The full run of Breaking Bad is coming out on Blu-ray soon after the AMC series wraps up. And if you're enough of a fan to spring for the special-edition box set, it's packaged in a replica money barrel. Not only that, it comes with a Los Pollos Hermanos apron and enough special features—a documentary on making the last season, commentaries on every episode, etc.—to choke Jane Margolis. You can pre-order the set on Amazon, but be warned: It costs at least half a money barrel right now.
Mr. Worthington owned a string of car dealerships and ran dozens of outlandish commercials daily on California television for more than half a century.
DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, which offers every game live on any digital device, turns average Joes into "the world's most powerful fans" in three goofy spots from Grey. These godlike guys grow freakishly tall, grill burgers using their bare hands as spatulas and ride around on lightning bolts and date adoring goddesses clad in sparkly bikinis and Mercury-winged caps. They're like the Titans—from mythology, not Tennessee—reborn as outsized, sports-obsessed, media-savvy fanboys. Meanwhile, regular dudes who still watch the games on cable are portrayed as nebbishy geeks.
Guys are hyper-competitive and love to brag about everything, so I can see where these ads would appeal to some. And they're visually memorable. That said, they seem a tad mean-spirited, portraying "powerful" football fans as boastful loudmouths who lord it over everyone in earshot. What? You've got the game on DirecTV? Well, good for you, big man!
CBS and its chief, Les Moonves, have given the broadcast world a shot in the arm by pushing distributors to pay broadcasters just as they do cable networks.
It seems like there’s an awful lot of Back to the Future nostalgia invading the Internet these days, with posts about the series on sites like Reddit leading to listicles about the trilogy on nostalgia-aggregators like Buzzfeed which then go viral on Facebook and eventually find themselves on large emails your mom sends to her friends and CC’s you on for some reason. And, what with it being 2013 and all, where advertising campaigns are becoming increasingly informed by memes, we get GE and BBDO NY using the “1.21 gigawatts” thing to sell you technology or something. Where we’re going, we don’t need roads to perdition; we just fly there through space and time.
And yet, nostalgia has a way of endearing you to things in a way totally out of your control. Call it manipulation, call it “effective advertising” using one of the oldest tricks in the book. Any way or slice it, it’s hard as even a casual fan of the series not to get a little giddy when you see what are ostensibly Marty McFly’s Nikes pop out of a souped-up Delorean. While Pepperidge Farm dares us to remember a time when people died of dystentary and snakebites like in Oregon Trail, Back to theFuture‘s original audience has aged to the point where brands see the 1980s as a way to get consumers on board 30-something years later.
In fact, I hope this becomes a whole campaign where GE powers David Bowie‘s castle from Labyrinth, E.T.‘s glowing finger, and the computer from Weird Science. And, though it wouldn’t make much sense, maybe Michael J. Fox could narrate those spots too. Maybe in another 30 years, GE will power the ships from Avatar and Robin Thicke can provide us with his own deep-voiced VO. Trust me, it will make sense by then. Credits after the jump.
We've all been there. Heartbroken, bearded and alone. This is place that some might call "the dumps," an unbearable place full of darkness, loneliness and misery. It's all because you've been without "the one" for far too long. (It reminds me very much of the time my dog ran away when I was 5. I still wonder where Kujo is. Or that time my 7th grade girlfriend left me because I got braces.) And even though Blake Shelton takes you fishing to cheer you up, it's not working. You still miss 'em. I guess the only thing left to do is belt out arguably the most passionate lyrics ever laid to vinyl: "Reunited," by Peaches and Herb.
Before you know it, the sun will shine again, the animals will begin to chirp again, and Christina Aguilera's angelic voice will rise behind you—seconds before she pulls a Jesus and walks on water to join you and Blake. If that's not magical enough for you, there's more. Moments later, Poseidon, ah hem, the great Cee Lo Green, emerges with three lovely mermaids to round out the hook. "Reunited and it feels so good!"
At this point, you may have a hard time believing what you've just witnessed, but what the hell. The band is finally back together! Or is it? This all can't be real, right? Guess, we'll have to tune into NBC's The Voice on Sept. 23 to see if dreams really do come true.
From DDB Chicago comes the latest spot for Skittles which encourages young girls at go-kart tracks to “French the Rainbow,” thus stealing sugar-coated dentures away from shy boys nationwide.
The last time we saw a non-adult steal a kiss in a nationwide campaign was with “Prom,” Audi’s Superbowl spot from earlier this year which some people called “rape-y” and positioned Audi as “promoters of sexual assault.” Will a similar outcry occur at the defense of the candy-toothed victim in this spot? No, of course not, and feel free to get all outraged about that in the comments if that’s how you feel like spending your Wednesday.
But, before you do, I invite you to consider the true crime in this spot: Taking advantage of the young boy’s obvious dental disability to sell candy. It’s obvious that his family was unable to afford adequate dental care, and the boy must live his whole life frowning so that his sweet secret isn’t revealed. Ridicule at that age from classmates can really mess a kid up. Credits after the jump.
Most of the heat and animation in the final debate among the candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary came from the two rivals competing for rock bottom.
Mentos is introducing a campaign for the chewy mint rolls that is meant to evoke the upbeat mood and cheerful tone of the original jingle from the 1990s.
An agreement with Time Warner Cable restores CBS and its related channels, like Showtime, to millions of cable subscribers largely in three major cities, New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.
Harry Connick Jr. will join Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez on the judging panel for the show’s 13th season, in January, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The CBS blackout on Time Warner Cable continues, but fans can still watch the matches online or on the CBS Sports Network cable channel, which is not subject to the blackout.
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