This South African commercial from Allan Gray Investment, with creative by the King James agency, is really a showstopper.
In all my years of advertising, I have never seen a treatment that was so detailed, so carefully thought through, and so deeply researched, than the treatment Keith gave us when pitching to handle this commercial. From beginning to end, his commitment to the job bordered on obsession.” says Alistair King, Executive Creative Director at King James.
“This was an incredibly challenging board, says Rose. You just take it for granted that James Dean is so iconic, so to go and mess with him and replan his life, if it doesn’t work its like you’re desecrating his memory.”
Despite what the title might imply, there’s nothing sexist or Stepford Wives-ish here, rather it’s the frantic, rubber-faced hubby who is badly in need of a chill pill. Or an entire bottle of them.
If you’ve ever seen the Dr. Seuss-scripted kids film The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, this weird little 1957 industrial film puts me immediately in mind of that.
With all sorts of amazing WTF flourishes, like a desk that hands you a newspaper!
Thank you Binky Prod! (if that is, in fact, your real name)
Have you heard about the supposedly racist Mountain Dew commercial directed by Odd Future leader Tyler, The Creator? The one that’s been pulled after a campaign was started by a vocal critic who called it arguably the “most racist commercial in history”?
But is it? Really?
Syracuse Professor Boyce Watkins, who claims credit for starting the fuss writes:
Mountain Dew has set a new low for corporate racism. Their decision to lean on well-known racial stereotypes is beyond disgusting. This doesn’t even include the fact that the company has put black men on par with animals. The holocaust of mass incarceration and the glorification of violent prison culture has taken a tremendous toll on the black community. Corporations are making it cool for black men to murder one another, while gun manufacturers ensure that the streets are flooded with the weapons necessary for us to complete our own genocide.
It was never Tylers intention to offend however offense is personal and valid to anyone who is offended. Out of respect to those that were offended the ad was taken down. For those who know and respect Tyler he is known for pushing boundaries and challenging stereotypes thru humor. This is someone who grew up on David Chappelle.
—snip—
Context may or not help those who are offended and I wholly respect that but for those who are interested I can offer the following and leave the rest to Tyler. 1. This spot was part of an overall admittedly absurd storyline about a crazy goat who becomes obsessed with Mountain Dew 2. The lady in front of the lineup is the waitress from the first spot. 3. The lineup consists of Tylers friends and odd future members who were available that day. (LBoy, Leftbrain, Garret from Trash Talk and Errol) 4. He absolutely never intended to spark a controversy about race. it was simply an again admittedly absurd story that was never meant to be taken seriously.
Pepsi has pulled the spot from the Mountain Dew website and Tyler, The Creator has done the same.
I can kinda see what Professor Watkins sees thru his eyes when he watches the ad, but from where I’m sitting, what I’m seeing is a pretty ridiculous sketch comedy spot about a goat (voiced by Tyler) who goes a little crazy on a Mountain Dew bender and runs afoul of the law (this is but one in a series of artist directed spots with this goat character).
What if this spot had been directed by, say, Vince Neil, and all of the guys in the police line-up were the “badass” dudes from Mötley Crüe and Vince was the voice of the goat?
Dammit Catholics, you were having a such a good year! You got rid of that ex-Nazi Pope, and the new one is apparently even good at Twitter! Not a clean slate, mind you, but you had an opportunity to go a different direction. And what do you do? You do this!
Stick to your strengths! What about liberation theology, the Catholic Workers, or some more of that awesome stained glass, huh? You cannot make religion look cool. You just can’t and you should stop trying.
This ad just embarrasses everyone and drags your numero son o’ god deity through the dirt. Leave well enough alone! Take Satan, for example. He used to be pretty cool, right, then a bunch of metalheads had to take it one step too far and make a ‘church.’ Now all you associate with Satan is a bunch of sad guys who know a lot about Mercyful Fate, but still long to touch a boob for the very first time. This is the same thing on the opposite end of the deity spectrum. No really, it is.
A cartoon skateboarding rabbit told me to stay off drugs when I was in gradeschool. The abstinence-only education of my high school wrapped in some sort of peripheral hip-hop signifiers! This campaign makes those campaigns look look like the subliminal messaging in They Live.
Malcolm McLaren unleashed the greatest revolution of the last quarter of the 20th century. This was in part because McLaren was really a shop-keeper, a haberdasher, a boutique owner who knew his market and, most importantly, knew how to sell product to the masses.
Unfortunately, when it came to music, the talent was more than just product, and McLaren regularly mis-used and manipulated the musical talent (New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and The Ants/Bow-Wow-Wow) for his own personal gain. It was the behavior of a man who couldn’t and didn’t trust anyone—perhaps because (as he claimed) he had been abandoned by his mother—an act of betrayal he never forgave. There is the story of how years later, McLaren was have said to have traveled on a London Underground train, only to find his mother in the same carriage. The pair sat opposite each other, with neither acknowledging the other’s presence, and each alighting at their separate stops.
McLaren was bewitching, relentless and always on the make. But for all his scams and incredible machinations, little is really known about the man himself. He re-wrote his biography so many times it is almost impossible to know what is the truth. He also carefully edited out those who had helped his success, and fabricated wonderful, picaresque tales of misadventure—-for example, the time he failed to have Nancy Spungen kidnapped, in a bid to remove her insidious influence over Sid Vicious.
In essence, Malcolm’s greatest talent was his own self-promotion—his unique role as a cultural PR man, who changed history. If there is anything to be learned from his particular type of genius, it is to make headlines out of even the worst situation. On his deathbed, Mclaren’s last words were said to have been: “Free Leonard Peltier.” As he had done in his life, McLaren had once again grabbed hold of someone else’s notoriety.
Having one of these for breakfast would have made me eat my Corn Flakes. A vintage cut-out-and-keep Halloween mask given free with Kellogg’s breakfast cereals.
In addition to being an accomplished pastry chef, German New Wave opera singer from outer space, Klaus Nomi, was also a spokesperson for Jägermeister, the German cough medicine and working class aperitif.
Nomi’s face appeared on one side of a cardboard “table tent” distributed to bars that read:
“I’m drinking German Jägermeister because that’s my kind of girl over there.”
Here’s the other side of the table tent:
Below, Nomi, in a plastic raincoat stolen from Howie Pyro’s mother, unveils himself for the first time onstage at The New Wave Vaudeville Show in 1978 performing the aria from Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah.
Ingenious commercial for BBC Radio 2 is pretty damn convincing down to Elvis’s bemused smile when Keith Moon misses his cue.
The commercial is composed of clips from:
Elvis – 1973 concert, Aloha from Hawaii.
Marvin Gaye – Live in Montreux, 1980
Jimmy Page - Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Concert , 1988
Noel Gallagher – The Who and Friends at the Royal Albert Hall, 2003
Keith Moon – The Who Charlton BBC Concert, 1974
Sheryl Crow – The Grammy Awards, 2003
Stevie Wonder – Sesame Street 1973
