This is how you market a movie

Someone awesome at Lionsgate Films* found out that the ridiculous beard actor Wes Bentley sports in The Hungar Games has become a viral sensation, and even has its own facebook page. So they wisely had Wes film a short promo calling out his beard:   

Just wanted to take a moment to put out the Wes Bentley was awesome in American Beauty, and I am excited to see back in major motion pictures.

footnote:

*If I was running Lionsgate Films my first act would be to fix grammar in the name by making it two words and added an apostrophe after the s.

Source: Uproxx.com

The Strictly Commercial Award winner for best ad of 1963

Before Jim Henson was able to tell stories with his muppets on "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show" he paid the bills by making advertisements and industrial videos. His ads for Wilkins Coffee are relatively well known, and mostly feature a muppet who doesn't like Wilkins Coffee getting injured by a Kermit-esque muppet Really:


However I had never seen any of Henson's video he had made for major companies. Sometimes these were produced for internal marketing, sometimes he was making instructional videos.

This one below is surprisingly hip considering it was for a meeting of Bell Telelphone owners:



I love the design of the robot and my favorite line is "Correction. (blows up a butterfly) The Machine. Does not have a soul. It has no bothersome emotions."


(Photo at top is of what appears to be that same robot puppet being fixed by Jim Henson and Henson's longtime head writer Jerrry Juhl while guest on the Jack Paar's talk show.

Photo via Jim Henson Company clip via filmdrunk.)

Bad Ass of the week: Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly is the man.


Here is early footage of a concert in which the line-up included:
1. Buddy Holly
2. Johnny Cash
3. Carl Perkins
4. Jerry Lee Lewis
5. Elvis Presley





If you invent a time machine please bring with you the following list:


To Do:
1. June 3rd 1955. Lovett, Texas
notes: Best concert ever. If there is time bring along Musican Lyle Lovett, travel back to 1855 as well and get town re-named "Lyle Lovett, Texas"


2. April 20, 1985 Courthouse Square set at Universal Studio
notes: last day of filming for Back to the Future if your time machine happens to be a deloren just appear hear midday and everyone will assume it is part of the special effects.




Buddy Holly revolutionized Rock and Roll, if he hadn't died at age 23 a lot of folks who know way more about music and history than myself think he was close to making the kinds of innovations in album structure and instrumentation that instead have to wait a decade to be made by the Beatles.
(So the Marlow to the Beatles' Shakespeare)

Want more Buddy Holly, someone made the awesome decision to make a 25 minute youtube video which compiled all publicly available footage of the best thing to come out of Texas before the Alamo Cinema and Drafthouse. (the first couple minutes are that same footage of the concert in Lovett since it is the earliest known film footage of either Elvis or Buddy Holly.)

Really England?

NOTE:
 This article gets really political really fast. I didn't mean for it to, its just late and night so I'm more ornery than usual and this ad that i am talking about is really poor quality. If you don't think the BBC TV license fee is stupid and do thing that Ireland should always be two countries this might not be the article for you.

I am trying to bear in mind that this ad for "Holidays at Home" (designed to convince the people of Britain  to vacation in their own country as opposed to someplace where it isn't cold and rainy 90 percent of the year) is made by the same inept British government who still drives vans around pretending they can somehow use "secret technology" to tell if you are using the antenna attached to your TV to pick up the radio waves of the BBC without playing the stupid TV license;* But even with me looking at it from that level of marketing stupidity this ad is still so bad it makes me angry

Enjoy:



Why do I dislike this ad oh so very much? Part of the reason is because it features celebrities I actually enjoy, like the classy Stephen Fry the adorable Rupert Grint and worst of all, dead brilliant (and Spanish) Salvador Dali's lobster telephone sculpture.


Part if it is the fact the ad seems very well produced visually, but that despite all this effort, it somehow fails photograph or describe a single damn thing worth seeing the United Kingdom, despite the fact that the British Museum alone contains enough mind blowingly cool stuff to occupy a person of a fortnight.

The only sight which they photographed it a way that showed off its beauty was the Giant's Causeway. And even this was ruined by bad writing "You won't find rocks like these." Calling the Giant's Causeway "rocks" makes it seem pedestrian and stupid, who goes on vacation to hang around rocks?

Also from a personal stand point, including the Giant's Causeway while very carefully not mentioning the word Ireland, even to say "Northern Ireland" pissed me off. I don't want to get into my opinion's on Ireland's relationship with England, but I personally would have liked to have seen both Ireland and Scottland specified as such instead of them all being lumped together. 


Footnote(s):
*Just to reiterate that point, these stupid vans is BBC's primary method of convincing everyone who accesses over the air broadcast TV in England (the kind that is FREE in the US) to pay the government the BBC.  You have to pay this fee for owning a TV which picks up broadcast signals, even if you don't use it for watching broadcast signals or if you use it to watch broadcast but just watch stations like ITV who are not part of the BBC and therefore do not get any money from this license.

I don't want you to think I am against funding for the arts, and I love doctor who as much as the next guy, but I think both this licensing system and the goofy roving detector vans are antiquated and not something the government should be spending their time on when there are more pressing issues at hand. Like the fact that some members of the British military are allowed to steal military helicopters and use them to pick up their girlfriends to go on dates.


Also as long as I am complaining lest us for get that the government their still has censorship laws in place against movies and TV Shows, which are strict enough that an episode of "The Daily Show with John Stewart"  was banned outright in England last year for showing footage of parliament for use in satire. Which is apparent an actually crime (really) in the United Kingdom


via WarmingGlow, who just talked about how cute the corgi dog with Stephen Fry in the video is. This statement is accurate, though I would argue limited in its scope. 

Bad Ass Month 2012

It takes a real man to rock rouge and a hat fit for Aretha Franklin 

This photo of Sting looking really cool and somehow pulling off this outfit reminded me that I forgot to have a "Tough Guy Month" this year on the blog. I did this last year where I highlight Advertising featuring Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and William Shatner

This month I'll still have stuff like that, and am planning on doing an article about the best and worst James Bond movie posters if I get my act together, but I always want to highlight folks like sting, who are undeniable badasses because they don't feel the need to assert themselves or their masculinity at all times. (Let us bear in mind that still is able to have sex for five hours straight). That why this year it is gonna be not "Tough Guy Month" but "Bad Ass Month" high lighting both men and women who are really damn awesome, and the ads they make better by appearing in.

That being said, I do need to be petty for a minute and point out how much hotter Sting is dressed up like a girl that GaGa dressed up like a girl. Honestly, I recognized Elton John* looking incredibly old and Sting in a dress right away, and spent the next few minutes trying to figure out which male celebrity was also in drag in the middle.

I have made fun of Lady Gaga for looking like a member of Twisted Sister before. And I hope people don't get the wrong impression. I think she is really talented. Bad Romance might literally be the coolest most cutting edge music video I have ever seen, with its ability to seamlessly combine performance art and  pop music, with rubber and latex fetish garments.  And I don't think all celebrities need to be beautiful.

But seriously, Sting is much hotter in bad drag than GaGa is on her best day.

Picture via this awesome site

Footnote(s):

*Another under the radar badass is Groucho Marx, who when he couldn't sleep used to call people up in the middle of the night and insult them.

Groucho Marx apparently met Elton John and accused him of having his name backwards, calling him "John Elton".

Podcast Episode 55

(This episode was edited by Loki, she also wrote the description. I hate doing both these parts so am very greatful to her.)

Thor's 55: Prostitots: That's What's Cooking

While sadly somewhere in a ditch lay Baldr during this recording, Thor, Frey(j)a, Loki, Heimdall, and chef-to-the-gods Nicole gathered on a cloud and begat Episode 55. Episode 55 in turm begat the Thunder Round - a competition to end all episodes (of this show).

Topics covered listed here with no regard to order or totality:

Community, Modern Family, Al Bundy, Ted Bundy, Rosemary, Potatoes, Rosemary's Potatoes, Omega Watches, Fake Omega Watches sold on Canal Street, Police reactions to Omega Watches (fake or otherwise), David and Samantha Cameron, Barak and Michelle Obama, potential sublets available in the White House, Trained killer sharks from Egypt, The Bugle, Monarchy, Democracy, Boy Scotts, Lax uniform policies on the U.S.S. Enterprise, Annie's Boobs, Heimdall's abs, Sex and the City, The Carrie Diaries, Billie Piper's Eyebrows, Salmonella, The Band Cats and Cats and Cats and Cats, Rob and Nate Corddry, Nicholas Sarkozy, his Hott Hott third wife, Tom Cruise: Hot or Not, Simon Pegg HOT, B.L. (Before Loki) episodes of Thor's H.o.T., Crazy high Australian food prices, Parrots bein' Bitches, Breakfast Cookies, Snooki's baby, Vegemite, It's Hard Out Here for a Dingo, Everything is Illegal in VA, Rush Limbaugh as wrong, Bill O'Reilly getting it right, Prostitots.


Photo for this post via http://extremeadvertisements.com/advertising/levar-burton

I wish K-Swiss made shoes I liked even a little

because they have the greatest marketing ever.

Jesus whoever decided to hire Kenny Powers as their spokesman and let the character swear and be his jackass self was a genius



I want to marry this ad, but I still think K-Swiss makes ugly shoes.


"Blades: Go Buy Them"