The Footnotes of Mad Men explores and discusses the historic events, themes, and cultural mores of the show.
posted by mattdidthat on Sep 15, 2009 - 33 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

Persuasion: Why men in ads are dumb, goofy or completely inept. Several YT commercials and a thoughtful essay.
posted by five fresh fish on Aug 7, 2009 - 147 comments

"The BNP represents Britain's workers? They don't even represent basic British craftsmanship" - a response to the recent political broadcast by the UKs far right extremists the BNP, who are currently trying to exploit expenses scandals hiting the larger parties. Weirdly despite demanding British jobs for British workers their advertising uses American models.
posted by Artw on May 18, 2009 - 83 comments

Muppets' Exclusive La Choy Fire Breathing Dragon! While on the road to success, Jim Henson's creations were used in the advertising world. The La Choy pitch is a great insight into the workshop's early genius. [more inside]
posted by Frasermoo on Mar 19, 2009 - 28 comments

The Visual Telling of Stories
A lyrical encyclopedia of visual propositions;
a visually orientated taxonomy of the ways in which pictures are used to tell stories. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Feb 18, 2009 - 5 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

Product Placement Banned in U.K. Minister says it 'contaminates programs'.
posted by jeremy b on Jun 13, 2008 - 44 comments

Sports Business Journal has a detailed look behind the buzz over "The Emperor’s New Clothes: How ESPN’s Multi-Platform Strategy Hasn’t Improved Ratings," a sharply critical PowerPoint presentation making the rounds of sports league offices and advertising buyers in recent months. A good read for folks interested in the business of sports, decreasing TV ratings for many leagues, the blurriness of the ad/news line and the difficulty of measuring eyeballs across media. [via Romenesko]
posted by mediareport on Mar 17, 2008 - 18 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

Miss the Cola Wars? Now introducing the razor wars. One from Gillette has three blades, and two strips and a 77% awareness without an ad campaign- and is available for free. The other has four blades and is eating market share but the idea may have been borrowed from the competitor. Maybe gillette's solution should be five blades?
posted by drezdn on Feb 23, 2004 - 39 comments

Viacom's CBS today rejected a request from liberal group MoveOn to air a 30-second anti-President Bush ad, saying the spot violated the network's policy against running issue advocacy advertising. This, despite running anti-drug and anti-smoking ads. So, is it only issues about which they disagree?
posted by dejah420 on Jan 16, 2004 - 57 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

TiVo to Sell User Viewing Data TiVo executives said they will be gathering information only in aggregate, such as by ZIP code and that the habits of individual users will remain anonymous. However, not everyone agrees that TiVo can't/isn't tracking individual viewing habits. And now advertisers will be able to see exactly how many commercials we're all zipping past.
posted by stevis on Jun 2, 2003 - 17 comments

Starting with Super Bowl 2002 , the ONDCP launched a media campain linking drugs to terror, pregnancy, shooting your friend with your dad's gun, and running over a girl on her bike (Cost to taxpayer: $3.4 million). Soon after, the ads were refuted and parodied. Now the ONDCP says they'll end the ads in June, but not before they make some token Earth Day link and a weak argument against legalization.
posted by MarkO on Apr 22, 2003 - 32 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

Can biaised TV coverage of motorsports events be bought? The Aussport Post says it can. According to the linked article, Ford Australia signed a deal with Network 10, which has exclusive rights to telecast the V8 Supercars series, ensuring that other car manufacturers would be unable to advertise during telecasts of the series, in addition to guarantees of a certain amount of coverage of their cars during the series. Ironically, the car that lead the first 30 laps of the biggest race of the year, the Bathurst 1000, did not carry any Ford signage.
posted by dg on Oct 14, 2002 - 5 comments

Popup ads on your TV So, the media moguls have decided that they're tired of you ignoring their advertising...and thus, they will now insert popup ads into the live feeds. And you thought product placement was annoying. From Slashdot
posted by dejah420 on Jul 16, 2002 - 48 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

People don't watch adverts - or at least they try not to. I tend to flip, or press the mute button. Given this research, plus the fact that certain stations think it's our duty to watch .. do you think they'll find another way to slip them in when we're not expecting it ?. (previous discussion about tv commercials)
posted by mrben on May 27, 2002 - 45 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

White House Superbowl Ads Forget Britney's "Pepsi Generation" ad, we've got two commercials costing $1.6 million each linking terrorism with the drug trade! You gotta wonder if Rupert called in a favor.
posted by owillis on Jan 30, 2002 - 51 comments

What sort of salesman can't sell TV ad during the Super Bowl? Even after taking a 25% discoount off the $2 million 30-second spots from last year's game, FOX is still having troubles getting advertisers. See what happens when you cool off the economy, Mr. Greenspan?
posted by tsarfan on Jan 23, 2002 - 10 comments

Bill Maher calls U.S. cowardly; FedEx pulls ads from show It looks like that "Freedom of Speech" thing is too much for some people to handle. What do expect from a show like this? If you can't handle it, don't watch it.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet on Sep 19, 2001 - 86 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

Survivor is filled with crap for sale - so why can't I find that groovy Panama hat Colby wears for sale, anywhere?
posted by subpixel on Apr 29, 2001 - 3 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

The truce shortlived. I thought what I was hearing was great news. But watching TV this afternoon I've seen a Caring Foundation and NARAL commercial back-to-back at least 3 times. It's been years since I've seen it this bad.
posted by bkdelong on Jan 31, 2001 - 1 comment

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

USA Network complies with Tylenol's request to halt production of a drug-tampering movie.
posted by gluechunk on Dec 6, 2000 - 11 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

Political television ads. Lots of them. Just in case you didn't know. Go crazy.
posted by Mo Nickels on Nov 3, 2000 - 0 comments

a GOP group is airing pro-Nader ads in critical battleground states in which he is threatening a gore victory.
that is all.
posted by palegirl on Oct 27, 2000 - 34 comments

Norm and Cliff may be headed to the Supreme Court to battle some sticky isssues. Should a studio own characters and use them in any way they see fit, despite the actors' wishes? Or do actors have a say in how their likenesses are used? Who really "owns" a character?
posted by mathowie on Sep 27, 2000 - 14 comments

Remember those PSA's the tobacco companies said violated their agreement with the federal government? Well, they're back, and harsher than ever

I saw the body bag commercial last night at 3 am . . . when all PSA are played.
posted by alan on Sep 22, 2000 - 7 comments

"Ahhhhh the atmosphere" should get at least a giggle out of you. Commercials at their best.
posted by physics on Aug 15, 2000 - 5 comments

I approached this review expecting it to be of the "major media providers are the problem, not the solution" sort, but discovered something somewhat different: "It’s not that the medium of the modern political campaign–television advertising–failed to do justice to men of substance, but that men of substance failed to adapt to television advertising..."
posted by dcehr on Aug 7, 2000 - 3 comments

CBS said NO! Reebok said yes.

If you have watched survivor, many of you may have noticed the ads for Reebok that push the limits of your imagination... somewhat. Now, watch the ad that CBS won't air. But Reebok has kindly put up on their website.

Is this a new low for TV? Or just another barrier being breached?
posted by da5id on Aug 7, 2000 - 1 comment

ABC : Get ready for ``Must Pee TV.''
So, imagine, there you are, at the urinal, trying to make peace, when Norm's sexist melon is right in your face, saying "Oh my God, look at the size of that thing!"; "Hey watch your shoes!"; "You're a mover and shaker, and so am I."; "visual tag lines" like: "Another fine use of the color yellow." "The campaign is designed to raise awareness that the series has been moved to ABC's Friday schedule. The audience will understand when we're done that (Friday) is an adult night of comedy."
posted by tiaka on Jul 17, 2000 - 9 comments

Are americans really this stupid or does the rest of the world just have better things to do? TV owners are suing a company for running an ad with a CGI cockroach in it after destroying their TV's while trying to kill the roach. Will wonders never cease?
posted by jedrek on Apr 18, 2000 - 12 comments

Adventures in Consumer Stalking: Interactive TV "Broadcasters and advertisers, meanwhile, have long been eager to fire up interactive services, because they can know more about who is watching (and doing) what, and what consumers are buying. Targeted advertising with better response rates has long been a goal in the television industry."
posted by jenett on Feb 13, 2000 - 1 comment