FX's 'Rescue Me' Returns,' Leary Slams Celebrity Hypocrisy

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The FX series Rescue Me is returning for a fourth season this summer and Complex has some words from the show's star Dennis Leary concerning the special treatment celebrities get and the true effect people's complaints have on the the success of the very thing about which they are complaining. What's that old saying with which Mom use to admonish? Ah, yes. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Of course, that never stopped us or most other media, 90 percent of which wouldn't exist if all we did was say nice things.

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by Steve Hall    Jun- 8-07    
Topic: Cable, Celebrity



AMC Brings Back Good Old Days of Advertising With 'Mad Men'

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Hey old timers, remember when there was this thing called the three martini lunch? When men ran the office without fear of women climbing the ladder? When advertising was unfettered by annoyances such as fees, unbundling, the Internet, agency consultants, sequential liability, TiVo, consumer-generated media, Donny Deutsch? Yes, there were once simpler times in the ad business. When men were men and a handshake was better than a 300 page contract.

Susannah Breslin tells us Cabler AMC plans to bring back those day with its Mad Men, a series about the New York ad business in 1960 from the executive producer of The Sopranos. The trailer promises the show will be every bit as sexist as it supposedly was back in the day. Of course, we're sure they'll be the required current day tweaks to make it all more palatable so as not to completely alienate the now overly sensitive society in which we now live.

by Steve Hall    Jun- 4-07    
Topic: Cable, Good, Trends and Culture



HBO 'Big Love' Campaign "Tricks" Viewers With Spoof Fragrance, Viagra Ads

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If you haven't watched HBO's Big Love, you really should. It doesn't matter that the show's about a polygamist family focusing on a guy with three wives and three houses and they're battle to "fit in" while navigating the difficult restrictions "their own kind" place upon them. What matters is the show's keen ability to make other lifestyles seem as normal and everyday as your own. Aligning perfectly with that notion or normality is this campaign from Seattle-based Creature which spoofs fragrance and Viagra ads in a way that makes the lifestyle seem normal while also poking fun at it.

The spots (here and here) have been released on YouTube and fake ads have been placed on the HBO Big Love site. Spoof-like print ads are also part of the campaign and will be placed in sections relevant to the individual ad's focus.

by Steve Hall    Jun- 1-07    
Topic: Cable, Good, Online, Spoofs, Video



Oxygen Network's AdFight Wants to Put You On TV

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If you ever wanted to be on a reality show but refused to subject yourself to the idiocy of The Apprentice, Oxygen is giving you another chance with AdFight, a show that pits creative teams against one another to create a TV campaign for a national retail advertiser. Winners will have their work shown as part of the advertiser's campaign.

If you can spare 3-5 days at the end of June when filming begins, send an email to adfight@yahoo.com by June 8 to be considered. Check out all the details here.

by Steve Hall    May-30-07    
Topic: Cable, Industry Events



'Flight of the Conchords' Get Game For HBO Show

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Courtesy of Deep-Focus, here's an absolutely whacked promotional site for the absolutely whacked upcoming HBO show Flight of the Comchords. The show follows the trials and tribulations of the New Zealand-based digi-folk band as they, Bret McKenzie on guitar and vocals, and Jemaine Clement on guitar and vocals, make their way to New York. There's videos. There's a game. It's all as hipsteresque as they come.

by Steve Hall    May-24-07    
Topic: Cable, Games, Good, Online



YouTube Viewer Counts Scammed, DTC Does TV, Godzilla Gets Indigestion

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- Saatchi & Saatchi X opens in China. Forgets to include Chinese.

- Just like click fraud, that high YouTube video viewership count might not be all it's cracked up to be.

- Direct to Consumer drug advertising insanity is about to hit Europe...in the form of an entire TV channel devoted to telling people about drugs they don't need for ailments they don't have.

- While we saw this kite surfing-gone-aircraft video a few days ago unfettered by a brand, it's now attached to Sprite Zero.

- Godzilla and friends get indigestion. Pepto Max to the rescue.

by Steve Hall    May-23-07    
Topic: Agencies, Cable, Television, Video



MTV Movie Awards Adds Consumer-Generated Category, Contest

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Hopping on the now very crowded consumer-generated media train, MTV has launched a consumer-generated movie spoof to coincide with its upcoming Movie Awards. MTV has added this new User Generated spoof category to the show and will award the top submission just as it does other category winners. To get the ball rolling, SecretSauce.TV's Andy Signore has submitted spoofs of 300, Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed. We particularly like The Departed spoof which is entitled The Defarted. You can just imagine what that's all about.

If you're interested in getting yet another award to place on your ego mantle, check out all the contest details here in a video by director Brett Ratner.

by Steve Hall    May- 5-07    
Topic: Cable, Consumer Created, Spoofs, Video



Turner Joosts, Cingular Hated, Fallon Loses, Webbys Unveiled

- Today, Joost announced that Turner Broadcasting will begin to distribute content on Joost from its well-known brands and properties, including Adult Swim and CNN.

- Here's a little bit of consumer-created hate directed towards Cingular whose phone's apparently can ruin speakers if placed too close to them. The video promotes Feeling Cingular, a site that is less than complimentary to the carrier.

- Fallon isn't happy. Citi has just moved most of its global creative account to Publicis Worldwide.

- The 11th annual Webby Awards has unveiled winners in 14 new categories.

by Steve Hall    May- 1-07    
Topic: Agencies, Cable, Consumer Created, Industry Events, Online



CN Does OJ, Quiznos Spoofed, Burn Back Updates, Salma's Boobs Sell

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- If this were done, say, ten years ago, it might have been funny.

- ytmnd has a bit of fun with the Quiznos "real meat" girl.

- There's more to ihaveanidea's Portfolio Night. There's the second single, part two of the documentary and a newish website.

- The fasion industry now has a technology that will allow people to find the perfect brands that fit them by scanning their bodies and creating a holographic image.

- If you market mattresses, you might like this one.

- In its 11th year, the Web Marketing Association has opened its call for entries for its WebAward competition in which entries are judge based on design, innovation, content, use of technology, interactivity, copywriting and ease of use.

- Salma Hayek's breasts sell Campari.

by Steve Hall    Apr-16-07    
Topic: Cable, Commercials, Industry Events, Spoofs, Strange



Hookers, Surgeons, Cooks Discuss Top Ten Requests

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Yesterday, MTV Latin America launched a new campaign to promote the network's evening series "The Ten Most Requested". The campaign was created by Miami-based creative agency la comunidad, and directed by Jorge Colon of production company Letca Films.

The spots, which were shot in Miami, focus on the top 10 requests a variety of professionals receive while on the job. For instance, in "Surgeon," a plastic surgeon in the midst of operating on a patient recites a litany of his most popular improvement requests - including breast implants, male enhancement, and nose jobs.

There's only so many ways you can talk about a top ten anything and, for us, this is one of the more inventive ones but, as always, we're sure you'll tell us we're full of shit if, in fact, we actually are. And unlike Bob Garfield, we don't claim to have got it wrong only a few times. Check out the three spots here.

by Steve Hall    Apr- 6-07    
Topic: Cable, Campaigns, Commercials, Good