Vince Vaughn's Hilarious Stock Photos Were Made From These Equally Ludicrous Originals

By now, you’ve probably seen Fox and Getty’s wonderful promotion for the movie Unfinished Business, with Vince Vaughn, Dave Franco and Tom Wilkinson posing for boringly clever stock photos.

Well, it turns out the images were Photoshopped from real stock photos. We’ve done you a solid by pairing the originals with the spoofs and turning them into GIFs. 

Sorry in advance if we’ve shattered the illusion of Vince Vaughn ever sitting in an office. 

Credit for all the original photos: Global Stock/iStock by Getty Images



Fans Successfully Unlocked the New Avengers Trailer, and It Was Totally Worth It

Marvel both delighted and infuriated its rabid fan base today by making them work together to unlock the new Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer by tweeting about it. But good news: The trailer is amazing.

All morning, a promoted post on Twitter asked fans to “tweet to unlock” the new ad, and now the spot is live. Check it out below for your fix of James Spader, Robert Downey Jr. and an overflowing superhero smorgasbord:



Whoa, This Weird Retro Ad Imagines Birdman as a Real Action Figure

Last fall, Fox Searchlight gave away limited-edition Birdman action figures as part of its marketing for the movie. Now, the Best Picture Oscar winner is reopening in cinemas—and getting a dose of new marketing, including a commercial for those toys.

It’s a fun little morsel of ’90s nostalgia—a parody of old Saturday morning toy ads. And like the film it’s promoting, it’s a multi-layered gem. It has more cuts than the entire movie, though, and also has young children (certainly not the target demo of the R-rated film itself). This is surely a nod to the original Birdman cartoon from the ’60s and the subsequent Adult Swim reboot.

“Hey kids! You too can now defeat Birdman’s arch-nemesis The Condor with this spiffy Birdman Action Figure! Batteries not included,” says the YouTube page, which goes on to mention that Birdman reopens in theaters this weekend.

Check out the ad, but don’t get too close—it “smells like balls.”

And for more Birdman action figure goodness, check out BirdmanSpeaks.com—and click on the speech bubbles. But make sure you have headphones. This isn’t G-rated stuff.



Oscars Relive the Glory of Past Winners in Stirring Ads for Sunday's Show

The Oscars are just around the corner, so now’s as good a time as any to start amping yourself up by revisiting past highlights. And the show’s producers, with help from 180LA, are making it easy to get a quick fix with the four new ads below, cut together by Oscar-winning editor Kirk Baxter.

The first, “And the Oscar Goes to,” features a parade of stars—too many to name, though movie buffs might have a fun time trying to rattle them all off—doing their best victory dances. Their exuberance is pretty moving, even if it’s plenty vain, too.

A second, “Holding Oscars,” features the campaign’s most poignant moment—one second of Robin Williams looking around in breathless gratitude, a genuine scene that makes the loss of such a talent sting all the more in hindsight.

The third spot, a multilingual Kumbaya “Everyone Speaks Oscar,” can’t help but be a bit corny. (Sure, movies are a universal language, sort of, but really, where would most of us be without subtitles?) Still, the Academy deserves a nod in the Best Lie category for trying to pretend Hollywood isn’t a U.S.-dominated enterprise, and implying the winners are an ethnically diverse bunch—when in fact they’re mostly white.

The fourth ad, a Valentine’s spot featuring the likes of Matthew McConaughey and Tom Hanks kissing their wives at the show, is cute enough, set to the fairly obscure but anachronistically charming sounds of “Am I in Love” from 1952’s Son of Paleface, performed by Bob Hope and Jane Russell.

For good measure, 180LA also commissioned a series of 15 posters featuring the Oscar statue alongside various artists interpretations of imagination (a popular theme in ads because it’s hard to hate).

The results feature a number of nods to the award show’s roots in the Art Deco era, but the standouts are really the weirder takes—like Hattie Stewart’s leering, winking cartoon hearts, and Blastto’s surrealist eyeball sculpture. Because if those aren’t apt metaphors for America’s unhealthy obsession with celebrity, what is?

CREDITS
Client: Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
President: Cheryl Boone Isaacs
Chief Executive Officer: Dawn Hudson
Chief Marketing Officer: Christina Kounelias
Marketing Manager: Ford Oelman

Agency: 180LA
Chief Creative Officer: William Gelner
Creative Directors: Zac Ryder / Adam Groves
Copywriter: Christina Semak
Art Director: Karine Grigorian
Head of Production: Natasha Wellesley
Producer: Nili Zadok
Chief Marketing Officer: Stephen Larkin
Account Manager: Jessica DeLillo
Account Coordinator: Alexandra Conti
Planner: Jason Knight

Editorial _ HOLDING / GOES TO / VDAY
Editorial Company: Exile Edit
Editor: Nate Gross (HOLDING)
Editor: Will Butler (VDAY & GOES TO)
Executive Producer: Carol Lynn Weaver
Producer: Brittany Carson

Editorial _ FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Editor: Dave Groseclose (Foreign Language)
Producer: Brian Scharwath (Foreign Language)

Color/VFX/Finishing: The Mill LA
Colorist: Adam Scott
Color Executive Producer: Thatcher Peterson
Color Producers: Natalie Westerfield, Antonio Hardy
Color Coordinator: Diane Valera
Lead 2D Artist: Robin McGloin
Additional 2D Artists: Scott Johnson
Art Department: Jeff Langlois, Laurence Konishi
Executive Producer: Sue Troyan
VFX Producer: Kiana Bicoy
VFX Coordinator: Jillian Lynes

Recording Mix
Recording Studio: Eleven Sound
Date: Various
Mixer: Scott Burns
Asst Mixer: AJ Murillo
Producer: Dawn Redmann
Executive Producer: Suzanne Hollingshead

Sex Toy Company Makes a Movie, With a Special Trailer You Can't Watch Alone

LELO, the luxury sex toy brand, is getting into the movie business. And fittingly, it’s sexing up the marketing around it with a pretty creative interactive trailer.

The trailer is called PlayTogether, and the hook is that you have to watch it with someone else. It syncs up two smartphones and displays video across both of them, and the viewers have to make choices together about which scenes to watch next.

If that seems less about sex and more about getting along well together—that’s what the movie is about, too. The first mainstream film produced by a sex toy company, it’s called Beyond The Wave—and it won’t feature any sex toys or accessories. Instead, it takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where men and women have chosen to live separately (which, sex toy use aside, wouldn’t seem to bode well for the future of what’s left of the human race).

The movie stars Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers, Sleepy Hollow), Emilie Ohana (Paris, Je t’aime) and newcomer Zhu Wei Ling. “On the surface it’s a love story, but deeper than that, it’s a reminder of how to enrich relationships in an increasingly individualistic and divided world,” the filmmakers say.

Check out the traditional trailer below.



Movie Stars From Iconic Scenes Stare Right at You in FX's Intense, Eerie Promos

How would you feel if, during high-tension moments in your favorite movies, the cameras cut to slow motion and the lead actors turned to stare right at you?

Now you might find out, thanks to a new campaign by from Fox Entertainment’s movie channel, FXM. Production company Imaginary Forces took key frames from films that are slated to air on the network, and then used 3-D animation techniques to manipulate the characters’ faces so they’d be looking at the camera.

The 10 spots, which are 20 seconds each, are loosely tied together under FX’s “Fearless” positioning, which the behind-the-scenes video says allowed Imaginary Forces to “get strange” in its approach to teasing the network’s programming.

Some of the cuts are more effective than others. Daniel Craig’s scene from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is particularly eerie. Will Ferrell’s from Step Brothers is particularly funny. None actually captures fear quite as well as Kevin Bacon’s in X-Men: First Class. Jesse Eisenberg’s in The Social Network might take the cake for most creepy (or maybe it’s just the whole idea of Facebook ruling the world that’s still unsettling).

Regardless, it’s a nifty experiment. As for whether it’ll make you want to watch any of the movies again—let’s just say Bruce Willis’s character in the Sixth Sense is still dead.

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CREDITS
Client: FX Networks
Designed and Produced by: Imaginary Forces
Creative Directors: Tosh Kodama, Peter Frankfurt
Art Director: Dan Meehan
Executive Producer: Ben Apley
Head of Production: Claudina Mercado
Producers: Terry O’Gara, JJ Gerber
Designers: Tosh Kodama, John Kim, Ryan Massiah, Kina Choi
Junior Designer: Wes Yang
Design Intern: Ryan Massiah
Animators: Dan Meehan, Kina Choi
3D Model Builders: DeAndre Moore, Jamin Joseph-Lackie
Compositors: Orlando Costa, Sam Cividanis, Ben Hurand
Editors: Ryan Hensley, Kina Choi
Illustrator: Alejandro Lee
Inferno Artist: Rod Basham
Photographer: Ryan Speers
Coordinators: Nicole Zschiesche, Dominick Guglielmo
Copywriter: Kyle Barron-Cohen
Music Company: Easy Feel
Composer: Mark Share



The Nominations Are Out, and Here's a New Eye-Bending Oscars Ad With Neil Patrick Harris

Whether you agree with the nominations (The Lego Movie was ROBBED), it’s an exciting day for Hollywood, as the Oscar contenders were announced this morning, including esteemed cinematographer Dick Poop.

Everyone’s favorite teenage M.D., Douglas Howser, will be the host of this year’s broadcast, and will certainly not disappoint like that shlub Neil Patrick Harris usually does. 

Kidding aside, the Oscars rolled out this 30-second spot today featuring a little optical trickery to promote the show, which will air Sunday, Feb. 22, on ABC.

And here are a couple of NPH Oscars spots from a couple weeks back:



The New Star Wars Trailer Has Arrived, and the Year-Long Wait Has Begun

What will the next Star Wars film look like, feel like and sound like? We’ve had no idea…until now.

The trailer for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens has finally arrived, and it’s packed with enough old-school vehicles and sound effects to show that director J.J. Abrams isn’t going to try reinventing the whole look of the saga.

So take a brief break from shopping, napping and leftover sandwich making to gather up the family and watch this titillating teaser:



These Subtly Animated Posters for Disney's Into the Woods Are Creepily Compelling

Animated posters for movies? Sounds annoying. Wait, subtly animated posters? Now you have my attention.

Disney’s cinema adaptation of the Broadway musical Into the Woods is being teased with a series of animated portraits that do a good job setting the mood for a dark fairy tale. In most of the GIFs, the only movement is in the form of shifting shadows and reflected moonlight. 

Subtle animation is quite a creative trend these days, so it’s not like Disney’s marketing team invented the idea. But it’s still a great example of when form and function work well together.

Check them all out below, via Disney Insider.

 



Kevin Smith's New Movie Was Inspired by This Insane Ad Seeking a Part-Time Walrus

Hollywood movies aren’t usually based on prank ads, but Kevin Smith’s latest proudly is.

The comedy-horror hybrid, titled Tusk, is about a crazy person (played by Michael Parks) who wants to surgically modify a sane person (played by Justin Long) into a walrus. The inspiration for the bizarre story came from a similarly quirky classified ad from Britain that offered free housing to anyone willing to act like a walrus, in costume, for two hours a day.

“Whilst in the walrus costume you must be a walrus,” read the ad, “there must be no speaking in a human voice, and any communication must entail making utterances in the voice of a walrus—I believe there aer (sic) recordings available on the web—to me, the voice is the most natural thing I have ever heard. Other duties will involve catching and eating the fish and crabs that I will occasionally throw to you whilst you are being the walrus.”

Smith found the joke ad online and discussed it on his podcast, reports Variety, then decided to turn it into a movie after receiving popular support for the idea on social media.

The ad’s author, Chris Parkinson of Brighton, got an associate producer credit for the movie, visited the set in North Carolina and attended the premiere in Los Angeles. He is apparently a regular writer of joke ads, though most don’t yield quite as much success—in addition to the movie, he says this one drew 400 responses.

That’s not really that surprising, though—paying rent by pretending to be a walrus actually seems like a pretty good deal.

Full text of the original walrus ad below.

Hello, I am looking for a lodger in my house. I have had a long and interesting life and have now chosen Brighton as a location for my retirement. Among the many things I have done in my life is to spend three years alone on St. Lawrence Island. These were perhaps the most intense and fascinating years of my life, and I was kept in companionship with a walrus whom I named Gregory. Never have I had such a fulfilling friendship with anyone, human or otherwise, and upon leaving the island I was heartbroken for months. I now find myself in a large house over looking Queens Park and am keen to get a lodger. This is a position I am prepared to offer for free (eg: no rent payable) on the fulfillment of some conditions. I have, over the last few months, been constructing a realistic walrus costume, which should fit most people of average proportions, and allow for full and easy movement in character. To take on the position as my lodger you must be prepared to wear the walrus suit for approximately two hours each day (in practice, this is not two hours every day—I merely state it here so you are able to have a clear idea of the workload). Whilst in the walrus costume you must be a walrus—there must be no speaking in a human voice, and any communication must entail making utterances in the voice of a walrus – I believe there aer (SIC) recordings available on the web – to me, the voice is the most natural thing I have ever heard. Other duties will involve catching and eating the fish and crabs that I will occasionally throw to you whilst you are being the walrus. With the exception of this, you will be free to do whatever you choose, and will have a spacious double room, complete run of the house (with the exception of my bedroom and my workshop), and use of all facilities within. I am a considerate person to share a house with, and other than playing the accordion my tastes are easy to accomodate (SIC).

Due to the nature of this position I will need to audition all applicants before agreeing to take the chosen candidate on as a lodger. Please contact me if you have any questions.



Meet the Adman Who Really, Really Likes Laughing at Adolf Hitler

Anyone who knows Jim Riswold knows he has a bit of a Hitler obsession—or more specifically, an obsession with making the Nazi leader look stupid through art. Speaking to Vice in 2011, the legendary Wieden + Kennedy copywriter explained:

“Bad guys don’t mind being called bad guys. But bad guys don’t like to be laughed at. I have always thought humour could diffuse fears and deflate even the most evil of egos. Voltaire said, ‘I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: “O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous.” And God granted it.’ I made Hitler look ridiculous. Hitler is ridiculous. But please don’t tell him I said so.”

Now, Riswold gets to show off some of his Hitler work in a new documentary called Meet the Hitlers. Directed by Tool’s Matt Ogens (who also created the acclaimed doc Confessions of a Superhero), the film explores people named Hitler or related to Hitler, and how keeping that name has molded their lives.

As part of the film, Ogens profiles Riswold, who documents Nazi-themed objects as a way of disarming the hatred and making fun of the consumer culture behind Nazis and Hitler. Check out a scene from the documentary here:

Meet the Hitlers is also launching a digital campaign that includes whatsinaname.me (created by TRUST), which looks at many people with absurd names (including some named Hitler from the movie) and how those names helped to shape their lives.

Soon, an interactive experience at meetthehitlers.com will allow users to experience what it might be like if their last name were Hitler.



Outdoor Ad Makes People Think They're About to Be Destroyed by a Tornado

You’re trudging down a busy sidewalk, minding your own business, when suddenly the sky is torn apart by lightning, cars and lampposts are hurled across the street by the wind, and a tornado starts heading your way.

If you’re guessing it’s only an ad—you’re right.

Augmented reality shop Grand Visual created the stunt in Sydney, Australia, to promote a tornado-themed disaster film called Into the Storm.

A typical movie-poster street display was replaced with a large, high-definition video screen. The monitor initially shows the “poster” getting blown away by rising gusts. This seems to provide a clear view of the street being thoroughly destroyed by insanely violent weather.

The visuals are impressive, especially the car appearing to slam into the display and smash the screen. And actually, this stunt—by the same team that devised PepsiMAX’s apocalyptic bus shelter prank in London—seems more fun and enthralling, and far less unsettling, than some campaigns in the category.

Sure, some of the passersby look a bit stunned at times. But they’re probably just perturbed that we’re all living in a world that’s morphing into one gigantic ad.

Via Digital Buzz Blog.



7 Memorable Moments in the Dubious History of Product Placement

Remember when you had to wait until the commercial break to be bombarded with brand marketing? Probably not, since product placement has been a Hollywood addiction since the 1980s.

Ever since Steven Spielberg featured Reese’s Pieces in 1982’s E.T. (after being turned down by short-sighted M&M reps), brands and content creators have embraced product placement as a sort of commercial symbiosis.

This Wednesday, we’ll be tackling the issue of product placement at #adweekchat, a one-hour Twitter conversation open to all. Join us at 2 p.m. Eastern for a lively discussion of the best, worst and weirdest examples of product placement in TV, movies and video.

In the meantime, enjoy revisiting a few of the more iconic moments of product integration (some paid, some not) that have helped to shape how writers and producers weave brands into their storylines—with mixed results:

 
Superman vs. Zod vs. Marlboro vs. Coca-Cola (1980)

And don’t forget the KFC box on the dashboard. This classic scene set the stage for 2013’s Man of Steel, which reaped an astounding $160 million from promotional tie-ins with brands like Sears and Warby Parker.

 
Wayne’s World Makes Pepsi, Reebok and Pizza Hut Part of the Gag (1992)

Looking back on this classic scene, my favorite part is that Rob Lowe never joins them in breaking the fourth wall. He seems earnestly baffled about why these two public-access TV schmucks are so into Pizza Hut and Nuprin.

 
Get Shorty’s ‘Cadillac of Minivans’ Is Actually an Oldsmobile (1995)

At the very least, you have to appreciate the John Travolta comedy’s commitment to making an awkward product placement (the Oldsmobile Silhouette) into a recurring gag. It popped up throughout the movie as character Chili Palmer’s signature coolness rubbed off on the ride. The original Swagger Wagon, you might say.

 
30 Rock Brings Back the Meta Humor for Snapple (2006)

This is my favorite product placement in TV history, and I hate Snapple. So much for my chances with Cerie (whose last name, by the way, is Xerox for reasons that are never explained in the show). In addition to the TGS Show’s love of Snapple, Liz Lemon also helped us see the magical splendor of products like Verizon Wireless phones.

 
Talladega Nights Really Loves Applebee’s, Except for the Rats in the Cobb Salad (2006)

You can almost hear the awkward conversation as the producer had to tell Applebee’s exactly how this lengthy, seemingly glowing scene set in the restaurant was going to play out. Hat tip to Adweek Twitter follower Heather Taylor for the reminder on that one. 

 
Frank Underwood Loves That PlayStation Vita (2013)

Many viewers were bemused by the House of Cards anti-hero’s obsession with the PlayStation 3 and the (rarely seen on Capitol Hill) portable PS Vita. Of course, many brands make recurring cameos on House of Cards. Check out this slideshow of appearances by Apple (oh so much Apple), Blackberry, Canon and more:

The Netflix show’s creators claim they don’t receive financial compensation for product placements, which are provided gratis by the brands. Discussing the PlayStation Vita mention, episode director James Foley told The Guardian, “If we use real products like people do in real life, somehow that’s perceived as being forced-in product placement when it’s just recording reality.”

 
Hawaii 5-0 Really, Really, Really Loves Subway (2012)

This is the Citizen Kane of product placements, an achievement so gratuitous you almost have to admire it. Although I’m really not sure it makes me want a sub, much less five.

What are some of your favorites? Don’t forget to join us on Twitter at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Aug. 13, for a whole hour of #adweekchat dedicated to product placement.



Sean Astin Is Back (Again) as Rudy in ESPN's Excellent College Playoff Promo

A college championship that’s both national and rational has long been the dream of American football fans. In fact, Rudy dreamed up the solution 40 years ago, according to this fun bit of alternate history from ESPN.

Sean Astin reprises his 1993 role as Notre Dame’s plucky 1970s walk-on Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger in an ad created by Wieden + Kennedy New York to highlight ESPN’s coverage of the College Football Playoff system debuting in the 2014-15 season. For now, the sports network is mostly focused on just helping casual fans make sense of how the whole thing will work. 

Oddly enough, this is the second time Astin has returned to playing Rudy in 2014. His cameo was definitely the highlight of CarMax’s “Slow Clap” Super Bowl ad.

We asked Wieden + Kennedy New York if this second Rudy reprisal was just a coincidence, and a spokesperson sent along this statement:

“Our campaign is all about fans’ excitement for the inaugural college football playoff season. Rudy is not only one of the biggest icons of college football, but he’s also one of the sport’s biggest fans. His passion for the game is representative of the passion of all college football fans,” the statement said.

“So we thought he should usher in this new and exciting era. The fact that Sean Astin was recently in another spot this year was only brought to our attention after the idea was concepted.”

The real question, of course, is which brand will talk him into re-enacting a rousing Goonies monologue. Down here it’s our time. It’s our time down here.

 



Earth to Echo Swings From E.T.'s Basket Even Harder in Bike Promo

Just in case the trailer for Earth to Echo didn’t immediately make you think back to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, this bike-filled promo will leave you with no doubt that the marketing strategy is rooted firmly in 1982.

While not a remake of E.T., Earth to Echo is nonetheless attempting to leverage parental nostalgia for the Steven Spielberg classic. Just listen to that inspirational John Williams-esque orchestral music! Just look at all those bikes!

And if you’re not one for retro cinema references, they’ve also thrown in pro basketball players Ricky Rubio, DeAndre Jordan and Shawn Marion. The spot was created by Portal A for Relativity Media. The result is an odd mashup, especially for a movie. But people said the same about Spielberg’s innovative product placement of Reese’s Pieces, and that spawned a whole industry.

CREDITS

Producer: Jacob Motz
Producer: David Johnson
Directors: Nick Ligonis and Damon O’Steen
Director of Photography: Reuben Steinberg
Production Designer: Mollie Alexander
Editor: Max and Harry Frishberg
Executive Producers: Nate Houghteling, Kai Hasson and Zach Blume



In an Internet Full of Minimalist Movie Posters, These Are Pretty Darn Cool

The strangely named Calm The Ham design studio (“it’s just another way to say relax, cool your jets, chill the beans etc.”) just came out with a run of minimalist film posters that attempt to capture the essence (defined as any combination of plot, theme, notable characters or scenes) of a given movie in a single image, usually centered in the exact middle of the poster.

The Internet is full of these things, and they mostly look the same, but these are a bit more clever than most. The Reservoir Dogs image is a neat, if abstract, reference to the characters’ names, and the Donnie Darko poster uses color and shape to great effect. The Se7en and Fight Club posters aren’t as effective—soap was already on the real Fight Club posters, for one thing—but they might come off better in print. Posters generally do, anyway.

And speaking of, you can buy prints of these posters directly from CTH’s website.

Via Design Taxi.



Shazam and SoundHound Make Beautiful Phone Together at The Movies

In a move that will have avid moviegoers pulling their multicolored hair out at the root, one movie theater advertising company is now going to encourage people to turn their phones on when they sit down.

I know, right?

Musical discovery apps Shazam and SoundHound have partnered with National CineMedia and Screenvision (which merged with NCM earlier this year) to encourage the use of second screen advertising before the trailers begin. The goal is to allow movie advertisers to tie audio-recognition features into preshow promotions on consumers’ devices.

Just what you wanted.

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

FX Pulls Disturbing Eye-Worm Billboards for The Strain

The worm has been turned away.

Billboards for FX’s The Strain, with creepy critters crawling out (or perhaps boring into?) human eyeballs, are apparently too much for some folks to bear, and the cable network says it is replacing the ads in several locations—the signs have run in Los Angeles  and New York—with less-upsetting imagery.

The series was hatched by director Guillermo del Toro and writer Chuck Hogan and slithers onto TV screens July 13. It’s a medical thriller about parasites that turn New Yorkers into monsters. 

So far, the eyeball campaign had generated its share of angry parents and motorists but hasn’t precipitated any lawsuits. The same can’t be said for last year’s eerie “Dexter” takeover in Grand Central Terminal, which generated a complaint from a Bronx woman who claims that the “shocking and menacing” promo caused her to slip on a stairway and sustain injury.

The Strain’s ad controversy is generating plenty of buzz for the show. So if you subscribe to the theory that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, these wormy posters have hit pay dirt.



Kneel Before Panem and Its Fantastic Propaganda for the Next Hunger Games

The Panem propaganda machine is officially cranking up for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. Seven beautiful posters, each honoring a different district from the movie, and an ominous announcement from President Snow have been released to kick off the movie’s marketing blitz.

(Lots of spoilers below if you haven’t read or seen Catching Fire.) 

In the Capitol TV announcement, a brainwashed Peeta, held prisoner and tortured in the Capitol after Katniss’ rebellion failed to succeed, stands next to the President and looks off into the distance as Snow issues a warning to all rebels.

It’s a nice, simple spot designed as delightful fan service without giving too much away. But the posters are the real treasure here. Mad props to whoever art directed them with such an eye for detail and the writer who developed a backstory for each “District Hero.” (The bios are actually Yahoo sponsored content, in case you’re keeping tabs on this whole native advertising trend.) 

It’s no coincidence that the most soul-rending execution is the tiny, coal faced ragamuffin for District 12, the place where Katniss is currently residing after her own district was burned to the ground.

Speaking of that, it’s been a barren year for fans of fictional advertising. Fewer movies and TV shows are expanding their worlds with imaginary campaigns that give a wink to loyal fans. Luckily, it looks like Mockingjay is gearing up for even more fictional broadcasts from Panem over at TheCapitol.pn (a brilliant use of the .pn domain used by Pitcairn Islands, ironically settled by mutineers).

The campaign also has a hashtag, #OnePanem, should you desire to send them some rebellious tweets that, in a real-world dictatorship, would get you thrown in jail.

 

 



McDonald's Mascot 'Happy' Becomes Even More Terrifying in Horror Poster Contest

Turns out we weren’t the only ones that found McDonald’s newest Happy Meal mascot, “Happy,” just a tad on the frightening side.

Online marketplace DesignCrowd challenged its graphic design community to a Photoshop contest that would drop the much-maligned mascot into horror movie posters. 

While tapping into the obvious unease over this character (who’s been used internationally for a while but is just now appearing in the U.S.), DesignCrowd also used this chance to stump for its approach to crowdsourced creative:

“The public reaction hasn’t been positive to the new McDonald’s mascot, and the company would have spent big money on it,” DesignCrowd spokeswoman Josephine Sabin tells AdFreak. “Had they gone through a crowdsourcing marketplace, like DesignCrowd, McDonald’s would have received hundreds of original designs for a great price.”

The first place winner received $200, which should afford the winner something like 66 Happy Meals. 

Take a look below at some of the better entries, and DesignCrowd’s contest page for more. The winner is at the bottom of our gallery.

The winner: