commercials

Chris Knight's avatar

CatholicVote.org attempted to buy airtime to run this thought-provoking spot during the Super Bowl tonight. But NBC refused, on grounds that the commercial time isn’t for “political advocacy or issues”. CatholicVote.org is quick to point out that People for Ethical Treatment of Animals already received approval for a racy and suggestive promo it created.

Here’s the spot that CatholicVote.org came up with. I find it to be exceptionally powerful, and well within the bounds of good taste. And in my mind, there is no reason at all why NBC should have refused to run it…

Thanks to Geoff Gentry for the heads-up....

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Chris Knight's avatar

Today is the Super Bowl, which means that big entertainment studios (among many other companies) will be dropping unconscionable amounts of coin on measly 30-second spots to shill for movies, some of which won’t even be coming out ’til August. And thanks to the glorious wonder of the Internet, we can take a gander at them several hours before they air.

This first spot is for Disney and Pixar’s Up. I know some folks who have seen advance footage of this one, and they cannot stop raving about how good it’s already looking. Go to Disney’s website to see the commercial in much higher resolution. This will definitely be on my “must see” list this summer…

The next one is for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek, due out in May. Another one that I’m eagerly anticipating, for one reason because this looks totally unlike anything that has been ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

In no particular order, today I…

…saw the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace (it kicks seriously crazy cool boo-tay!!!)

…filmed a lot of footage for a commercial that I’m making for a new client.

…played Classic Battletech and had my derriere handed to me (especially after the legs were shot off my BattleMech).

…was told during rehearsal for the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County’s production of Oliver Twist that I had a great British accent and that I was channeling the perfect persona for my role as Mr. Sowerberry.

…got to meet Cecil L. Cline, the project manager for the Saturn V rocket program (he also worked on the Polaris and Poseidon missiles and the C-5A Galaxy transport plane in addition to many other engineering marvels) and received an autographed copy of his book A Soldier’s Odyssey.

Not too bad a way to fill up a ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Okay, this blows my mind completely. Because for two years now I have heard overwhelming praise for this commercial that I created for my run for Rockingham County Board of Education in 2006. The comments that people have shared most often? That this is a “positive” and even “upbeat” political ad. And that’s what I love hearing the most about it: that it doesn’t attack anyone. Heck, I don’t make negative ads, as a personal policy.

Here it is if you haven’t seen it already…

So then this afternoon someone passes along this blog entry from the Denver Post newspaper in September that lists “some of the most infamous examples” of negative campaign ads.

The first one listed is Lyndon Johnson’s diabolical “Daisy Girl” ad.

Then they name George Bush Sr.’s “Willie Horton” anti-Dukakis ad from 1988.

Next on their hit list is Mike Huckabee’s ad from earlier ...

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Yesterday this blog reported the passing of Kermit Love, longtime Muppet designer and operator. His work on commercials led me to look around YouTube for any other examples of Muppets used in advertising.

That’s what led me to re-discover the spots that Jim Henson made in the late 1950s for Wilkins Coffee.

Over fifty years ago, Henson was hired by Wilkins Coffee to create some commercials for their product. The result was a series of clips starring Wilkins and Wontkins. These are not only some of the earliest examples of the Muppets on television, they are also the longest-running campaign to feature the Muppets and certainly the most violent! Poor Wontkins dies by cannon, by point-blank shot from a pistol, run over by a bandwagon, not to mention threatened with a guillotine! In one of the commercials he’s also shown smoking a cigarette (try doing that nowadays!). ...

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In a commercial now running in Great Britain for BT Business. In addition to the psychotic beasties from Gremlins (including what looks like Mohawk leading them) it also stars Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den…

Man, I loved the Gremlins movies! Mom and Dad took my sister and I to see Gremlins in 1984, and it totally freaked Mom out! Around the holidays, I’ll often joke that it’s “my favorite Christmas movie!” especially if it happens to be on television. I also caught Gremlins 2: The New Batch when it ran in theaters. And some may disagree, but I thought in many ways that it was one of the few sequels that was actually better than the original.

Wouldn’t it be great if Joe Dante and Steven Spielberg were to make a third Gremlins movie? Even if that never happens, it’s good to see them in in fine form again ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Crack your whip at this!

I will confess that I still can’t entirely believe this is happening. After a decade and a half of false starts, unfounded rumors and even a few fake scripts (Indiana Jones and the Sons of Darkness, anyone?), part of my mind is convinced that this is a colossal prank hatched by Messrs. Lucas and Spielberg. Only when I’m situated in a theater next month with Dad (we’ve seen every Indiana Jones movie together since 1981) will I be persuaded that they actually made this thing.

But the part of me that does believe is completely stoked about seeing a new Indiana Jones movie 🙂...

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So North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue has sworn to stop running negative ads against fellow Democrat primary opponent Richard Moore.

Perdue should have never run any negative ads, period.

Notice how she’s only promising to do this for the primary. Perdue is saying nothing about abstaining from negative campaigning during the lead-up to the November general election. If she had done that, and stuck with it throughout the campaign season, I might be tempted to consider her.

But as it is, I’m still sticking with the policy that I announced last week: any candidate who runs even a single negative campaign commercial or pulls some other “dirty trick” that is easily attributable to his or her campaign, will not get my vote. Because doing such a thing proves beyond all doubt that said candidate does not sincerely want to serve the people. It means that they ...

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