Hasta La Creative!

Disney’s movie studio, which has stumbled recently, takes a bold risk with a prequel to the beloved 1939 musical, “The Wizard of Oz.”

Entertainment companies are responding to criticism that violence in film and on television has contributed to a culture of violence in the country.

Charges totaling $165 million, including a hefty write-down related to the underperforming movie “Rise of the Guardians,” resulted in a fourth-quarter loss for DreamWorks Animation.

Focus sur ce projet du journaliste Christopher Moloney qui s’est intéressé à revenir sur les lieux de tournages des plus célèbres films pour les comparer. Voici plus de 50 exemples avec les longs métrages : Ghostbusters, Men In Black, The Dark Knight Rises, Home Alone 2, Léon ou Ghost à découvrir dans la suite.

Spécialisé dans le milieu de la mode, voici l’ensemble du travail du photographe Greg Williams sur son portfolio. Des célébrités, mannequins, et de nombreuses compositions pour le cinéma. Plusieurs exemples sont à découvrir dans la suite.

Previously on Fubiz

• Tom Munro
• Riccardo Bagnoli
• Matías Troncoso

Just how many advertising messages are we exposed to on a daily basis? In Data Smog, author David Skenk writes that the average American’s exposure to advertising has grown from “560 daily advertising messages in 1971. By 1997, that number had increased to over 3,000 per day.”

While the figures are controversial due to the definition of the word “advertising,” even 200 hundred messages a day is more than we’ll remember. Be thankful for that, because most of them are crap that shouldn’t have made it past the concept stage.

While the number of victims stricken by “Crapvertising” is unknown, there is a place where those who have fallen prey can expose the offender(s): The Tracy Awards.  Based on the premise that advertisers produce a lot of  ”bad ads,” the First Annual Tracy Awards are accepting submissions for the Worst in Advertising 2009. Its call to action:

“There’s a lot of bad advertising out there. Let’s make fun of it.”

Noted as the first competition of its kind, The Tracy’s provide those exposed to terrible advertising an opportunity “strike back” at advertisers who produce crap. The press release goes on to explain:

Every ad we receive will be judged. Harshly. And if it’s bad enough, it will win a Tracy, which will be sent to the people responsible for creating the abomination in the first place. Plus, all ads that win Tracy’s will be nationally publicized as the Worst Advertising of 2009.

The Tracy Awards were conceived by Salt Lake City ad agency Crowell Advertising and are named for agency founder, Tracy Crowell.

Take a few minutes to view the crap or submit some. If you are like me, making fun of others’ work will make the day so much better.

Jeff Louis: Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, blogger, and aspiring writer. Please leave a comment or follow him on Twitter. As always, thanks for reading.

Welcome back to the third and final edition of “Want to Play a Game of Tag (Lines)?” because like a good movie franchise, it ends as a trilogy (hint-hint Indiana Jones). In case you missed it, here’s part one and part two.

Now, weren’t these some cringe-worthy taglines? Before rolling your eyes so hard into unconsciousness, did you figure out the corresponding movies? Here they are with special Tommentaries:

“He stole the money…and he’s not giving it back.” (2003) -Kangaroo Jack

As witless as this tagline may be, it does give you an idea of the movie. It’s witless (forgive me Estella Warren, I’d still watch you in anything).

“Rocky shows he’s a champ…and wins!” (1979) -Rocky II

All I can say about this one is “wow.” There is just no combination of words I could string together to better express my sentiment for this tagline. I mean… wow.

“Size does matter” (1998) -Godzilla

I’m all for clever double entendres, but this one has been beaten to death. It lacks relevance on its second level of entendreness (made up word, don’t use it). Sadly, I drive by a billboard for a casino everyday that uses this same phrase to reference its jackpot. It just makes me shake my head. In my mind. Not while driving. That would be dangerous.

“You will believe a cow can fly” (1996) -Twister

Kudos to this one for parodying the Superman tagline and having relevance, but sadly the Superman tagline wasn’t very good either.  Plus, I’m sure not many people realized the parody, which renders this tagline silly. So close…

“The wait is ogre” (2008) -Shrek 3

You just know the guys who came up with this one were patting themselves on the back for the sly wordplay. Unfortunately, it makes no sense. Unless “the wait” actually is a monstrously ugly green creature, then I apologize for criticizing so Shreklessly (it’s contagious, I’m sorry).

“Twelve is the new Eleven” (2004) -Ocean’s Twelve

I tried using this line in grade school to explain my math answer. Mrs. Dodson was not having it. And now, neither will I.

“Everything that has a beginning has an end” (2003) -The Matrix Revolutions

Umm, yeah… and I bet there was probably a middle too. In an attempt to be metaphysical and profound (catch my irony?), the creators of this gem failed miserably.

“The saga is complete.” (2005) -Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith

Where’s the effort? Star Wars is the biggest movie franchise and this is the tagline they end it with?! They might as well have gone with “Done.”

“It could happen to you!” (1997) -Breakdown

This is only a bad tagline because a lot of the stuff that happened in the movie really couldn’t happen to you.

“Cowabunga, it’s the new turtle movie.” (1991) -Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze

I realized this was a terrible tagline even as a kid. I just wish I realized how lame Vanilla Ice was. Oh well, “go ninja, go ninja, go!”

Thanks for playing!

Tommy Liu, the man, the legend (to be) wields his pen of creativity against the injustice of mediocriety plaguing the world as the Creative Officer at Supercool Creative & Marketing Director at SpotZero where he also manages the blog. Click here to view some of his battles (he doesn’t always win).

AdWeek and Harris recently released a poll asking those not involved in the advertising trade what they thought of advertising’s “relevancy.”

The results show that most find that our jobs, as a whole, are rather irrelevant.

Advertising’s down, no doubt, and now Adweek’s heaping salt on the wound!

Well, Mr. and Mrs. America, let’s look at a life without advertising. A life of relevance.

First of all, without advertising, we would not have free access to television. Advertisers in essence pay for the shows we watch by running commercials. By the same logic, the web in that state would not be as comprehensive as the one we experience now. Radio would be a paid service with subscribers. Programs and shows with relatively lower ratings would be immediately slashed since they would no longer be able to support themselves.

The cultural art form of advertising would be lost.  The circle of life would be disrupted.  Just as life influences advertising, ads influence culture.

Without advertising, creatives would be cubicle-bound and non-imaginative. Serious. Boring. Sex would not sell, and neither would honesty. No one would fight for the cause. PETA would consist of two guys fighting for animal rights, and no one would care. Animals wouldn’t be cool to wear. Or not wear. Or own.  Times Square would be dimly lit. Your favorite beer would be just “BEER,” as the term ‘generic’ would dominate store shelves. Color would be sparse. Trendsetters would be trend-less. No brands, no logos, no icons or spokespeople. No sexy models, sexy shows, or suggestive commercials. We wouldn’t know who to vote for, or why. Four hour erections? Who’d need the pills, let alone use them? No body-image, no silicone implants, no tummy-tucks. No Jon & Kate. Michael Jackson would just be another singer. No Hollywood trailers, stars, starlets, tramps, red carpets, or blockbuster openings. No E! TV, no TMZ. No Paris, Lindsay, Nicole, or reality TV. No Tila Tequila.

No PSA’s warning that your brain on drugs was scrambled. Or that kids shouldn’t smoke crack and that crack kills. Rather than axing the marketing budget first, corporations would axe employees. And that would be just fine, because there would be no PR effort, no big news story, therefore no downside.

Life would go on, but it would be bland and tasteless. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and MySpace: no need for them.

Take a picture of the Cold War-era Russia and apply it to a life without advertising. Cold. Drizzling. Muddled.

The link to this study is now unavailable.  Was the issue so unimportant that Adweek pulled the article? Or was the study published on the wrong day?

Luckily, I printed it:

In an AdweekMedia/Harris Poll last month, respondents were given a chance to say they don’t feel strongly about the industry one way or another, and nearly half of them took it. Asked to characterize their overall impression of “the advertising industry in general,” 47 percent said it’s “neither negative nor positive.” Predictably, those with a negative view of the business (9 percent “very,” 28 percent “somewhat”) outnumbered those with a positive view (2 percent “very,” 15 percent “somewhat”). (The total exceeds 100 percent due to rounding.)

If such numbers count as not-so-bad news for the ad business, responses were less positive on the question of whether consumers find advertising relevant to their lives (”By relevant,” Harris told respondents, “we mean how it connects to things that are ongoing in your daily life”). Given the effort put into aiming the right ad at the right target, the numbers here were pretty lackluster. Eight percent of respondents said advertising is “very relevant” to their lives, and 42 percent said it’s “somewhat relevant.” Thirty-two percent termed it “not that relevant” and 14 percent “not at all relevant,” with the rest unsure.

Can you say “OUCH!”?

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Project Manager, and New Business Account Coordinator. His passion is writing. Reach out and touch him: www.linkedin.com or www.twitter.com.

This is in-sane.