Has anyone seen the Fox Regional Sports advertisement campaign? I’m particularly curious about the “Turkey” ad. It shows a Turkish sports commentator speaking and then swings up to a high diver who proceeds to jump from a high perch (probably about 80 feet). But the strange part is where he lands - head first into SOLID GROUND! There is no way this guy lived. The spectators proceed to applaud, and judges scores appear at the bottom of the screen. This is one of the weirdest (not to mention most disturbing) things I’ve ever seen. For those of you who don’t believe this description, there is a quicktime video of this ad featured at this link:
So my question: WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THIS AD? I mean, is this live footage of a real sport, or some kind of strange Turkish execution? Is this real at all or some kind of special effects trick? Does anyone know what the story behind this is?
Not sure where the idea came from, but there is another one in this series I have seen that makes me agree with your statement “WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THIS AD?” This one features two large men dressed in diapers and masks carrying what look like large padded baseball bats. They stand in the middle of a crowd of people, and smack the people who get too close to them. Then the entire crowd jumps on them and a small riot starts. The ad ends there, with Fox saying that they only provide coverage for sports people in the area care about.
So where do the people who care about the “sports” they are showing live? I find the ads a little amusing, if I’m right in thinking that they are just a joke. If they are real sports, I’m a little disturbed, but not that surprised.
The two blindfolded men are supposed to be fighting each other. One gets turned around and swings into the crowd of spectators. The spectators swarm over him, presumably to stop him and point him in the right direction again.
It’s the same concept used in the ad with the blindfolded girl trying to break a pinata who smashes everything around her.
The whole point of the ads is that no one cares for these “sports” and if you watch their station, they will only show sports you care about.
Interestingly, I just saw coverage of a small festival out in rural Japan this morning that comes pretty close to the ‘sport’ you describe. Rather than wearing diapers, the three main people are dressed in loose fitting pants and shirts. The focus of attention is a man dressed as a demon with long horns on his head. The horns are covered in small strips of paper, each with a small good-luck message written on them. People in the surrouning crowd try to run up and grab the pieces of paper off the demon, while the demon’s two assitants (carrying large sticks) try to whack the snot out of anyone who comes near them. To add to the mayhem, the group charges through the crowd, swinging at anyone within reach. I confess I was more than a little amused when the TV station’s reporter got smacked while talking into the camera.
As luck may have it, I actually work for Fox Sports. I will put an end to all the mystery - of course they are fake. It’s funny, but when I saw it for the first time, I too was disturbed. I had no idea what I was looking at, but after it was over, I was like, “Did they just kill some guy for a promo?” It’s very, VERY subtle, but just about half-way down, there is a “cut”, or an edit. It’s a real guy jumping off the cliff into water, but half-way down, they cut to a dummy - and that’s what goes “splat.”
The “guy catching the tree” is also a real good editing job. Not nearly as disturbing, but also very effective are the new Fox spots for the NBA where two short, un-athletic white guys look as if they are actually playing in a real NBA game. It’s done quite well and is pretty funny.
You can also check out the movie “Meet Joe Black” (in the begining when Brad Pitt’s character get hit by a car) if you want to see another example of really good trick computer editing.
By the way, please feel free to continue with the Fox bashing. I have no loyalty. They’re just a paycheck to me!