American Dream’ Documentary to Examine America’s Consumer Culture

american_dream.jpg

Filmmaker Joel Christian McEwan is in the process of developing American Dream, a documentary film which will examine America’s obsession with material possessions and the corporate culture that fuels and profits from that obsession. Featuring Danny Glover, Ed Begley Jr., Jean Kilbourne, Howard Zinn and many others, American Dream will try to make sense America’s consumer culture, it’s causes and its effects. And he needs our help.

In developing American Dream, the filmmakers have approached Adrants, and by default its readers, to aid them in supplying content for the film. Here’s what we’re looking for:

-Funny, ridiculous advertisements
-Lewd, suggestive ads/commercials
-Ads/Commercials that make you want to buy something
-Ads/Commercials that you dislike and want to see removed

All of the above have been covered ad naseum here on Adrants and the archives will definitely be trolled to supply the filmmakers with what they are looking but but if anyone in the industry has specific examples of advertisements, in any medium, along these lines, please feel free to send them to americandream@adrants.com

The filmmakers are not out to trash the industry in which we work but, as you all know, some inward looking, third party commentary is always a good thing. And, it’s not like we don’t know we’re all cogs in a larger machine over which we do not have complete control. Advertising is but one small part of the “American dream.” As far as I can tell the film will be a level-headed examination of the life long dream to “keep up with the Jones.”

If you can help, it would be greatly appreciated. This isn’t Cannes. This actually matters.

Picture of Steve Hall

Steve Hall

RECENT ARTICLES

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Psychology says the loneliest part of being an aging parent isn’t being alone – it’s realizing your children love you but don’t actually enjoy spending time with you, and understanding that gap is something you created decades ago

Psychology says the loneliest part of being an aging parent isn’t being alone – it’s realizing your children love you but don’t actually enjoy spending time with you, and understanding that gap is something you created decades ago

Global English Editing

Psychology says the freedom that childless couples experience in midlife carries a hidden cost. Without the natural structure that children impose on time, weekends, holidays, and decades, they must generate their own sense of purpose continuously, and that ongoing act of self-creation is both the privilege and the exhaustion nobody warns them about.

Psychology says the freedom that childless couples experience in midlife carries a hidden cost. Without the natural structure that children impose on time, weekends, holidays, and decades, they must generate their own sense of purpose continuously, and that ongoing act of self-creation is both the privilege and the exhaustion nobody warns them about.

Global English Editing

Psychology says staying silent in these 8 specific situations isn’t weakness or avoidance—it’s the most precise form of self-respect that most people only learn after saying the wrong thing one too many times

Psychology says staying silent in these 8 specific situations isn’t weakness or avoidance—it’s the most precise form of self-respect that most people only learn after saying the wrong thing one too many times

Global English Editing

I raised three kids, worked full time, and kept a marriage together for forty years, and my son told me over dinner that my generation had it easy. I didn’t argue. I just felt something close quietly inside me.

I raised three kids, worked full time, and kept a marriage together for forty years, and my son told me over dinner that my generation had it easy. I didn’t argue. I just felt something close quietly inside me.

Global English Editing

Psychology says the reason you can’t maintain self-discipline isn’t lack of willpower — it’s that you’re trying to force a behavior your nervous system has learned to associate with punishment, criticism, or being unloved

Psychology says the reason you can’t maintain self-discipline isn’t lack of willpower — it’s that you’re trying to force a behavior your nervous system has learned to associate with punishment, criticism, or being unloved

Global English Editing

Psychology says people who pretend not to see acquaintances in public to avoid small talk aren’t rude—they’re running a very efficient internal cost-benefit analysis that extroverts simply don’t have the software for

Psychology says people who pretend not to see acquaintances in public to avoid small talk aren’t rude—they’re running a very efficient internal cost-benefit analysis that extroverts simply don’t have the software for

Global English Editing