's underway. Irrelevant and cheesy to irreverent and, gulp, potentially cool. One can almost drop Old Spice in the shopping cart without shame.

Posted by John on February 11, 2008 at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Branding , Marketing to Men , Movies , Pop Culture , Product placement

December 05, 2007

Going WAY Beyond Batman Begins

A while back I started to notice quite a bit of cool viral marketing going on for the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight. We're talking microsites galore and massive user participation. On one microsite, users were asked to answer location-specific questions from across america to reveal a phrase. Then, after that, there was a chance to send in a photo of yourself dressed up as the Joker.

Today, over on FirstShowing.net, all of the previous viral marketing attempts have been chumped, big time. It appears that now the people behind this marketing campaign has taken their execution to a new level -- physical items.

On December 3rd a new page appeared at whysoserious.com/steprightup with a hammer game and some teddy bear toys. Each toy had an address on it located in a number of cities around the US. The note on the game told people to go to that address and say their name was "Robin Banks" (get it, "Robbing Banks") and they'd get something there. It was first come, first serve, and each location was a bakery. What they were given was a cake with a phone number written on it. Now here's the best part: inside the cake was an evidence bag (complete with Gotham City Police printing) that contained a cell phone, a charger, a Joker playing card and a note with instructions.

If you're not following along, the lucky few to receive the cakes now have a cell phone that someone will call at a later time. In essence, Warner Bros. is creating their own Joker army.

Damn geniuses.

Posted by SethyG on December 05, 2007 at 09:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brave New Marketing , Entertainment , Movies , Web/Tech

November 06, 2007

Bee Movie posts $39.1 million. Almost breaks even.

In its opening weekend, Seinfeld's and DreamWork's Bee Movie grossed $39.1 million.

By my rough calculations that won't quite pay for the amazing amount of advertising and promotion activity that was placed behind this movie. This would include TV, print, cinema, sponsorships and the very confusing Bee Movie shorts on NBC prime time.

American Gangster (nice name) grossed $46.3 million. And it did that in 1000 fewer theaters.

I can't guess how many impressions Bee Movie was putting out there but, whatever the number, my money says this property was actually overexposed.

Which begs the question: Did Bee Movie actually advertise itself out of part of its audience?

Note: Had the producers had been really smart, they'd have added some cause marketing into their plan and joined the genuinely crucial effort to save our bees.

Posted by John on November 06, 2007 at 07:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Branding , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Movies , Opinion

October 01, 2007

Product placement 25 years later.

Last week, Netflix delivered E.T. to our door. The kids had never seen it, and it'd been years since I sat down to watch. I'd even forgotten it was in our queue. When Elliott starts dropping the Reese's Pieces, my oldest asked for some clarification. "Well, he's using the Reese's Pieces to show E.T. how to get to his house," I answered. Nothing much more was said at the time. The next day, however, my wife came home with a big box of the peanut butter treats. Seems the boys simply had to try some. Half an hour later, the colorful shells were being used to lead me all over the house to discover various caches of toys. Subsequently, the candy was officially declared as "our favorite."

25 years later and the M&M's brand is still paying for not listening to Steven Spielberg.

Posted by John on October 01, 2007 at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brands , Entertainment , Film , Food and Drink , Marketing Trends , Movies , Pop Culture , Product placement

August 09, 2007

Simpsons movie makers should have listened to AC.

According to deadlinehollywood, the Simpsons movie went through a whopping 166 drafts before finally (rather poorly, from reports I've heard) making it to the big screen. Too bad they don't listen to American Copywriter or they would have learned to abandon he project after the third round of revisions. Thanks iwatchstuff for the link.

Posted by Tug McTighe on August 09, 2007 at 01:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Movies

July 02, 2007

Amazing Integration

We've all heard about the bold move that 7-Eleven and Fox agreed on a while back to promote the new Simpsons movie and thought it was cool. But if you haven't seen the level of detail they've gone through to bring the Kwik E Mart to life, then you haven't lived (today). Here's a nice set of Flickr photos covering the entire store.

Mega big-time props go out to Fox, 7-Eleven and FreshWorks (and anyone else that had a hand in this) for pulling off what should be considered the best example of bringing a brand to life.

Can you imagine the brainstorming sessions that went into this? Lovely.

Posted by SethyG on July 02, 2007 at 05:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Branding , Brave New Marketing , Current Affairs , Food and Drink , Movies , Pop Culture , Television

April 25, 2007

Spinal Tap is back.

If you happen to do some work on a green brand (or a brand that wants to go green), now may be the time to strike a deal with the lads from Spinal Tap. Since we've been so nice to them, maybe the fine folk at W+K London will see fit to fly us over the pond for the show at Wembley?

Posted by John on April 25, 2007 at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Classics , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Movies , Music , Pop Culture

March 27, 2007

Lily and Orson and the micromanaging creative.

Sometimes directors have their hands full. Of course, sometimes directors really blow it. I'm not sure which is the case in the above video from the set of I Heart Huckabees (which is so not work safe). Watch all the clips in the series before you make up your mind.

Of course, this makes me wonder what the talent is really thinking when a micromanaging creative or client begins to pick apart their performance in a studio or on a set. How many of us really know how to direct an actor properly? When it comes to coaxing a performance from either a voice talent or an actor in a TV spot,  do you consider yourself a good director or are you really just a good dictator?

Reminds me about the classic recording of the poor agency bastards who ran up against the mind and ego of Mr. Orson Welles. If you haven't heard it in awhile or if you've only heard bits and pieces, sit back, relax and thank your lucky stars you're not selling frozen peas today. Then again, it's hard not to appreciate where Mr. Welles has to say.

Posted by John on March 27, 2007 at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Classics , Entertainment , Film , Movies , The Creative Life

March 13, 2007

Oh, you mean you were serious about that copyright thing?

But we thought the law was just so analog.

Posted by John on March 13, 2007 at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brave New Marketing , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Film , Marketing Trends , Movies , Music , News of the Ad World , Pop Culture , Web/Tech

March 04, 2007

Another Reason to Hate Sheep

Posted by SethyG on March 04, 2007 at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Entertainment , Film , Movies

February 26, 2007

After the all the hoopla, edited GM spot is better.

I missed it on air, but Sethy G. pointed out that The edited version of the GM Robot spot ran last night on the Oscars. Found it, watched it and, it's just one guy's opinion, but this is a better cut. The additional jokes and the new, more conceptual ending make the spot more charming than before.

Posted by John on February 26, 2007 at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Current Affairs , Movies , Opinion , Pop Culture , Super Bowl Stuff

February 26, 2007

iPhone and the Oscars.

The iPhone push began in earnest last night with one of the best spots on the Oscars. I don't think I'm making up the fact that the word "hello" and the brand "Apple" have a long history. None more relevant than this use. Even if that's lost on most of the world, it's a nice spot.

Posted by John on February 26, 2007 at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Brands , Movies , Pop Culture

January 08, 2007

Now You'll Listen to the Kids

A while back MSNBC posted a story about new cell phone ring tones for kids that adults couldn't hear. I didn't believe it. Then I saw several news stations reporting on the same thing, with real life examples. I still didn't believe it.

I was chatting with a friend last week and he mentioned that he was trying to figure out some way to work it into a marketing message for one of his clients. Sadly, he was too late to the punch. Sony is releasing a new movie in February called The Messengers and has a mobile strategy that goes along with it. The synopsis: there are some things only kids can see...and hear. On the web site, you can test to see if you can hear the kiddy noises, or not (I could hear some of the first one, but none of the second one).

Great, just what we need is more kids running around telling us they're better than we are. Only at hearing! Brats.

Posted by SethyG on January 08, 2007 at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Brave New Marketing , Film , Movies , Pop Culture

December 12, 2006

Forrester says iTunes sales suck.

iPods are selling like water. iTunes library gets bigger and better each day. But this report from The Register says iTunes sales are "collapsing."  Interesting reading to say the least.

Posted by John on December 12, 2006 at 05:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Brave New Marketing , Current Affairs , Entertainment , Marketing Trends , Movies , Music , Pop Culture , Sports , Television , Web/Tech

November 21, 2006

Here's what's great about the trailer for "Deja Vu"

Here's what's great about the trailer for "Deja Vu." It actually gives you deja vu. By repeating phrases, images, even the entire start to the trailer Here's what's great about the trailer for "Deja Vu." It actually gives you deja vu. By repeating phrases, images, even the entire start to the trailer, you actually feel like you've seen it before you actually feel like you've seen it before.

I really really like it. I think it's a nice piece of concept in an otherwise formulaic world in an otherwise formulaic world.

View it here. Or here.

Posted by Tug McTighe on November 21, 2006 at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Advertising , Movies

November 15, 2006

Screw you and your flu "Happy Feet"

I know Adrants already covered this but I am compelled to take a stand against it here on AC as well.
Here's what they said:

Incestuously, Happy Feet penguins on billboards refer families to Flu Facts and Flu Facts in turn refers back to Happy Feet. There's even a zip code function in which you can find out if the flu is in your area.

Here's what I say:

Call it a bully pulpit if you will, but I simply feel that marketing flu meds to kids and their parents via an animated feature is what Ernie Schenck would call a "creative no-fly zone." I have a five and a two year old and I was going to take them to see "Happy Feet." Not anymore.

This is bad, friends. This is wrong. This is a little bit dirty.

And I don't like it one bit.

Posted by Tug McTighe on November 15, 2006 at 02:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Movies

November 11, 2006

Thanks for the memories, Jack.

Jack Palance.1919-2006. No one did a better one arm push-up than you.

Posted by John on November 11, 2006 at 08:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Categories: Current Affairs , Entertainment , Movies , Television