Hasta La Creative!

How do you market an animated comedy about a horndog spy? Duh—post ads on a NSFW Reddit forum, where tons of young horndogs in your target demographic are hanging out all the time anyway.

FX series Archer did just that to promote its upcoming fifth season, taking to the 18+ GoneWild subreddit with a series of banner ads designed to look like nude (if modest) postings from the show's characters, with taglines like "My first post. Who wants to play?" They might be the most clever pseudo-native ads ever. The only real surprise is Archer's team didn't think of this earlier. Via Esquire.

Well, they finally went and did it.

After four solid seasons of douchebaggy secret agent Sterling Archer bellowing "DANGER ZONE!" in a Logginsy falsetto, FX has re-created the hilariously self-serious music video of the action theme from Top Gun. Archer is (of course) Tom Cruise's Maverick, evil psychopath Barry is Val Kilmer's Iceman, Archer's on-again-off-again girlfriend Lana is the Meg Ryan character, and his secret friend with benefits, Pam, is Kelly McGillis. And, of course, poor Cyril is Goose.

The crème de la crème, though, is disturbingly perverted IT guy Krieger as the great Kenny Loggins, leering at the camera in a fashion that seems parodic and over-the-top until you see the actual music video (see below the FX clip).

I wish I could remember the exact moment when Archer became a show I admitted I loved. It was probably around the time Archer started talking about how he "didn't invent the turtleneck, but I was the first to recognize its potential as a tactical garment." It's consistently one of the best-acted shows on TV, especially H. Jon Benjamin as the lead character. And the jokes … well, just watch to the end of the clip.