"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
From the BBC blog of documentary filmmaker
Adam Curtis:
Experiments in the Laboratory of Consumerism 1959-67:
"I have quite a lot of film from the archives that was shot in the Madison Avenue agencies in the mid 1960s, and I thought I would put some sections up. It is great because it shows some of the major advertising men and women of the time, many of whom are the real-life models for characters in Mad Men." Includes a 9-minute video interview with the late
Herta Herzog.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Aug 23, 2010 -
17 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
Business POV It is a forum for state-of-the-art business journalism using an innovative format: online video.
Viewers can watch new, completely original, locally produced video profiles of companies, people and products that fall into our three main interest areas: innovation, entrepreneurship and the creative culture (advertising, graphic design, architecture, the arts).
New content is posted Monday-Friday. Check out the archives section (Jason Fried, from 37 Signals is interviewed). Enjoy!
posted by zerobyproxy
on May 22, 2007 -
11 comments
Nice Beer Ad from Down Under a 1000 Auzzies in gowns crossing over the sheep strewn plains of Australia.
Ahh..foreign ads..perhaps this indeed the next form of cultural worms? I can see those soulless bastards on Madison Ave.."Yes..lets push hard on the foreign angle and prey/pray some poor sod on MeFi picks it up..we'll be rich I tell ya RICH!!!"
Forgive me MeFiers.
posted by Mr Bluesky
on Nov 3, 2005 -
23 comments
So the banner ad turned 10 a few days ago, according to
dabitch, but what I find more fascinating is that its first use was in connection with all those AT&T "
You Will" television commercials from the early '90s. Here, collected on one page, for your consideration, are those ads. As
Frau Farbissina would screech: "Lies.
ALL LIES!" Well, perhaps AT&T didn't lie to us about
all their predictions, but I'm still waiting for my "intelligent assistant" who'll work on those playoff tickets for me. How many predictions did they make that came true can
you find here?
posted by WolfDaddy
on Oct 31, 2004 -
21 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
The latest Honda television commercial, "
Sense" being shown in the UK, is the follow up to the
widely discussed "Cog." It's quite not as cool as its predecessor, but still, an elegant, interesting concept. Apologies for the somewhat low quality of the java video stream.
posted by jonson
on Jul 10, 2003 -
23 comments
Local car dealership commercials that don't suck? Okay, so, yes, every major metro region has its own crop of idiosyncratic and usually-low-budget car dealership commercials -- god bless Kramer the Magical Donkey -- but Portland, OR has this wonderful sort of Cinderella story guy named Scott Thomason. (more inside)
posted by cortex
on Apr 10, 2002 -
14 comments
Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Gap.... If ever there was a candidate for being sued this site would be it... with a three-minute music video setting logos, brand names and glossy corporate imagery against adbusting in-jokes and shots of police brutality. Anti-capitalist anthem or the ultimate in product placement? And how long until the site's namesakes get it pulled off the Web?
posted by skylar
on Feb 6, 2002 -
19 comments