If you were paying attention to the commercials during the Golden Globes last night you might have noticed a strange looking Orville Redenbacher popcorn commercial . Apparently, ConAgra decided that it would be a good idea to CGI his face onto actual actors. As disturbing as the whole idea seems, I must admit that I think there is a wealth of potential for the field of CGI behind this advertising campaign. I have discussed this commercial in one of my computer modeling classes, but we all share similar interests so it is difficult to get an idea of how most people feel about this type of commercial. I was wondering how dopers felt about this commercial and others that have resurrected actors to sell a product.
Too tasteless for words.
Seriously oogy. They should do what KFC did and make him a cartoon character.
They did turn him into a cartoon character for the campaign before this one.
It may be an attempt to memorialize Mr. Redenbacher, the real-life Indianan whose quest for the perfect popcorn hybrid was financed by a fortune made in the fertilizer business. He died at 88 in 1995 - he’d have turned 100 this July.
But it amounts to rank impersonation and an attempt to dupe the public, and as such, it defiles Orville’s memory.
I’d write ConAgra and complain, except I’m diabetic and can’t eat popcorn.
Urgh. I hope he washed his hands first.
I just don’t think it’s terribly effective. The voice match isn’t anywhere near what I remember (although I probably remember the oldest Orville the best), and while the face doesn’t look or move badly, it’s just not right. It’s about as effective as a bad impersonator, and far less effective than a good one.
It was disturbing. Almost like watching an evil clown; I was waiting for it to turn into a giant spider. Very ineffective at making me want to buy popcorn, let alone eat.
I was totally creeped out by it. If I actually ever ate popcorn, I’d steer clear of Orville Redenbacher’s.
I initially thought it was an impersonator. Unlike Telemark, however, I never anticipated he might turn into a giant spider. Are you taking anything special, Telly?
Nope. That’s what gave his popcorn that “extra special” flavor.
I, too, felt it looked really strange. I kept expecting the guy to rip the “mask” off at the end and have that be the punch-line. I really don’t like the direction this is going:
Executive #1 : “Peter O’Toole still refuses to do our ads for our new line of ladies tampons!”
Executive #2: “No worries, we’ll just wait till he dies then {re} animate his corpse!”
Orville lived his last years on Coronado Island in San Diego and had a listed phone number. I was a college radio DJ in the 80’s and we called him a few times and put him on the air. He was always a totally good sport about it. We’d ask him about current events and, of course, pop corn. Did you know that microwave pop corn and regular pop corn are the same? The secret is in the packaging. I got that right from the horse’s mouth.
The reason this creeps most people out is because Orville was a known personality and his death was covered in the press.
When Parker Fennelly died in 1988 it was mentioned that he played the part of Titus Moody in the Fred Allen radio show and that his last film was somewhere around 1971 (I think).
And I wondered if…
Nope. He wasn’t a known personality. Most of the people who’d remember him were probably long gone, so for years after his death you’d still hear his clipped New England accent saying “Pepperage Faams Remembahs.”
CG still images usually look pretty convincing at first glance, but as soon as I saw the still image that you linked to, I thought it looked like a wax dummy or a poorly embalmed corpse. More like Jeremy Bentham than Orville Redenbacher.
The video clip was just as creepy, and the really bad voice impersonation doesn’t help at all. The ads with archival footage of old actors digitally inserted into new scenes like that beer commercial with John Wayne are morally iffy (for the reasons fallapart demonstrated), but at least they’re pretty cool aesthetically. They should have done that with Orville.
Do you remember a time when women weren’t allowed to vote and certain women weren’t allowed on golf courses? Petridge Farms remembers.
Good thing he doesn’t mind doing ads for men’s tampons, then.