Last week I shared some disturbing McDonalds ads that I found in Argentina in addition to a clip of a faux Marilyn Monroe also endorsing the Golden Arches. Compared to some dead celebrity-employed marketing, though, that’s relatively innocent. A black and white photo with a badly inserted color cheeseburger? Even Marlon Brando would have been fine with that unbelievable campaign. As for the Marilyn commercial, I’ve seen some people comment on YouTube that they didn’t know she did a McDonalds ad. But aside from inadvertently confusing some idiots, having an impersonator hawk products isn’t too unethical.
This 2005 Volkswagon ad is a little more questionable, as it superimposes the face of Gene Kelly (d. 1996) on the bodies of breakdancers outfitted to look like his character in Singin’ in the Rain. I’d say it’s despicable or blasphemous but I have to admit to having enjoyed it when I first saw it. And the remix of the movie’s titular tune is also appreciable. Also, its painstaking recreation of the iconic scene is to be respected, especially because it doesn’t simply pull some archive footage or photograph of a dead actor and randomly plop it into an advertisement, like the John Wayne Coors spot.
That’s not actually Marilyn Monroe in the McDonalds commercial above. It’s Susan Griffiths, a Marilyn impersonator who you may have seen on the cover of this month’s GQ magazine. I’m not sure how old the ad is, but I wanted to use it as the Clip of the Day in order to share some other McDonalds print ads that I discovered while on vacation in Buenos Aires last week (no, I wasn’t dumb enough to bother eating at McDonalds with all the great Argentine beef elsewhere; I was using the restroom). I don’t know how old these ads are either, but they seem pretty despicable regardless. Check out some pics of Bogie, James Dean, Marlon Brando and Nat King Cole hawking cheeseburgers after the jump.
At the Risky Biz blog, Steven Zeitchik accuses the Wachowskis of “insidious” product placement in Speed Racer, altering the design of Speed’s helmet and the Mach 5 to subliminally invoke corporate partner McDonalds. “It may not be brand placement. It’s something much newer and trickier: brand suggestion.”
FILMMAKER Magazine’s website has published the essay by David Gordon Green from the liner notes of the recently-released Benten DVD of Todd Rohal’s The Guatemalan Handshake. His first impression of that film? “I had a queer anxiety in my stomach that in fact the movie was “too good,” or should I say “special,” like a retarded kid who is enchanting and liberating in his or her world view, destined for a conflict with the traditional culture.”
Movie viral marketing or fan fic? It’s too early to tell, but twoG.I. Joecharacters have started Twittering. GeneralHawk’s latest update: “Having a late lunch at Bennigan’s with Snake-Eyes & Alpine. Alpine says The Roots newalbum is, quote, ‘Dope.’” [Tipped by Kevin]
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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