Commercials/Music Videos/Film Shorts

[Sampaguita]

So, we've got a Music thread, a Literature thread, a Movie thread, and a Theatre thread. I figure we could use a thread for Commercials/ Music Videos/ and misc Film Shorts. And those of us that live stateside are still buzzing about the commercials premiering during the Super Bowl. I liked the Budweiser commercial with the zebra-as a referee- watching the playback.

But I have to say that my favorite commercial EVER is the Volkswagen wedding commercial. And I saw a re-edited version of the commercial last night. For those of you that've got quicktime, here's the commercial:
www.vw.com/commercials/bigday.htm

For those of you that don't, here's the basic run-down: Shots of a bride getting ready to walk down the aisle at a church. Cut to-- shots of this blonde guy driving. Shots back to the bride, her bridesmaids, and her father looking at his watch. Cut back to blonde guy going faster and faster in his sleek little silver Jetta, running into a slow trailer on the road... later running into a train (at which point he emits a scream drowned out by the music). Cut back to the church with bride looking almost happy and we find out the guy she's about to marry has brown hair. The officiating minister says "Speak now or forever hold your peace." And blonde dude shows up just in time-- breathless and the bride is smiling at him (sorta).

This is the best commercial in the world!!!! (And possibly the best film short I've ever seen.) It was wonderfully cast, but can you imagine our dear sweet Mr. Coulson as the blonde guy (WHO IS HE??!!) and Jude Law as the guy with brown hair? Mr. Brown Hair looked more bewildered than mad-- I personally would have liked to see him shoot off the evil eye (which Jude, as a lot of us know, most definitely CAN) to Mr. Blonde. Insert Natalie Portman as the bride. But this re-casting on my part is almost needless... The short is PERFECT as is.

As for Music Videos, my favorite ever has to be either Madonna's "Like a Prayer" or "Material Girl."

[Catriona]

That commercial is the best- only insert me as the bride instead of Natalie Portman, and have an ending where Christian tosses me over his shoulder and runs out of teh church!

[MsPoet]

Natalie Portman....Jude.....Christian.....
Aha!!!! ....and let's stick Orlando in as the best man, Ewan as a groomsman......lol

I don't *think* I'm the only one who's noticed that commercials are entertaining nowadays, but seriously, how many of us can remember what they're advertising? ....I wouldn't call that necessarily a good commercial. The best commercials would be entertaining (you stay in your seat instead of going to the loo), memorable and obvious. (I grew up in a time of Coke and those "I'm a Pepper, she's a Pepper, he's a Pepper...we're a Pepper....wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too?" (you see how memorable that is?....I could go on....lol)

My favorite commercials of all time, tho, have to be the GAP commercials. Whoa!!! I wanted to be dancin' with 'em. Seriously, ANYONE WORKING IN THE GAP CORPORATION OUT THERE: IF YOU PUT THEM ALL ON A DVD, PEOPLE WILL BUY THEM. Or am I the only one? lol.....they have been going on for some time....remember the "swing" commercial, when they played the swing music?.......of course, the recent one of the cute British ballet guy (I read up on him : dancin' like it's all he has to do?......and the genius b&w ones, Christina Ricci and that actor...omg..I'm blank......the one with my man and Kate Beckinsale being chased.....the up-and-coming actors biking down the hill (incl. Jay Hernandez )........

Donna

[freelancer]

I'm really diggin' the Sheen Master Card commercial. An old favorite of mine is the "I Love You, Rain Check" advertisement. I, honestly, don't know what they're advertising, but it's this boy who is running around the front yard pretending that his check is a dog.

As for music videos, I'm a big fan of: blur's "Coffee and TV", nine inch nails' noir "We're In This Together" and Cake's "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" [LA].

[Mandragora]

I love the Johnny Walker ads... you know, the "Keep On Walking" ads. It's been around I think for years, but the quotes are great. One of my favorites goes, "I may walk slow, but I never walk backwards" I just can't remember who said it.

[Mandragora]

Hmm, music videos... I love Fatboy Slim's, especially "Right Here, Right Now", "Weapon of Choice" (the one with Christopher Walken), and "Sunset (Bird of Prey)". I also love Morcheeba's "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day", and this is probably one of the most creative videos I've seen, Massive Attack's "Teardrop"... the singing fetus.

The Smashing Pumpkins has great videos also, "1979" and "Rocket", and Pearl Jam's "Do the Evolution" and the classic "Jeremy". Oh, speaking of animated videos, Korn's "Freak on a Leash" is creatively freaky, and Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box". And The Cardigan's "My Favorite Game", I saw the three versions, but MTV pretty much censored them.

Oh, and Madonna's music videos are really cool, dating back from the ones directed by Chris Cunningham, "Frozen", but the one that really shocked me is, of course, the controversial and directed by husband Guy Ritchie, "What It Feels Like for a Girl" That Guy Ritchie, hah

There are a lot of music videos that somehow narrate stories humorously yet darkly, like White Town's "Your Woman", the Eel's "You Showed Me", Radiohead's "Just", Blur's "To the End" and "The Universal", among others.

I don't watch MTV anymore as I used to, so I am not familiar with the latest ones. Christina Aguilera's "Dirty" completely repelled me... I quite like watching Missy Elliot though. I haven't seen videos recently that are as creative as the ones I really like... I only tune in to MTV if and only if I like the song played and if "Daria" is on.

[Sampaguita]

Donna, y'know what? I was watching the KTLA morning news yesterday, and that anchor Giselle Fernandez brought up the same point with that commercial producer guy. It's an interesting point...

VW always has good and memorable commercials. I think their most recent one is called "Chain Reaction" or something like that... where people are doing a sort of pay-it-forward good deed sorta thing and after they hit the rewind button, you see that it all started with a red Beetle.

Gap has some good commercials, but sometimes I have problems with them (having to do with the suggestion of erasure of subculture individuality tied to the audio-racial imagination). But sometimes, I forget the academic side of me and just watch. SO, I'd have to say that my favorite set of GAP commercials has to be the "West Side Story" khakis stuff.

But I'll elaborate later. I've gotta go to class to turn in a paper.

[MsPoet]

Sampatigua, hmm...I didn't see Giselle Fernandez say that....we used to watch KTLA, but now we watch channel 11.....but it's good to know I'm not the only one who thinks that of commercials.

I like the VW Beetle commercial....it's nice...and I know what it's about because, at first, I thought she was smiling at a guy, so I paid good attention to see what she was *actually* smiling at.....

I'm a bit uncertain about what you mean about "erasure of subculture individuality..." in the Gap ads. Could you elaborate on it?; it sounds interesting...I *may* know what you mean (I may not lol)....but I don't want to comment on it until you reply.....my media courses extend only to the basic Journalism, to Women in the Media (one of my many women's studies classes; I shoulda just signed up for the minor :.

As for MTV, it came about when I was in the prime demographic they were shooting for...but I was never keen on *watching* music...I mean, I've always preferred to siphon up my own images. Hey does anyone remember "Remote Control?" it was like Jeopardy, but it was all about tv, and it was Adam Sandler's first regular role--as a recurring character: Towel Boy (or was it Robe Man?----well you get the picture :Plol).

Donna

[Sampaguita]

Here's an article illustrating what I mean:
Khakification by J.D.K

I'D LOVE TO HAVE been a fly on the wall when Gap's ad imagineers came up with their new Khakis TV spots. I'm sure you've seen them by now. "Khakis Swing" has a bunch of swing kids doing swing dances to Louis Prima, only instead of zoot suits and flapper dresses they're all wearing khaki pants. "Khakis Groove" hits the hip-hop heads with a bunch of legit b-boys and b-girls popping, locking, and breaking to old-school '70s funk without sweat suits or parachute pants (and without cardboard, thank you very much), just khakis. Then there's the one I remember the least, "Khakis Rock," which seems to be geared to electronikids and big beat tweakers. All I know for sure: khakis.

Mining youth culture for fresh ideas and then commodifying those ideas into mainstreamed, over-the-counter consumer dust is nothing new for corporate America. But these Gap ads are up to something different, something far more ingenious: they're making a profit off subcultural distinctiveness by erasing it from the pop radar screen entirely. It's brilliant diversity management, hunting for difference and then wiping it out, making it safe after being enticed by its danger -- loving its music and then changing its clothes.

More than anything, the ads remind me of "The Melting-Pot of Music," an equally creepy 1930 film short from The King of Jazz that the bandleader Paul Whiteman starred in. The Gap execs would love it. First there are all these different "national" groups playing different "national" music in different "national" garb (Turks, Mexicans, Russians, etc.), and then in walks Whiteman, who uses his conductor's baton to demonically stir them all together in the giant steel cauldron of the American melting pot. Then out they all come, playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" and wearing identical outfits. No khakis, though, just gold top hats and tails. I don't smell the same patriotic whitening agents at work in the Gap ads that Whiteman liked to traffic in (and at least Gap doesn't impose a single khakis theme song), but the end result is still too close for comfort: sameness by khakification.

I suppose the way Gap exploits swing, hip-hop, and breakbeat for an individuality it just as quickly discards wouldn't feel so unsettling if de facto difference-cleansing in the name of style hadn't become so prevalent elsewhere in pop culture. Take the swing resurgence itself (the very audience "Khakis Swing" aims for) and the recent success of the Cherry Poppin Daddies' hit "Zoot Suit Riot." Forget "Jump, Jive, and Wail," this is the song that ought to be playing in "Khakis Swing."

These Oregonians aren't the first neo-swingers to get hip to stylee pachucismo, but they might be the first to name a party song after the 1943 Zoot Suit Riots, when zoot-suited Mexican Americans were violently attacked by U.S. servicemen on the streets of East L.A. Predictably, it's a reference in name alone. The song makes no comment on the riots themselves or what their memory means to present-day Chicanos who might hear the song on the radio or at a concert (as many did when the band opened for Los Fabulosos Cadillacs at the Fillmore a few weeks back); it just uses the riots for effect, confusing fashion with racial violence.

The band's singer, Steve Perry, recently told the L.A. Times, "I don't mind if people take it as a Latino anthem, but I was just trying to pay tribute to this new breed of swingers that was emerging. I just like stylish people." Perry should be working for the Gap.

During the riots, one of the ways the sailors would attack pachucos was by violently ripping their pants off. Maybe if the pachucos had been wearing khakis, none of this would have ever happened.

[Sampaguita]

Now, I don't think that the GAP commercials are solely responsible for or WILL directly cause the erasure of urban subcultures, but I agree with Josh in that the commercials come WAY too close to advocating that sort of an image.

I think that the commercials are well put-together, but sometimes the commercials feel a little creepy in how they come close to (or, in some cases, actually fall into) a corporate mis-appropriation of music and culture (urban or otherwise). It's hard to leave some of this stuff in class sometimes... critical theory is slipping into every aspect of my life!!!! (AAAAAHHHHHH!)

[Angelamyte]

i've found that the GAP ads tend to give you a sense of exactly what you should be wearing, i remember when the fleece vests were in and everyone was singing "They call me Mellow Yellow" and now the whole scarf thing now..which i hate ..they look cute, but why are ppl wearing scarfs INSIDE?? i dunno, if this happens anywhere else..so spare me if you don't know what i'm talking about..lol ;D

my favourite ad right now, has to be the BOD, body spray for men, commercials with all the hot guys playing sports and the girl is saying "Hot Bod, Hot Bod, I want your Bod!" which is exactly what I was thinking...lol ;D

[lizifer]

my fave advert is for the peugeot car, its brilliant, the guy has this crap car and starts running it into walls, hitting it with hammers to make it look like a peugeot!

[Angelamyte]

lizifer, that sounds really funni..so what? the car is really compact or something? lol..i'll find a pic so i can see how this "peugeot " looks..lol ;D

[Voldie_M]

i just love that baileys advert!
the guy walks into the room,a club/bar type thing,and walks upto his girlfriend,and they cant hear each other cos the music is too loud,so he motions with his hand "drink?" to her,and she says "baileys" only we cant hear her,we just see her lips move and subtitles telling us what their saying,and then the guy goes "what?" cos he cant hear her,n she starts trying to act out what baileys feels like,she starts rubbing her hands on her body n motioning drinking n stuff,n then he shrugs cos he still doesn't understand,so she walks upto him,n kisses him on the lips,n then he looks at her and says "baileys!"
Then,he goes upto the bar to order it,and he says to the guy behind the bar "baileys" and cos the music is too loud the guy cant hear him,n the guy goes "what?"

LOL its so funny

[MsPoet]

Hmm....

well as for the Gap ads giving us a sense of what we should be wearing---well, kudos then---exactly what a clothing ad SHOULD be doing.

As for the ads erasing the individuality of the sub-cultures---what, then?---should each person of the different race be wearing a completely different style of clothing? (And what about those who are multi-racial?) Or should all the Gap dancers be of one specific, clearly defined race?

Ok I've just spent about 10 min. looking thru my book Spiritual Politics--Changing the World From the Inside Out by Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson (I HIGHLY recommend this book---amongst other things, it discusses the souls of nations).....I was looking for the specific quote on the discord between the "hippies" of the 1960's/early 1970's ("Make Love, Not War") and the US government. One of the reasons given for the discord was the "hippies' " difference in dress---they dressed and presented themselves so differently from those in power in the US govt., that they ended up distancing themselves even further.

In closing (LOL), I'd like to say that the Gap ads bring a little bit of shine to my face, a little bit of perk in my step, and a little bit of fun to my life.

Donna