"The Japanese Tradition" was a series of nine short, parody "How To" videos that gently mocked the formality of Japanese culture, from comedy duo
Rahmens (
ラーメンズ) and Japan Culture Lab. They're
available on DVD, but nearly all of them can be seen on YouTube, including
Sushi and
Ocha (tea).
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 25, 2010 -
54 comments
"What if America wasn't America?" That was the question posed by a series of ads broadcast in the wake of the September 11th attacks, ads which depicted a dystopian America bereft of liberty:
Library -
Diner -
Church. Together with more positive ads like
Remember Freedom and
I Am an American, they encouraged frightened viewers to cherish their freedoms and defend against division and prejudice in the face of terrorism (
seven years previously). The campaign was the work of the
Ad Council, a non-profit agency that employs the creative muscle of volunteer advertisers to raise awareness for social issues of national importance. Founded during WWII as the War Advertising Council, the organization has been behind
some of the most memorable public service campaigns in American history, including
Rosie the Riveter,
Smokey the Bear,
McGruff the Crime Dog, and
the Crash Test Dummies. And the Council is still at it today, producing striking, funny, and above all
effective PSAs on everything from
student invention to
global warming to
arts education to
community service.
Additional resources:
A-to-Z index of Ad Council campaigns -
Campaigns organized by category -
Award-winning campaigns -
PSA Central: A free download directory of TV, radio, and print PSAs
(registration req'd) -
An exhaustive history of the Ad Council [46-page PDF] -
YouTube channel -
Vimeo channel -
Twitter feed
posted by Rhaomi
on Sep 11, 2009 -
69 comments
It's time to get ready for the Super Bowl... Ads! Adland has freely available archives of 37 years of commercials from the big game, over 2,800 ads - from 1969, when
Winston,
Salem,
Camel,
Tareyton,
Pall Mall, and
Silva Thins smoked up the Bowl *
cough-cough*, all the way to 2008, when the best-liked ad was
Bud's dalmation inspiration (how do we know it was best liked?
SCIENCE!). Some highlights of the collection include:
[more inside]
posted by taz
on Jan 29, 2009 -
40 comments
A motherlode of ancient TV has been found at a web address near you! Journey now to the dim, poorly produced, and poorly preserved, but somehow incredibly sweet primitive ancestors of today's tv travesties.
See
Captain Video hawk his amazing ring. Or gape as
Foodini and Pinhead perform acts impossible for mere flesh-and-blood creatures. And these are not 10-second clips--they're whole shows.
And ads.
And Variety (that means a bunch of unrelated entertaining music, dance, or comedy segments, each a few minutes long)--in English, not Spanish like nowadays (cf
Sabado_Gigante)
[more inside]
posted by hexatron
on Dec 24, 2007 -
3 comments
Fred and Ethel resurrected as corporate shills "Through the magic of Hollywood, famously tightfisted Fred (William Frawley) and his irascible wife, Ethel (Vivian Vance), are brought back to life in a series of entertaining vignettes," California-based PacifiCare said in a release about its new television advertising campaign.
Using body doubles, voice impersonators and computer-generated imagery, the national TV ads that will premiere in mid October will enable the two long-dead actors to "speak" once more. And, oddly enough, they'll be talking about PacifiCare's new drug plan.
posted by Artifice_Eternity
on Oct 10, 2005 -
40 comments
Branded Entertainment. Where the insinuation of products in to entertainment reaches new levels of taste and decency. Flashbacks to '
The Truman Show' are symptomatic of this phenomena. The cause, as judged by
market research, is the misuse and abuse of
DVR players to block advertising messages. However, there could be a new artform in this; some
consumers would like to see a new kind of advertising to augment Brand and Myths [more inside].
posted by gsb
on Sep 30, 2005 -
32 comments
Daisy Duke Needs A Blogger! Yeeee-Hah. Put your pedal to the metal to see how fast you can apply for the ultimate dream job: getting paid $100,000 to watch the high-flying, stump-yanking muscle of the #1 rated car in TV and film history - The General Lee '69 Dodge Charger on THE DUKES OF HAZZARD! Watch the Dukes of Hazzard every night and blog about it, and you could be a 6 figure blogger!
posted by nwduffer
on Mar 4, 2005 -
13 comments
The Chopper Show commercials are awesome! They're 30 minute (or longer) commercials for a dealership in Las Vegas. They're obnoxious, over the top, and mesmerizingly amusing. It boggles my mind that there are people who purchase cars based on these commercials, but I can understand why The Chopper is so popular in Las Vegas. If you can't speak spanish, I recommend El Chopper en Espanol - it's even funnier if you can't understand the sales pitch.
posted by Fantt
on Jan 24, 2005 -
26 comments
The Republican National Committee is warning television stations across the country not to run ads from the MoveOn.org Voter Fund that criticize President Bush, charging that the left-leaning political group is paying for them with money raised in violation of the new campaign-finance law.
posted by jasenlee
on Mar 8, 2004 -
74 comments
The Open Video Project offers nearly 2,000 videos from various sources and collections, including such gems as 34 reels from the 1930s and 40s in the
Digital Himalaya Project, a series of
classic television commercials, and, from the Library of Congress, some shorts from the early 1900s, including the popular
2 a.m. in the Subway and
A Ballroom Tragedy ("Vaudeville" is a good search term for finding more like this). Also, especially for MeFi,
Johnny Learns His Manners.
posted by taz
on Oct 12, 2003 -
17 comments
Sprite Is Good Food "We have obtained a rare Sprite commercial rejected by the big wigs at the Coca-Cola Company. I believe it captures just what the Sprite consumer wants to see, epecially in the targeted demographic of 5-80 year olds...it's just too bad we had to delete the scenes with the hyenas on the salad bar." Well, it certainly made me thirsty. (Requires RealPlayer!)
posted by mcsweetie
on Jan 18, 2003 -
24 comments
I'd like to report some suspicious behaviour ...a series of recent
television commercials running on Australian TV promoting a toll free phone number to call if the viewer happens to see anything suspicious. Suspicious, you say? Don't be alarmed, it's all part of the Let's Look Out For Australia Campaign, whose motto is: 'Be alert, but not alarmed'. Then it says: 'Australians are friendly, decent, democratic people, and we're going to stay that way.' I feel alarmed, but not for the same reason. I'm alarmed that everything I once valued about my country, a humane welfare system that provided free healthcare and free education (including free university study) and an admirable and enlightened approach to multiculturalism, have been substantially compromised over the past decade.
I feel so betrayed that I can no longer say with confidence that I love my country. Things have reached the point where I want to move somewhere else: anyone have any suggestions?
posted by chrisgregory
on Jan 13, 2003 -
39 comments
Space Needle Missing from the Seattle Skyline? (subscription) The rumor is someone bought the Space Needle in Seattle and moved it to their house. No! It was an ad for the lottery. Do TV channels need to make it clearer that something is an ad, or do people need to be more careful watching TV?
posted by scudder
on Oct 17, 2002 -
28 comments
Journalists response to the web wide debate sparked after their
interview with Jamie Kellner CEO of Turner Broadcasting. Where he likened not viewing the adverts to theft.
It's a story I was very interested in and it seems it caused a fair amount of
debate. Other than the
'Osama is evil' explosion what's your favorite meme with legs ?
posted by mrben
on May 30, 2002 -
8 comments
TiVo and the BBC force programming on consumers. The BBC apparently paid TiVo to command all its boxes -- without consumers' permission -- to record an episode of a drama the BBC marketing department deemed a must-see. Users can't even delete the recording -- it'll be there until TiVo decides to remove it. Can TiVo users expect to be bombarded with paid advertising after all?
(ZDNet article here.)
posted by mattpfeff
on May 26, 2002 -
29 comments
The entertainment industry reacts. Fox's "24" delayed. "Spider-Man" twin towers scene removed. Ah-nold's "Collateral Damaged" and Tim Allen's "Big Trouble" postponed indefinitely, TV skyline shots being re-edited, televised action movies being replaced with more humor and upbeat programming. How long will it last? And having been probed for so long, will the gaming industry do anything in turn?
posted by teradome
on Sep 13, 2001 -
33 comments
Brand virus leaps to another level. Law & Order episodes on TNT next month will have ads digitally inserted.
Which reminds me--I was thinking about a device that would
remove objects (say, Bruce Willis) from any channel I pick. . .I say
we should get paid for watching ads customized to our specifications. (via
Q)
posted by aflakete
on May 27, 2001 -
15 comments
Are teens a reflection of the media or is the media a reflection of teenage culture? According to NYU prof Miller
"The MTV machine does listen very carefully to children. In rather the same way--if I can put it controversially--as Dr. Goebbels, [Hitler's] ministry of propaganda, listened to the German people. Propagandists have to listen to their audience very, very closely. When corporate revenues depend on being ahead of the curve, you have to listen, you have to know exactly what they want and exactly what they're thinking so that you can give them what you want them to have." More about the PBS special
here
posted by noom
on Mar 3, 2001 -
76 comments
'Is media bias real?', part two: Left-leaning media criticism folks
FAIR have produced a report detailing some examples of of publishers, advertisers, and government officials killing stories they don't like and placing stories they do. What about the Chinese Wall between the business of news and the actual newsgathering? To quote a CBS news producer on the distinction between entertainment and news, "That line was over a long, long time ago....That line is long gone."
posted by snarkout
on Feb 25, 2001 -
18 comments
Well, only 10 shopping days left until Super B(bleep)l Sunday, and of course, everyone's ready for the big... commercials.
This one, from People for Eating Tasty Animals -- er, um, sorry; mispronounced that -- was refused by CBS, or so saith the minions at AdCritic. Hope they're planning a Superbowl focus page during and after the show. They really oughtta hold a vote. No, wait... it would take too long. :-}
posted by baylink
on Jan 18, 2001 -
7 comments
Wassup beer commercial actors are to be given their own sitcom. I am going to smash my TV after work today.
posted by john
on Nov 15, 2000 -
10 comments
