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In an effort to ratchet up the allure of its theme parks, Disney has embraced the power of celebrities. Specifically, beautifully shot celebrities in fantasy settings. (And no, I'm not just talking about high-production value porn. At least I'm not talking about it now. See me later about that - it's all quite tasteful.) Disney has had famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shoot famous folks from David Beckham to Scarlett Johansson as they recreate Disney characters in a series of ads that will run in high-end lifestyle magazines such as W, Vogue and The New Yorker as well as Cookie, the Disney-owned parenting title. In one ad, Johansson plays Cinderella as she runs down a staircase in full formal wear.
My favorite, though, features Beyonce Knowles as Alice, Lyle Lovett as the March Hare and Oliver Platt as the Mad Hatter. The casting of the latter two is inspired enough to make me wish for a live action Alice in Wonderland film.
This is just the first wave in this particular campaign. Later ads will have other celebs recreating Peter Pan, Tinker Bell and Ariel from the Little Mermaid. The ads are part of Disney's "Year of a Million Dreams" campaign.
The Disney Blog has some behind the scenes pictures from the shoots.
The promotional machine behind Epic Movie, yet another "comedy" that mines the pop culture of the last couple years for cheap laughs, is attempting to piggyback on the LonelyGirl15 phenomenon with a series of spoof videos on YouTube featuring Carmen Electra. If you love comedy, then I suggest you click here, stand up, walk out the door, and go to your local comedy club, 'cause Carmen ain't dat funny -- unless fake boobs are funny, which they're not unless you paint clown faces on them. That's just a suggestion if Carmen ever decides to get into stand-up comedy. Call me if you need a manager, C.
Wilford Brimley is actually a fine actor, but unfortunately a generation will mostly remember him for his commercial work for Quaker Oats and Liberty Mutual. Unlike other celebrity spokespersons, Wilford always seemed very serious about the product he was pitching. After watching him pitch oatmeal or medical supplies I felt like a damn fool if I didn't go out and purchase those products, despite not being hungry or stricken by diabetes. I would watch his commercials in awe, waiting for him to finally go completely off the script:
Wilford:Okay, seriously, just eat some damn oatmeal. You're not foolin' anybody so just cut the crap and eat it. It's good for you, and you know it's good for you, so don't give me any damn lip. I've been around the block a few times, I know these things. When you're in your 80s you can tell other people what to eat for breakfast, you got it?
I think Wilford's commercials are fine the way they are, but someone found a way to jazz them up:
If you rub some of the ads the Wall Street Journal is planning to run then you'll be able to smell them. The paper promises that the scented ads will be much classier than the fragrance inserts in glossy magazines.
It's hard to figure out what the actual advertising angle is to this story about the tabloids coverage of Jennifer Aniston's rumored nose and boob job. Seriously - can anyone tell me how this is news?
If you like to shop in New Jersey (and who doesn't) you're probably looking forward to the 2008 opening of the Xanadu Meadowlands retail complex (read: mall). To finance the construction it's offering $2.5 billion in naming rights to different areas within the mall.
ABC is hoping you will watch the Oscars and has tapped host Ellen DeGeneres to star in a series of spots to help convince you. The ads, according to the New York Times, are humorous in nature as an appeal to a mass an audience as possible. That's a departure from the campaigns from previous years which tried to use the mystique of the Academy Awards as the primary incentive to watch.
In addition to the DeGeneres starring ads there are also TV spots directed by Spike Lee showing movie fans reciting famous movie dialogue. That same dialogue is the central focus of the official poster created for the 2007 awards. Outdoor and print ads featuring individual lines of dialogue will also be released.
The size of the audience, though, is largely dependent on the type of films nominated for awards. Mass market films will draw a larger audience than a ceremony filled with niche films. That's an important point for ABC since projected audience is, of course, the number it will use when negotiating commercial advertising rates with potential buyers. The Oscar telecast is viewed as the second-most important TV ad outlet of the year after the Super Bowl. Because of the more female-skewing nature of the Oscars a different set of advertisers often show up. Dove, for instance, will be promoting its Cream Body Wash during the ceremony.
The price ABC is asking for the Oscar broadcast is a far cry from the Super Bowl's, though, at $1.7 million for a 30-second spot compared to the $2.6 million CBS has listed for the Super Bowl.
What do you do when you're a band trying to make a comeback? That's right, you advertise. At least, that's sort of what the recently reunited original lineup of Dinosaur Jr is doing with their very own Nike shoe that's set to be released sometime next month. I was never much of a Dinosaur Jr fan; I was more turned on by member Lou Barlow's other bands such as Sebadoh and Folk Implosion. Besides, those are some rather ugly shoes. Either that or I'm too old now and don't know what cool footwear actually looks like. To me they look like part of a spaceman costume. Then again, perhaps they are. Maybe soon they'll be releasing a Dinosaur Jr astronaut suit to complete the ensemble. Then when you see an astronaut walking down your street you'll know that said person loves himself some Dinosaur Jr. My god, that's genius.
Kyra Sedgwick, Kate Mara and Chris O'Donnell are just some of the stars who will be gracing a new ad campaign from everyone's favorite mall retailer, The Ravine Gap. This campaign comes amid hard times for the store chain, which has seen sales decline dramatically in recent years, even as sister chain Old Navy has had some success. There are even rumors that The Gap could be for sale, since Goldman Sachs has been retained to evaluate "strategies" for the company. It's hoped that celebrities will make people want to buy ridiculous amounts of khaki, despite this strategy having not worked in the past.
I think this commercial clip actually comes from an episode of The Tonight Show when Jack Black was a guest. That would explain the audience laughter heard when a young Jack Black pops up on the screen. The commercial is for Pitfall, one of the best Atari games ever. Pitfall helped me improve my running, jumping, swinging and falling-into-things skills. Also, it taught me that if you stand on a crocodile's head, it can't eat you. Also the best way to avoid a rattlesnake is to run straight at it and jump over it. If I ever become lost in the jungle, I should be able to survive with no trouble at all.
Kelly Clarkson, formerly of "American Idol" will be appearing in a TV spot for NASCAR and also begin making appearances at racetracks across the country. This is the first time NASCAR has used a non-race celebrity in its advertising.
Wait, this is real? What do you mean? I thought I was dreaming this. Oh my...I don't know how to process this. Someone tell me this isn't actually happening...it puts the lotion in the basket...it puts the lotion in the basket....
The Office is my favorite comedy on television right now. Did you see last night's episode?
Last week, Dwight quit Dunder-Mifflin so his secret girlfriend Angela wouldn't get in trouble for something he did for her, and this week we find out that he got a new job...at Staples! Now, ordinarily this wouldn't be much of a plot to talk about (though on most shows the character wouldn't have gone to work at a real company, they would have gotten a job at some fictional company), but it comes a short time after the episode that had a subplot of one of the Dunder-Mifflin employees buying a special (and real) paper shredder. An episode that had a commercial for the shredder. And now Dwight gets a job at Staples?
Is this going to far, or is everything fair in love and product placement these days?
Welcome to tonight's Main Event, pitting Colgate-Palmolive against Procter & Gamble.
In this corner we have P&G, which is preparing to launch a huge campaign that positions its Crest Pro-Health brand as an important tool in your personal health arsenal.
In the other corner C-P, sporting its Colgate Total line and using a campaign that tries to make us feel emotionally good about using Total by sporting Brooke Shields in a new commercial.
These two contenders for your toothbrushing needs have squared off in the past, leapfrogging each other occasionally as the market leader. This bout, pitting information against emotion, is sure to be an ugly one, albeit an ugly one with sparkling white teeth.
Britney Spear's ex-husband Kevin Federline will be appearing in a Super Bowl commercial for Nationwide Insurance. The spot is a bit of a spoof of Super Bowl spots and....I'm sorry...I can't go on. I have to go bathe in kerosene. K-Fed, the guy who's sole claim to fame is that he single-handedly brought down Spears' music career is appearing in a Super Bowl spot. Spoof or not this crosses some sort of line that I'm just not comfortable with.
Yes, I'm one of those people, the ones who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. I have no interest in football whatsoever.*
I'm a tennis and baseball fan (my brief affair with basketball stopped when the Celtics stopped being good, too long ago to remember), but I never miss the Super Bowl even though on most days I'd rather watch a Sex and the City marathon than watch football. I get involved in the pre-game hype of the commercials, what the ads cost, who is going to advertise when, how many ads a particular company has during the show, and even the post-game analysis the next day, usually in USA Today, where they have people watch the ads with meters and pick their favorites and least favorites (Budweiser wins many years, and I've never understood that). So I'm looking forward to the game in a few weeks, and we'll have full coverage of the ads here at Adjab.
*Of course, if the Patriots make it, this could all change.
The other night I woke up in a cold sweat. Confused and panicked, I began to fumble through the dark, pounding on the walls of my apartment and exclaiming, "won't somebody tell me Keith Partridges favorite cereal?"
That's when an angel flew into my apartment and directed me to YouTube, where I learned that not only does Keith Partridge favor Rice Krispies, but I should also eat the noisy cereal if I want to be like him. Then the angel put on a Batman costume, explaining he was only a part-time angel, and flew out my window.
I was glad to have my mystery solved, but seriously, Keith, what kind of lazy kid has his mother pour milk on the cereal for him? Why don't you just have her feed you in bed, too? My advice to all of you: eat Rice Krispies, but don't be like Keith. Pour your own damn milk.
This must be how the characters in movies like The Blob felt when they saw the creature, or how people must react to seeing a family member they just heard was horribly disfigured buying a non-fat latte just minutes later.
Suffice it to say that Digital Orville Redenbacher, the centerpiece of a new campaign from CP&B for the brand, creeps me the f**k out. There's not a single thing about this image that's not disturbing on at least seven different levels, including the fact that he's apparently listening to an iPod while microwaving his popcorn (which sounds like a euphemism but isn't), begging the question of what the digital version of a deceased corporate icon would be rocking out to.
In an effort to ratchet up the allure of its theme parks, Disney has embraced the power of celebrities. Specifically, beautifully shot celebrities in fantasy settings. (And no, I'm not just talking about high-production value porn. At least I'm not talking about it now. See me later about that - it's all quite tasteful.) Disney has had famed photographer Annie Leibovitz shoot famous folks from David Beckham to Scarlett Johansson as they recreate Disney characters in a series of ads that will run in high-end lifestyle magazines such as W, Vogue and The New Yorker as well as Cookie, the Disney-owned parenting title. In one ad, Johansson plays Cinderella as she runs down a staircase in full formal wear. 
If you rub some of the ads the Wall Street Journal is planning to run then you'll be able to 
ABC is hoping you will watch the Oscars and has tapped host Ellen DeGeneres to star in a series of spots to help convince you. The ads, according to the 
What do you do when you're a band trying to make a comeback? That's right, you 
Kyra Sedgwick, Kate Mara and Chris O'Donnell are just some of the stars who will be gracing a new ad campaign from everyone's favorite mall retailer, The 
Kelly Clarkson, formerly of "American Idol" will be appearing in a TV spot for NASCAR and also begin making appearances at racetracks across the country. This is the first time NASCAR has used a non-race celebrity in its advertising.
The Office is my favorite comedy on television right now. Did you see last night's episode?
Welcome to tonight's 
Britney Spear's ex-husband Kevin Federline 
Yes, I'm one of those people, the ones who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. I have no interest in football whatsoever.*
This must be how the characters in movies like The Blob felt when they saw the creature, or how people must react to seeing a family member they just heard was horribly disfigured buying a non-fat latte just minutes later. 
