I just saw this on TV tonight! This is cool…
http://www.jerry.digisle.tv/room.html
E3
It’s a 15-minute Amex commercial.
Yeah, I have mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, the writing is good, the premise is funny, I like Seinfeld, and the animation is decent.
On the other hand, I’ll be damned if I’m gonna actively seek out and watch a commercial. (OK, I already did, so I guess I’m damned.)
I’d propose a slight rejiggering of the concept. Just have AmEx run a 30 second commercial at the beginning, and then have an episode where the writers are free to do whatever without having to work in lame product placement. That way, the creative types are unleashed, while AmEx gets their advertising, and maybe even some street cred as supporters of quality Internet short features.
Ah, I see on rereading the OP more closely that this was shown on TV–I thought it was an internet-only phenomenon. That makes it a little different. I would oppose the further breaking down of the wall between entertainment and advertising.
But my point still stands. I don’t see why AmEx couldn’t have its commercial time and then run a feature unrelated to itself, thereby getting its advertising dollar while being perceived as a patron of quality entertainment.
Give me a break, the whole point was to integrate card into a funny short.
What’s funny is that the ad totally missed its mark with me. I mean totally! I’ve seen 2 of those shorts and had no idea until I read this thread that it wasn’t just a humerous little clip. I even missed the product placement - I guess movies have numbed me to it.
I saw one on TBS Fri. night. (Jerry gets his DVD player stolen.) Somewhat lame until the Product Placement stuff showed up. The it was flat out lame.
Not going out of my way to watch any more.
I posted a thread about this a few days ago. I found them funny, and interesting. The animation was well done, and they seemed to get both Seinfeld and Superman right.
So it was AmEx. Meh… I’ve seen more adverts during a hocky game than I did in that short.
Um, yeah.
What I like best is the way no matter which of the film can titles you click on the room goes dark and a blank movie screen with nothing playing on it appears.
That is so cool. :rolleyes:
Most of which has nothing at all to do with Amex, and was pretty damn funny in my opinion.
That barrier has never existed, except perhaps in your imagination.
I agree, it’s all been downhill since Stan Freberg.
A few weeks ago, this thing aired in Seinfeld’s old time slot on NBC.
It was a lot more charming on the net than on TV.
They completely mangled Superman’s character. I thought the short was fun, and the animation was great, but the portrayal of Superman as a bungling dolt with a dullard’s voice was just baseless and annoying. Superman could have easily been played as a well-intentioned but naive dork with an appropriate Eagle Scout voice and gotten plenty of laughs from that. I wonder if Seinfeld had anything to do with that characterization. He portrays himself as a Superman-freak, but then why would he mess up his character so much?