adgrunt comments

troymcclure's picture

Boone Oakley out of Charlotte, North Carolina did a billboard for the Bloom grocery store chain that had a car crushed by -- wait for it -- a "jumbo muffin." I'm not tech savvy enough to link to the image, but you will find it on their website (www.booneoakley.com). Not sure just when they did it, but it was a few years back.

troymcclure's picture

At the risk of appearing obsessively anal retentive, I nonetheless feel compelled to point out that there there is a typo in the title of the presentation. It should be "Its," not "It's."

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system.

troymcclure's picture

Am I the only one who noticed the eerie resemblance Mr. French bears to the priggish, piggish English businessman in "Motherf@#%ing Snakes On A Motherf@#%ing Plane?"

troymcclure's picture

Wow. Who knew Joe Pytka was still directing?

troymcclure's picture

Apologies, Ernie. Only having a bit of sport.

troymcclure's picture

Looks like it was too over the top for Hill Holiday. The cheeky buggers took it off their blog. Go figure.

troymcclure's picture

Such a worthy cause. Here's my meager contribution to the effort. I'm posting it here because I have a feeling HHCC won't keep it up for long:

"I was facing an existential crisis of epic proportions. My life was a cosmic joke, utterly bereft of passion or purpose. A vast, gaping void stretched before me. . . nothing but darkness as far as the eye could see.

"And then I saw your commercial.

"It is a work of such staggering genius, such unbearable beauty that all of mankind

troymcclure's picture

Actually, Crispin milked this schtick dry well before the Burger King "Manthem" work. Remember the "Mantropy" campaign for "Maxim" magazine? (Do they even still have that account?) They mounted a drive to save the men of America from the encroaching weenieness of modern life, even going to far as to submit a petition to the U.S. Department of the Interior to declare manhood an endangered species.

First the spate of "faux porn" executions last year, now this. I know Crispin is brilliant and all, but why do they get a free pass on such unoriginal thinking? Is plagarism any less odious if you steal from yourself? Any other agency would've been raked over the coals for this kind of thing. But God knows you will hear nary a peep of criticism of Crispin in the inevitable gushing write up in "Creativity."

troymcclure's picture

I agree that this is some tasty eye candy. No doubt it will be the next Internet sensation. But take away the trick photography and the soundtrack by Jack White and what's left? As Gertrude Stein (or was it Alice B. Toklas?) famously said of Oakland, "There's no there there." Whoever created this commercial seems to have mistaken a cool technique for an actual idea. Contrast that with, say, Honda's "Cog" or "Grr" commercials. They were visually arresting to be sure. But there was a message to the madness, a perfect fusion of style and substance. (To be fair, though, how much can you really say about soda?)

troymcclure's picture

Mee-yow!