Earlier this week we posted a behind-the-scenes look of James Franco's Gucci cologne commercial. Well, here's the finished product. It's as ridiculous and airy as every other fragrance advert ever. But Franco's cute!
Eeks! We were disgusted by Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble hawking Winston cigarettes, but we're straight up horrified by this early McDonald's commercial, which features the Today Show's Willard Scott playing the original Ronald, who's tempting a small child with his seemingly endless supply of hot beef. It's creepy, freaky and everything in-between!
Check out the first very Ronald McDonald advertisement, after the jump. We would apologize for the poor quality, but we think it may be for the best. Hi-Def would simply be too frightening.
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A rough estimate says about 500,000 people have views this video on YouTube, but we haven't, and odds are you haven't either. Nor will you ever see anything like this on 21st television: beloved cartoon characters peddling cigarettes - Winstons, no less! Archaeologist suspect second hand smoke may have killed the dinosaurs.
Gucci recently snagged James Franco as the face of one of their fragrances, Gucci by Gucci Pour Homme. Meanwhile, Arjan Writes snagged a video of the Franco's shoot, which features a "phenomenal" Roisin Murphy cover of Roxy Music's "Slave To Love."
Ch-ch-check it out.
Barack Obama today released a new attack ad taking on John McCain's economic plans.
Entitled "Book," this latest ad follows Obama's fashion, and directly links McCain to George Bush, citing the candidates high agreement average with the President. To be fair, McCain's always said economics ain't his best subject.
John McCain's campaign yesterday released a new web ad again depicting Barack Obama as an overblown celebrity.
While it's easy to get caught up in this new electoral trend, journo Jason Pickens wonders if McCain's commercial, which features loads of white ladies fawning over the "dreamy" candidate, isn't trying to play on racialized fears as Scott Howell did with his video attacking Harold Ford Jr., a former black Congressman. That video featured a buxom blonde telling the then-candidate to "call me," which, some say, ties back to racist ideas of black men taking white women for themselves.
We're not sure we agree.
See the Howell ad after the jump…
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Barack Obama simply couldn't help himself!
Taking a page from John McCain's book, the presumptive Democratic nominee and his campaign today released a new video called "Embrace," which depicts McCain as the dreaded "celebrity." Seth Colter Walls elaborates:
With Barack Obama on vacation this week, perhaps it was the perfect time for Obama's campaign to release an attack ad that makes no mention of their candidate (a rarity, thus far). After all, he won't have to answer any process questions about the "tone" of the race. Or perhaps, just as former Sen. Tom Daschle said last week, Obama's advisers believe McCain's Paris Hilton ad did real damage.Either way, the celebrity line of attack has become rather popular.
Hot, nauseating new trend alert! Now, let's hope Obama doesn't venture into Biblical territory. That would be abominable.
Ilene Chaiken's one clever lesbian!
The L-Word writer and creator convinced Showtime, which doesn't air commercials, to let her write products into the lady drama's storylines. And the move may bring in serious bank:
Those with knowledge of the matter say that for $300,000, consumer brands can buy an "integration package" that will either incorporate a brand into existing L Word storylines or allow the brand to work with the show's writers to create customized storylines, participating in one episode or across several…While Ms. Chaiken wouldn't comment on the $300,000 figure, she did say that pricing is being kept flexible to allow the maximum number of potential partners. The L-Word, she notes, isn't just about and for gays and lesbians; it's about "affluent, avid consumers plugged into pop culture," which Ms. Chaiken said makes the series "a rare, perfect opportunity for showcasing brands" to women, lesbian or not.
We'd love to see Chaiken work in a Vagisil sponsorship!
Read our interview with Chaiken here!
The campaign ads wars continue with yet another John McCain ad smearing Barack Obama as a celebrity.
Asks the female narrator, "Is the biggest celebrity in the world ready to help your family?" And, no, Paris Hilton doesn't make any cameos. McCain learned that lesson.
John McCain's ad team doesn't waste any time. Just one day after rival Barack Obama released an ad linking him to oil loving President Bush, the Republican's campaign released an ad, "Broken," depicting the 72-year old as a change agent…
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Boy, this is the scandal that won't die!
Recently released emails reveal that South Carolina's Tourism honcho, Chad Prosser, explicitly requested the controversial "So Gay" adverts stay up in London.
Once the scandal broke, however, Prosser and his colleagues told the press they were unaware of the campaign and, once made aware, tried to put a stop to it. That story's a little shaky:
After the posters were put on London subway walls, state tourism officials heard about them. [And] Prosser said the state would not pay the nearly $5,000 for its share of the campaign, saying he doesn’t think it’s appropriate to use state tourism marketing funds to support any specific social agenda.But PRT emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that, on July 3, Prosser told his staff the state would take part in the campaign. The email to London says, “Per Chad’s direction as of 4:40 p.m. today, (July 3) DO NOT ask the vendor to remove South Carolina from the campaign.”
The story broke on July 11th, at which point lawmakers had already squashed the campaign.
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These shots are for a new Olympic advertising campaign in the U.K. from Powerade, the sports drink owned by the Coca-Cola Company.
Finally - some closure in South Carolina's "So Gay" advert scandal.
Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, we all now have an inside view as to what went down after the State's tourism officials first heard of the controversial ad, which had been designed and distributed in London:
When an ad campaign appeared in the London Underground promoting South Carolina as a "So Gay" destination for gay and lesbian tourists, the spokesman for the state's tourism agency shared his unease with a colleague."I'm praying this little story doesn't jump the pond, especially as the later summer slow news cycle sets in," Marion Edmonds wrote in a July 3 e-mail. "Let's hope that doesn't get picked up by some SC tourist and brought back. It would be a classic case of a picture doing the damage of a thousand words."
Edmonds' prayer was not answered. The story broke in early July in the blogosphere, and then moved into mainstream news reports.
A pile of e-mail printouts at the South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department illustrates the agency's confused response to the ads—which apparently were approved by a lone employee who may not have even looked at them—and the media storm that followed.
Freedom of Information requests yielded a four-inch stack of e-mail and documents dating to 2004.
The documents also reveal the ad agency's philosophy - reclaiming "so gay" to bolster the state's image as an inclusive vacation destination. The scandal, which caused the approving South Carolina employee to resign, ended up tarnishing the state's image.
The ad from for-straights-only online dating service eHarmony isn't what's worth watching here. It's that eHarmony's spot is directly behind a spot for Sprint's new Instinct phone that's filled with lesbian overtones — or at least Oprah-Gail girlfriend overtones. Dr. Neil Clark Warren must be so pleased.
Barack Obama and his campaign team wasted no time hitting back at rival John McCain, who today released an add attacking Obama's international popularity.
In this Obama advert - entitled "The Low Road" - McCain's painted as a negative nancy who simply can't escape old school Republican nastiness. Oh, and there's also some bit about Obama's energy policy, a tax cut for the middle class and the candidate's commitment to alternative energy sources.
Take a peak, after the jump…
[via HuffPo]
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