Hasta La Creative!

I don’t know about you, but as I watched my fair share of football this holiday season, I was belted with another huge amount of automobile ads. Some were okay, some were pitiful, and a couple just seemed to hit the mark.

So, in the spirit of the season, I’ll just speak to one that seemed to do all the right things with just the right weight, just the right way. It did not blow me away with brilliance, but captured my attention enough to make me sit through the :30 stint and come away with the message and a decent feeling.

This is the newest version of “The Happy Honda Days”. The festive seasonal music played while the various red Honda vehicles cruised slowly between huge red baubles set up along the stark white floor and backdrop. The cars were the stars and we even caught a 2-3 second glimpse of one of the car’s attractive interiors.

The message was about all the great deals we could get on the new Hondas in stock including the Accord, the “popular Civic”, the “fun-loving Fit“, etc. The commercial concluded with an attractive lease offer on the mainstay 2008 Honda Accord LX for $259/month (for 36 months) with $2,606 down at signing (including the security deposit). Affordable, simple, and practical. Sounds like Honda, eh? Happy Honda Days!

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Howdy doody all. Okay, so I am a huge film buff and this past year, especially within the past two months, two Viral movie campaigns have been kicking into overdrive with varying levels of celebration. The two movies that have been hitting the internet are Cloverfield and The Dark Knight.

Although I was pumped when I first discovered Cloverfield, I have grown weary of its un-engaging marketing techniques. It is just clue after clue after clue with little payout. Check out all Cloverfield news here.

The Dark Knight Marketing, on the other hand, has been brilliant, engaging, and they have always ensured all of their clues have given the fan some sort of reward for his troubles. Check out an example of one of its sites here. The rest of the Dark Knight campaigns are clearly better thought out and more generous to those who spend their time researching movies. I think The Dark Knight viral campaign is one of the best of the year.

Of course, not all viral campaigns are for movies, so please let me know which ones you think are the best.

Take care party people.

HELLLLLOOOOOOOO EVERYBODY – Although I doubt any of my posts from here to eternity will incite as much ire as my “Can’t Wanda Sykes go away” post, I feel some perspective… or lists or “best of” are always a good way to sum up periods of time because as trite as they are, they sure do get people’s blood boiling.

This first one for me is this: what is the best TV spot this year? My choice is Tiger Beer, Reincarnation. And although there were some great ones I am obviously not choosing, this one cracked me the hell up.

Technorati Tags: wanda sykes, tv spot, beyond madison avenue

The Bourne Ultimatum DVD hit the market Tuesday, and the trailer promises more of the same from Matt Damon. Bourne’s character is so resilient if you could bottle his secret for survival you could make at least a million bucks. The TV spot snipped from the trailer reminds us we are privy to the inside scoop on the most dangerous unofficial government agent alive, opening with the statement, “Jason Bourne is at large in New York City.” The tone of that statement is as solemn as a dirge.

For those not already hooked on the Bourne franchise, this trailer won’t do a lot to entice. While the hand to hand combat scenes have the right levels of smacking and thumping sounds and shots, there’s not much going that hasn’t gone before. The possible exception comes when Bourne uses a hardcover book as a weapon, ramming it horizontally against an assailant’s neck—a bonus self-defense tip if you fear a home invasion.

The trailer does sum up the lead character in a brief scene when Damon as Webb/Bourne declares, “They can’t stop me.” His character, always as dry as an accountant five minutes before the annual tax filing deadline, is perfectly captured with that statement delivered in a casual manner, and in the resigned attitude reflected in his body language as he eases from his chair in a room defined in black and white tones.

I have to admit the trailer works a little like a poem here—the compact nature of the video equals the book equals the franchise. Bourne rather expands in the mind as a result, if you’ve seen even one of the movies in this series.

Fans will certainly love another installment on DVD, and I think the trailer is basically preaching to this choir. If you’re a Bourne newcomer, this clip doesn’t offer anything different than typical neo-Rambo clashes courtesy of a brooding leading man who despite assassin Carlos the Jackal’s pursuit, lives to fight another day. In Publisher’s Weekly, a review of the Robert Ludlum novel that inspired the movie noted, “This is formula writing that delivers even less than its meager performance.” The same might be said of the trailer and maybe the DVD as well. Catch the complete trailer at The Bourne Ultimatum Web site.