Since this is a topic related to a TV ad, I figured this may be the appropriate forum. If not, I apologize ahead of time…
We all have seen/heard how many shows/movies have removed or changed any references to the WTC events of 9/11. The Twin Towers were edited out of scenes, a Spiderman movie was changed because the towers were a big part of one scene, and folks even say that the Simpsons episode featuring the towers will not be shown anymore. I even read that “E.T.” will be changed because of a line about terrorists.
But was anyone else surprised to see that a commercial (of all things) was changed too? It aired on ESPN pretty much all day today, and has been doing so for a while. It’s an ad for a nicotine patch. Though I can’t “prove” it, there is no doubt that the change was made because of the terrorist events. The ad features a woman and man on a high-up balcony at a party. The woman is smoking a cigarette, and the man approaches.
Old Version:
She: Aren’t the cravings terrible?
He: Well [gesturing to how high up they are], I’m not thinking of jumping, if that’s what you mean.
New Version:
She: Aren’t the cravings terrible?
He: Well [as camera moves to obviously different angle from behind, so the different lip movements can’t be seen], I’m not pulling my hair out, if that’s what you mean.
So now the entire topic of people jumping out of buildings is taboo too? Isn’t it rather pointless to change already-existent things? I can see maybe not making new films/shows/ads that might mention the towers or events, but do we really need to do stuff like this? Most importantly of all, the next time I watch “Bachelor Party,” is Tom Hanks no longer going to be able to say the following after meeting “Nick the D—”:
“Well, I was impressed when they built the World Trade Center, but that’s a piece of work.”
Windows XP was set to roll out with the slogan “Prepare to Fly”. That’s been changed to “Yes You Can”. They’re spending $200M on the campaign. That’s a big ship to turn; I wonder how many millions they lost making the change.
When Harry Met Sally was on TNT a couple of weeks ago and in the very beginning, when she drops him off in NYC at that big arch, you can clearly see the WTC in the background through the arch. Hubby and I pointed it out at the same time. I can’t imagine editing the movie just to remove the towers. They were there at that time.
I very recently saw the commercial for the smoking patch and I’m almost positive he said the “jumping” line. I always thought it was a little odd, so I would have noticed if it would have changed.
I wondered about sitcoms, who use stock footage for those “establishing shots” (Friends, Will & Grace) and if they will re-do any shots that showed the WTC.
Kinsey–Yes, until recently they kept the “jumping” line, but a week or so ago (I’m estimating), they most definitely changed it (at least where I am). The most obvious change is the footage angle, which, as I said before, moves from a front-on shot to a behind the head shot. It was as noticable as when they cut out swears in a movie and “solve” the problem by changing the way in which the viewer sees the speaker, perhaps using an alternate camera angle.
I noticed that too. I don’t think it was specifically WTC related; it’s just that after they ran it a while sombody realized how gauche the line was (and would have been on Spet. 10, too.)
Just to clarify about Spielberg and E.T. while we are at it. I believe he actually took the line out about terrorists some ten years ago, I guess feeling it was inapporpriate.
I flew into Newark airport this weekend and rented a car from avis. Behind the counter was a huge picture of the NYC skyline with the WTC right up front. Both my fiancee and I wondered how far the editing of the WTC should go. I personally feel that maybe for now, new productions should handle references to the 11th with kid gloves but as far as past references, they should be left intact.
And the same was true of Back to the Future. When the Libyan terrorists come in to get the doc, they edit the scenes where he gets shot and where Marty runs around…all you see is Doc Brown lying down and Marty jumping into the DeLorean. Looks really weird if you’re used to the regular one.
It seems that somehow two threads of the same content were posted. Sorry. I guess one of them should be locked. Mr. or Miss Moderator, can that be done? Thanks.
I can’t remember exactly but about two years back there was a car commercial and this young guy was with this old fishing guy who was trying to get the guy to be part of the fising crew and said something like
Just think of it
1 boat
6 months
12 men
then he put his arm on the guys shoulder in a such a way as you could interpet it either way.
Then they cut the 12 men part out of the dialogue and deleted the arm bit.
Now about Back to the Future.
Were you watching it on broadcast television? Because if you were and it was something like an afternoon movie I can see them cutting that bit with Doc being shot.
There was a commercial a few years ago for a restaurant. It was some sort of “family restaurant” like Denny’s. They were adding fajitas to the menu and were billing it as some sort of cross cultural food and how fajitas came from two (three?) different cultures or something.
It went “when the Native Americans came here to hunt, and the Spanish came here to conquer them (there may have been a third culture)” and then goes on to say how the mixed cultures made fajitas. When I heard it I turned to my wife and said, “can you believe they said that?” She wasn’t paying attention so I made her listen again the next week when it came on again. This time it said, “and the Spanish came here to find gold.” The edit was totally obvious too.
My friend was showing me a full page ad today from a magazine. It was an ad for Jet Blu and showed the airplane photgraphed from an angle slightly above and behind it. To the right and in fron of the plane, they were fying quite close to… you guessed it, the World Trade Centers. The caption on the bottom of the ad says, “You’ve got a friend up there.”
This reminds me of an ad that was on TV years ago. It was an add for MiniWheats, with those little animated miniwheats who have hands and feet and faces. Anyway, this one showed one of the miniwheats getting ready for a date, and while he is looking into the mirror he says:
“She’s gonna love me. She’ll be my sex slave forever!”
Me and my friend just looked at each other and were like, did we just hear that? This was about 7 years ago I think, so they didn’t even use terms like that in primetime, let alone on breakfast cereal commercials. The line was changed, and because it was a cartoon it wasn’t really noticable. Can’t remember what it was changed to. Anyone else know?
I just saw another one–though this was from a sitcom, not a commercial. I had an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond” on tape from a week or two ago, and just watched it today. Ray and his wife were playing a bedroom-type game, and the instruction was to “Kiss your partner as if he were going off to climb Mount Everest.” But you could obviously tell from the movement of the characters’ lips that the original line was, “Kiss your partner as if he were going off to war.” I guess the word “war” is taboo.
Hijack. SNL did a funny parody about editing out references to the WTC in the 1976 version of King Kong.
Anybody remember the Little Ceaser’s commericial back when they started delivering? When it first ran, you saw some girls who were at a party, the doorbell rings, and one of the girl’s shouts, “The male stripper’s here!” This was later changed to the much less funnier, “The entertainment’s here!”
It was on cable, TBS I think. Once in the evening and another time in the afternoon.
I just saw that ad mentioned in the OP…it is pretty obvious about the editing, especially in the way that they just cut behind to the view from behind them…looks really unnatural.
I was watching a rerun of “Friends” and they showed the skyline, and I could see the WTC buildings…it was just a rerun, though, and a very short shot of it.
…especially in the tourist-y areas, like Times Square, it’s amazing how many stores and restaurants had murals of the NYC skyline, in their windows or higher walls, with the WTC prominently featured. Some of them have put little flag ribbons over them like a halo, if they can reach them. They’re also on trucks, especially delivery ones, and tourist buses, sculptures, the cop shoulder patches, etc. We didn’t have the same affection for them that we do for the Empire State or even Chrysler Building, but they were so big and defining of downtown and it looks really really weird not to see them any more. The World Financial Center and the Woolworth Building are now the tallest buildings there and nobody had really noticed how big they were. (OK, OK, so the Woolworth was the tallest there from 1913 to 1972 or so).
I don’t think there’s any point in whitewashing history. New projects should have the towers removed digitally if its simply background, but there’s no need to pretend they never existed. But the thoughts of people who lost someone must be very sad as they walk by these stores.
this thread is driving me insane. i’ve seen the ad mentioned in the OP twice since i first read this thread a few days ago, and each time it had the “jumping” line. am i hallucinating? everyone else who’s posted here said they saw the edited version. are they running two versions of it, like an original and an edited? that doesn’t seem to make much sense to me, though.
Dear sir,
I am writing in response to your use of the word “hijack” in your post. I must say that I am very highly offended by it. In this day and age, it is important that we watch how exactly we phrase things. Instead of “hijack,” perhaps you could say… umm… “carjack.” Yes, that doesn’t have anything to do with the events of September 11. If you don’t decide to change your policy towards your use of the word “hijack,” I will expect a settlement for $1.5 million and a written apology. You insensitive monster. How dare you.
Sincerely,
A very concerned citizen of these great United States of America.
