If This Is A Blog Then What's Christmas?

The explanation from Carling, who posted this on YouTube, goes thusly:

The Ad is set to a classic British track and tells the story of a couple getting ready for a night out. Our hero notices a Carling Chrome poster which causes him to start thinking about the refreshment of an ice cold Carling Chrome. We then rejoin the couple as they enter a bar to meet their friends, finally enjoying the refined refreshment of Carling Chrome.

Ummm…

1. I had to restart the ad six times before I stopped being confused about what was happening at the beginning. The shots of the record player and woman and man and all that… I thought I was supposed to be following a plot of some sort (the explanation says it’s a ‘story’ about the couple getting ready to go out) but there is no plot. It’s just some stuff. Some eighties black-and-white stuff that seems really quite odd. The man looks out of the window and notices, apparently for the first time, a massive fucking ad for Carling Chrome on the building across from his flat. Then we zoom into his eye* and see that this makes him think of a trippy water visual, then his girlfriend’s earrings made of beer, then some more beer, then his watch strap clasping his wrist in a really dynamic way. Then we see his face and he looks like he’s just inhaled some poppers. Then he and his girlfriend go to a bar and drink cheap lager out of bottles. Yes, even the model-hot girl. She looks like the type, doesn’t she? Cheap lager out of a bottle. In a ‘classy’ bar. And I wonder what they do for a living. I only ask because they have a reel-to-reel tape player in their living room. That’s unusual for a pair of bland yuppies who drink cheap lager out of bottles in a ‘classy’ bar. And although they have a reel-to-reel tape player, they like to listen to Mark Bolan on vinyl then drink cheap lager out of bottles in a ‘classy’ bar. You can see why I’m confused.

*2. Carling, Carling, Carling… we’ve been over this. When you made your last ad I clearly advised you not to zoom into a man’s pupil. Clearly. Come on. I don’t do this shit for the good of my health, you know.

3. One of the YouTube commenters says: ‘Off to steam clean my computer now I’ve soiled it by playing this piece of rancid, over-blown, mid-eighties crap’.

4. He then adds, ‘My apologies to the Eighties, it was never this s**t’.

5. But that means nothing. After all, another YT commenter says, ‘That music is a blatant rip off of Cigarettes and Alcohol by Oasis!!’

6. Is it refined? Really? Refined? I have yet to taste Carling Chrome, but I have my doubts.

I have to confess something: if I’ve posted an ad on here that’s longer than a minute, chances are I haven’t watched it all the way through. Life’s just too darn short, and if they haven’t got me interested enough to spend the extra 30-60 seconds with them, well, that’s job not done, innit?

But on that subject, I happily sat through the 155 seconds of the above. It’s a cute idea very nicely written and made.

However, it is a bit of a rip off of One Man And His Dog*.

*Joke

(Thanks, Anon.)

I just read an interview with Jurassic Park and Spider-Man writer David Koepp.

The interviewer asked why everyone thinks they are qualified to change screenwriting:

William Goldman said once that it’s because everybody knows the alphabet, so everybody thinks they can write. And, by extension, everybody thinks they can change a writer because, basically, anybody can write. And it’s the cheapest, easiest part of the production to change. You can even have more than one [writer] going at once, which isn’t the case with a DP or an actor or anybody else. The majority of the other jobs involve a tremendous amount of upheaval because the majority of the other jobs on a movie don’t start until production. But because the writer works in the netherworld of development, where time can expand infinitely, there is much less risk and turmoil in changing writers. And you can always go back to what you had. It’s the hell of too many choices.

Does any of that sound familiar from your own line of work?

UPDATE: here’s another excellent article on the subject (thanks, S).

Terrible taxidermy (thanks, J).

Lovely tilt shift of the Rio Carnival (kicks off at 2:00. Thanks, P):

Seth Rogen hosts the Independent Spirit Awards very amusingly:

Wes Anderson from above and Tarantino from below (thanks, P):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNpVURAgG5g&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwO0rkbq_QU&feature=youtu.be

Somewhat insane and NSFW Odd Futures promo (thanks, M):

A fine and beautiful message from the Occupy movement (more here. Thanks, P):

600lb sumo wrestler vs 169 lb MMA fighter:

Kurt Cobain’s incredible vocal on Smells Like Teen Spirit isolated (thanks, E):

And if you still have time to kill, a blog about our inherent bias against creativity (thanks, P).

I like the idea, and it’s difficult to fault the quality of the execution, but something about this leaves me less than engaged.

Maybe it feels a bit overly sensationalised for my perception of the Guardian brand.

All the action movie music and supercool shots of cops and crime scenes made it feel like they were giving an already excellent product the kind of leg up normally found on an episode of CSI: Miami.

For me, that’s not The Guardian.

Here are this year’s ten.

I liked Chipotle a great deal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aMfSGt6rHos

And while we’re on the subject of TED, here’s Ridley Scott’s TED talk from 2023 (which is directed by Luke Scott and comes from this site):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7YK2uKxil8&feature=player_embedded

(I haven’t watched it yet, but it looks pretty interesting.)

Yesterday I received the following email:

Hi Ben,

Nice one, Emily. If you can help, or you’d like to get Emily to do something very clever for you, click on her link and get in touch with her.

While I’m here I’ll just remind you that the Landmark Forum introduction for media peeps that I mentioned a few weeks back is tonight. I’ll be there, so do pop along, if only to tell me how well my blog passes the crucial moments between the first coffee of the day and the decision to make stool.

The advent of the internet has given us many great things, and yes, some of them have even been ads.

But since BMW films showed us that web-only advertising meant that you could dispense with rules and regulations there have not been enough corporate messages that have really pushed the boundaries.

Well, the K-Swiss Kenny Powers work has really taken things to the next level.

Swearing, violence and plenty of product.

It’s what a sports shoe ad should be.

Let’s face it, most of us don’t really get the full benefit of an Adidas trainer vs one from Nike or Asics. They’re all pretty good, so the purchase decision just comes down to which brand you like best. Before the Kenny Powers campaign I thought of K-Swiss as the lowest of the low: dreadful name, awful design, terrible advertising. But in one fell swoop they have jumped to the front of mind when it comes to trainer choice (I must admit I still haven’t bought a pair, but that’s mainly because they look like shit) and as far as I’m concerned that’s advertising job done.

And this latest spot is just another great addition to a great campaign.

*It’s just coincidence that the last two ads I’ve really loved have featured loads of senseless violence.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard is funny (thanks, J):

Star Trek’s Worf being denied for fifteen minutes (thanks, P):

Nice movie poster tumblr (thanks, M).

Antique Store Home doc (thanks, P):

Brilliant messing around with model cars (thanks, V):

Time measured in fast food (thanks, P):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTu6EsLg_B0&feature=youtu.be

Cats as fonts.

The best title sequence in many years (if you’re lucky/unlucky enough to be an art director, set it to full screen and top volume).

A bunch of pictures that brilliantly sum up the Nineties (thanks, J).

Tom’s Diner/Taxi Driver mashup (thanks, P):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElM9u4AbL7A&feature=youtu.be

Cassette Boy vs The News:

My friend (and TBWA creative) Paul Pateman’s new illustration site. Maybe hire him or something.

hristopher Walken reads ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ (thanks, J):