After a bevy of requests from fans, Screen Junkies has finally released an Honest Trailer for Les Misérables, and it … sucks. Well, it doesn't quite suck, but it definitely runs afoul of imitation fallacy. Singing the whole review dragged it out way longer than necessary, especially since they don't add any fresh insights to the discussion (Russell Crowe's voice is bad! Zing!). I'll stick with Orange Cassidy's movie reviews, thanks.
Neat Dude Collective's "Yet Another Fucking Music Festival" parody poster is as observant as it is snarky, so clearly they've got some folks who've been to Bonnaroo and Coachella more than a few times. It's nice to see them point out "2 Dudes & a MacBook," because for a while I thought I was the only person who noticed that becoming more of a thing, although "Cute Girl With a Guitar and a Sundress" is slowly ceding ground to "Cute Girl Kinda Rapping to Shitty Drum Loops." And I hate to say it, but Neat Dude Collective—an entertainment, art and design group—could be the name of one of the bands playing this festival. Via Laughing Squid.
Revenge billboards are getting to be a trend. Expensive but emotionally satisfying, they're great for anything from declaring spousal inadequacies to calling out cheaters. This one, in Greensboro, N.C., goes the extra mile by spoofing MasterCard's "Priceless" campaign. It reads: "Michael – GPS tracker – $250, Nikon camera with zoom lens – $1600, Catching my LYING HUSBAND and buying this billboard with our investment account – Priceless. Tell Jessica you're moving in! – Jennifer." Chad Tucker of Fox 8 News broke this story. Hopefully, he can track down Jennifer and film the fisticuffs we're all imagining.
Sure, Japanese ads are crazy. But they rarely sink (or is that rise?) to the level of satanic-cult-forcing-Furbies-to-cannibalize-themselves crazy. Sadly, the "Creepy Japanese Furby Commercial" below isn't real. It's a parody by YouTube editing wizard Mike Diva. But it's still worth a watch—and worth a browse of the YouTube comments, where many Japanophiles seem so excited about the soundtrack from animated siren Hatsune Miku that they don't seem to notice (or maybe care) when the ad segues into an Eli Roth film.
Add it to the pile of amusing agency side projects: Instasham, an online collection of stock photos specially designed for posting to Instagram, showing all those things you wished you had done just so you could post them to Instagram. Didn't get to hang with Kanye? Instasham it. Didn't go to the Coliseum? Instasham it. Didn't sunbathe on a yacht in the Caribbean with beautiful bikini-clad women? You get the idea. Because Instagram is now well past the what-all-the-cool-kids-are-doing upswing, and well into the why-is-everyone-in-such-a-reflexive-narcissist stage, and oh, by the way, all of your photos already look the same as everyone else's, and it turns out the contents of your closet aren't really that fascinating after all. From Mother, New York, creative team Andy Dao and Stacey Smith. Site development by Joseph Valle. Made all the better by the website's "how to" instructions on using your smartphone to take a picture of the pictures on your computer screen.
PETA is planning to hand out anti-abuse pamphlets at the launch of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, urging gamers to respect the game's pixelated extraterrestrials known as The Zerg. The pamphlet, titled "Zerglings Have Feelings, Too," is a reminder to have compassion for all beings—real or fictional—and is emblazoned with an adorable rendering of the series' horrific arthropodal antagonists. In an impressive moment of sanity, the PETA blog acknowledges that "Terrans for the Ethical Treatment of Zerglings" is simply a parody. And the press release even mentions that it's a direct response to the impressive level of (bad) press they got for their Pokémon mod a few months back. Is it really a parody, though, if no one realizes it's a parody? Already, gamers are taking the bait and flaming PETA with a level of vitriol usually reserved for fellow gamers.
Surprise! Cartier doesn't like hats that spoof the brand's scripted logo by repurposing it as an insult derived from a slang word for female genitalia. According to the Daily Beast, a Parsons grad student originally made two "Cuntier" beanies as a personal gag because some people at a Cartier store were being mean to his friend. But then he started to produce a handful more because people seemed to think the caps were funny enough to buy. Cartier, ever in touch with reality, responded by sending the student a letter demanding he stop, and thereby proving the original point that Cartier is, of course, not in the least bit stuffy and does not take itself too seriously at all. The baffled student reportedly acquiesced, making him less litigious than the fashion satirists behind other renegade brands like The South Butt and Chewy Vuiton.
Conan O'Brien's fake iPad commercial, meant as a parody of the latest Apple spots, including the one on the Oscars, isn't exactly groundbreaking (porn? on computers? why, I never!). But the delivery is as funny and observant as one would expect from Coco. If only real Internet porn were this tasteful most of the time. Pay attention to the fast-moving category screens, too—there are some hidden gems in there. "Doin' It" and "Doin' It Big Time" were my favorites, but I think there's something in there for everyone. OK, in context, that sounds weird.
Miracle Whip is spreadable, and so is the Kraft brand's superlative, spot-on send-up of "We Are the World"-style social-benefit music videos, which is approaching 250,000 YouTube views in about two weeks. This new installment of the condiment's "Keep an open mouth" campaign, launched last year by mcgarrybowen, finds a delicious assortment of mostly-has-been C-listers (Z-list in Don Dokken's case) belting out a heartfelt anthem that begins: "In this world there's lots of turkey, but also a lot of fear. People making up their minds, before the facts are clear. And when it's time to make a sandwich, ugly judgment rears its head. If it's tangy, creamy, different, chances are it won't get spread." The inspired silliness succeeds because the performers poke fun at their public personas while, against all odds, actually sounding great together. Wynonna asserts, "Some say country is too twangy, and its lyrics aren't too smart," and the Village People lament, "Disco's good for dancing, but not considered art." Lance Bass tears up, and Tiffany tears it up on vocals—her pipes almost steal the show, though Susan Boyle shines on the infectious "Open your mind, open your mouth" refrain. The spot's respectful of their faded celebrity, and everyone's in on the joke, so we're laughing with them instead of at them. As for past Miracle Whip booster Lady Gaga, she's still too big a star for such shenanigans—but given fame's fleeting nature, I'm sure her turn will come.
It's relatively easy to feel comfortable walking mostly naked on a beach if you're in the tropics. It's less easy when you're in Ireland. Huby Harton, an Irish singer who's probably been told a thousand times that he looks like the guy from the Southern Comfort ad, decided to embrace the resemblance—and re-enacted the classic Wieden + Kennedy spot one winter's day on Dollymount Strand in Dublin to promote his latest album. Hey, whatever's comfortable. The video made it to Southern Comfort's Facebook page today.
pa href=”http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/espn360-billy-mays.html” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”Billy-mays” class=”at-xid-6a00d8341c51c053ef0105368e72eb970b ” src=”http://adweek.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8341c51c053ef0105368e72eb970b-450wi” style=”width: 425px;”/img/a/p
pArnold today launches a pleasingly goofy campaign for a href=”http://www.ESPN360.com”ESPN360.com/a starring Billy Mays, the bearded infomercial guy usually seen shilling for OxiClean. a href=”http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/espn360-billy-mays.html”See all four ads here/a. This genre’s been parodied to death, but the ESPN spots score by being even dumber than we’ve come to expect. They’re almost parodies of parodies, so unrelentingly stupid that they’re amazingly effective. Mays is no different here than in any of his other ad gigs as he shouts exuberantly about the ESPN360 service, which lets you to watch your favorite teams online, “anywhere, anytime!” The “secret,” Mays confides, is the Internet connection. In the ad below, his wife and daughter are seen with thick black beards just like his. Nice! Their grins and gestures seem forced, and their line deliveries are as insincerely sincere as possible. Now that’s great bad acting! Also noteworthy is the dead-eyed office drone who robotically explains that with ESPN360, “My job is way less soul-crushing.” Hey, we need ESPN360 at AdFreak! Ow, my aching soul! brbrem—Posted by David Gianatasio /em/p
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