Oh, well, I don’t think he’s really selling out, per se. It’s certainly better than sitting around whining that it’s so difficult to break into movies, isn’t it? The overlooked artist life does probably gets a little tiresome after a while. He still gets to write, stand behind a camera, edit blah de blah-same stuff but he has clients now. I know how much time and effort he puts into them-most of them are filmed like mini movies and he actually does tend to focus on building brand identity than constantly selling the product. Most of his commercials are very playful and humourous. All advertising is manipulative of course, but when done with a little style I can appreciate it.
I agree that movie advertising absolutely blows, though. I now routinely go to the movies 15 minutes late to avoid it.
Of course, this only demonstrates that when one company stops advertising and everyone else continues, that company’s sales show a decline. What it cannot demonstrate is what the consequences would be if no-one advertised.
I think that if there were no advertising at all, some products and services—those for which demand is more or less inelastic—would show no marked change in sales. Other things, where demand is more elastic, might suffer more, but even then we can’t be sure. Just because no-one was advertising Coke or Pepsi or whatever doesn’t mean that people wouldn’t drink the stuff.
Not sure if you’re being serious or not, but a few bars around here have advertising in the toilets, placed right where you can see them when you’re taking a leak. In quite a few cases, they’ve been defaced by people who write stuff making clear that they are pissed off by advertising in the bathrooms.
Talking urinal pucks. Talking. Urinal. Pucks. This can’t end well.
“La la la la, here I am in my internal monologue, gotta take a pee, doo dee doo, in the mens room, unzipping, taking a pee, OH SWEET JESUS IT’S TALKING TO ME THERE’S A GNOME IN THE URINAL, no wait, it’s just a recording, crap, too late, MY SHOES, I just peed on my shoes…”
Most recently seen in the lady’s can in Sunridge Mall, and I believe they were also seen in the Saddledome.
Oh, I forgot to address MRirian’s post from way back. I think the over-stimulation they create is definitely affecting humans. How much of our mental energy do we put into either listening to ads, or tuning them out?
(Jim says it’s moved past Orwellian and straight into Philip K. Dickian. He also says that he will no longer buy things based on the basis of a good ad, but he will refuse to buy things on the basis of a bad ad - for example, Mazda’s Zoom Zoom kid.)
Shouldn’t he be like 30 now? Or do they have him in cryogenic storage?
As far as the mini TVs go, it’s another reason to be happy I’m as tall as I am (6-6). Where they’re positioned above the urinals, looking straight ahead I look right over the top of them.
I sort of see advertising as a ruthless struggle to see how much I can get ad revenue to pay for stuff I want, while I block it out either through technology or just sheer mental fortitude.
The advertisers have the big guns, but I have absent minded space-outs on my side.
I love that commercial. A lot of the Geico commercials are really funny. The first time I saw that particular one, I really thought they were advertising a new reality show. Another one they have is the one about the hair transplant, I was up really, really late the first time I saw it (and not completely sober) and I kept thinking “that guy’s hair transplant looks HORRIBLE, you can see the plugs in the front!”. Then Geico flashed up on the screen and I felt like an idiot.
I love commercials (I’m in the advertising business), but I really hate how everything has been taken over. Like here in Columbus, we have the Value City Arena (Jerome Schottenstein Center). Schottenstein (in case no one knows) owns MI Homes, Schottenstein’s (discount clothing store), Value City Furniture, etc. Other than that, I have no issues with marketing. In a capitalistic market, what can you expect?
Heh. I think that if I were to get rich enough, I’d buy the naming rights to a stadium and call it “Veteran’s Memorial Stadium” or “(whatever city it’s in) Arena” or something like that.
I’d probably even get more and better local publicity for the decision. “What? The stadium’s not named after some dumb company? How is this possible?” “Oh, manny Corp. bought the naming rights but didn’t name it after themselves. It’s really cool. They own…”
Alternatively, I’d buy naming rights and screw with people. Like buying the rights to the (soon to be former) Fleet Center in Boston and calling it Madison Square Garden or renaming Pittsburgh’s football stadium Lambeau Field.
The Brits get the BBC without ads for £9.67 (about $18) each month. So, why can the British government-run broadcaster do it so cheap, when the American privately-run broadcasters are so expensive?
Well, I’d reason that Coca-Cola could go a year without advertising whatsoever and donate their advertising budget to some worthy causes, and it would be the best publicity they could ever hope for - not only would people appreciate not having their lame ads rammed down their throats every two minutes, they’d be seen as philanthropic, and might even end up helping people as a bonus. But then, I guess that’s why I’d never make it in advertising. Well, that and the fact that I’d fuck myself with a rusty pitchfork before you ever heard me utter the phrase “I love that commercial”…
Oops. My point in the first part was that Coke really could go a year without advertising without it affecting their sales, I wager. Shit, you could rename this country The United States of Coca-Cola and I doubt any other nation in the world would consider it inapt.
Has anyone else noticed the Twenties (?) thing that’s been going on for a while now? They suggest you come to the movie theatre early so that you can watch twenty minutes of ads before the previews. And here I am, always trying to come in after the previews because they insist on flashing the entire screen white repeatedly until I’m too blinded to watch the movie. Same for the sudden loud noises. Between the two of them, I “watch” the previews with my eyes shut tight and my fingers in my ears.
