The new FOX reality series, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, is actually quite funny. Hottie Arizona school teacher Randi Coy has to convince her family that she is engaged to "Steve" who, in reality, is just an actor posing as her potential husband. If Coy can convince her family that "Steve" is the man of her dreams, she will walk home with $500,000.
Of course, "Steve" is a loser buffoon and the last guy Coy would ever want to bring home to her parents. The show is watchable. "Steve" does a great job playing the fool and Coy is extremely pleasing on the eyes. Will anyone other than me watch it? Well, Nielsen will tell us but I'll say give it a chance. It is funny.
While you will instantly recognize this Vietnam era photograph, you may not instantly recognize all the underlying double meaning here and questions it raises. Has Starbucks, the brand, been forced upon us so heavily that we are resigned to it's stronghold? Is this sick, underhanded viral marketing? Does their coffee just taste bad? Is Starbucks going to sue someone over this image? It brings back memories of PUMA.
Adland has put together a great summary of what we can expect to see in terms of advertising during this year's Super Bowl. The list is nicely organized into categories such as Beer, Drugs, PSA's, Retail, Financial, Automotive, etc.
While I agree it ain't no "Sex in the City," I did watch the entire premiere episode of "The L Word." I thought it was mildly OK. And Mia Kirshner alone made it worth watching.
Tony didn't like it writing, "As exciting as thirtysomething, as dramatic as peeling potatoes, and as sexy as willard scott, The L Word sure shows tons of sex and lets us in on sex talk and we see hot chicks and steamy situations, but alas its as cold as an overnight with martha stewart."
UPN has a new reality show in the works which will follow five Amish kids ages 16-20, who have never been outside their sheltered lives, as they live with five other kids from the "normal" world.
CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves said, "This is not intended to be insulting to the Amish, but to have people who have never had television who will walk down Rodeo Drive and be freaked out by what they see. This will not be denigrating in any way." How watching these cultural neophytes stumble through our cruel world is not "denigrating" in some way is questionable. That said, it will most likely be a popular show. We love watching the oddities of others.
Seemingly unable to come up with an alternative creative format or to at least make an attempt to design to the medium, advertisers, courtesy of Unicast, will now have the ability to place full screen, 30 frame per second TV style ads on the web in interstitial format. On Tuesday, MSN, ESPN, Lycos and iVillage will begin running the high-resolution commercials which download in the background and run for a full 30 seconds.
Pepsi is among the charter advertisers and will monitor the success and acceptance of the ads through a Dynamic Logic tracking study. Whether the ads turn out to be the next best thing or the next pop-up will be answered soon enough.
Almost every political ad is a lie or has stretched the truth so far that the ad ends up meaningless. Even so, they can be fun when two candidates get on each other about their ad lies.
A recent ad by Gephardt attacks Dean, "Did you know Howard Dean called Medicare 'one of the worst federal programs ever? Did you know he supported the Republican plan to cut Medicare by $270 billion? And, did you know, Howard Dean supported cutting Social Security retirement benefits to balance the budget."
"Well obviously that's hooey," says Dean after seeing the ad. He says Gephardt's ad is "the last gasp of the Washington establishment." Dean claims, "We have health insurance for all the kids in my state. We have prescription benefits for a third of our seniors." A third? Is that good? I don't know and that's not the point. It's just fun to see two grown men reduce themselves to a playground fight and then expect us to respect them as the leader of our country.
Back in July, Lamar Outdoor declined to run an anti-rodeo billboard campaign featuring former "Baywatch" babe and Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Bonnie-Jill Laflin. The board featured Laflin in the stereotypical country-girl-laying-on-a-pile-of-hay pose with the headline, "Nobody Likes and Eight Second Ride."
Seems PETA had its eight second ride, was left unsatisfied and is demanding completion. The anti-everything group will run the ad in the "Fort Worth Weekly" for the next three weeks, coinciding with the Fort Worth Southwest Exposition and Livestock Show, which includes a rodeo. So those of you who missed Laflin's roll in the hay and want to witness PETA's "completion," will have a chance to see it again albeit in low quality newsprint. Better yet, see Laflin in full sized, four color glory right here.
A billboard campaign currently running in South Africa for cell phone provider Vodacom may get banned Monday by the Commission on Gender Equality for being insensitive to women. The billboard, showing a bare breasted woman reaching for her bra, is accompanied by the headline, "Don't get caught without coverage."
Addressing complaints and defending the campaign, Vodacom communications head Mthobi Tyamzashe said, "We go out of our way to actively take part in programs that are aimed at helping to preserve their dignity." He cited Vodacom's support of rape center victims and the company's charitable contributions which is, perhaps, the best defense I've ever heard for a controversial campaign. What's next? "Don't like our ad showing a guy with an erection and the tagline, 'Our rates are so low, you'll be very excited?' Well we give charitable contributions to the Large Penis Support Group."
If you can't wait until Monday to get your American Idol fix, Blogcritics has preview clips. [Via lostremote]
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