Explaining the title: I am thirty-something Latino who has a fondness for the Japanese culture and speak Spanglish--Spanish and English. Some people say "Span-English" so I mixed it with "Engrish," which is how some Japanese pronounce English.
For a while, Sprint has had these special commercials featuring new characters exclusively for the commercials from the Desperate Housewives featuring cheating husbands and neighbors. But tonight when satire went wrong... a cheating husband is with his mistress in bed, the mistress finds out he has no money when he divorces his wife and she decides to kill the wife... through her iPhone!!! OMG, it is horrible. Yes, it is satire. But some crazy people out there... I mean, my mom complains about violence in Simpsons' Halloween episodes and I tell her that violence is common in even cartoons when she was growing up like Tom & Jerry with guns and anvils. Anyhoo, it was inappropriate otherwise.
Tonight there was an episode of South Park spoofing Pro Wrestling and their audience--rednecks believing all the drama is real and then they air a WWE video game commercial? Either WWE didn't know about this and let it air or they knew about the episode and was cool about it. I hope it was the latter.
Also, I don't know South Park knew this, but Kenny's wrestling name was Boy-O Loco, which sounds like Bollo Loco---Bollo is a slang term for vagina. Maybe they did know.
At Target stores, they are featuring these cutie Skelanimals. The copyright says 2008, I guess they have been around for a while. There is clothing and stuff animals. Art Impressions' site says that their demo is pre-teens, collectors, Girls 6-13 and chridren ages 4-6. The Keep the Party Alive - EP is an EP by the Rock/Crunk band Family Force 5 that is exclusive to the store Target to promote the Halloween merchandise for Skelanimals. This EP was announced on the band's MySpace and by their premium fan club on September 9th which included a CGI promo video with the band's song "Keep the Party Alive" playing during it. What is disturbing is their stories on how they became Skelanimals.
Sample poem: Kit had a head bigger than her body. The laughs she endured rang all through the lobby. Looking at the pool she would see her reflection. Wishful thinking for her water friend connection. She slipped and fell as she looked nearer. No more laughter and jokes would she hearrr….
Back when the "Barbie Girl" song came out by Aqua in the late 90's, Mattel was mad and sued them, but Aqua won. The song said stuff like "undress me everywhere" and "plastic bimbo girl." So now Mattel is using their own version of the song for their commercials and also for the Pink Ticket contest promos. They only use the parts that say "come on Barbie, let's go party" and they change the lyrics to match with the Pink Ticket stuff. It turns out that it was no fluke. Barbie Senior Vice President of Marketing, Stephanie Cota says. “Yes, there’s an interesting history with Mattel and Aqua. But one of the things that’s great about Barbie is that she’s had 50 years to figure herself out. ” The song “is such the epitome of Barbie. It’s a fun, kicky upbeat song,” she added. “We’ve re-written the lyrics ever so slightly. There’s a bit of girl empowerment that gets infused in there.”
Adjab has a 'Quick History of the Geico Gecko.' Martin the Geico Gecko has been voiced by Kelsey Grammar (the stiff English accent), Richard Steven Horvitz (the voice in the Kung Fu Fighting spot), and Dave Kelly (the relaxed British-Aussie accent).
And then Jake Wood, English comedian and actor does it in a hybrid Cockney London style.
Ray Park, the British actor and stuntman (now on "Heroes" and Dath Maul in Star Wars Episode 1), is the current voice of the GEICO gecko from 2006 to now. In current commercials the gecko's accent is more working-class, perhaps in an effort to further "humanize" him.
There is an early episode of Family Guy where Brian chases a small train and it disappears and he says "some day." and I never understood why. What reference was this I did not understand. I watched an early episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and a Ronald Reagen impersonator mentions a Christmas commercial of a dog chasing a toy train. This could be the reference.
KGB.com (Knowledge Generation Bureau) is a new internet site that you can call or whatever and the inform you on things from who won between Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee in The Way of the Dragon to Dave Buckner, a baseball player. The commercials starring James Gunn have been playing endlessly, from inside the supposed headquarters, to a husband frozen in thought thinking of the baseball player, two old men fighting in a bar, to the latest, Brain Farts. Yes, brain farts, it is a very low-brow joke and a horrible commercial. James Gunn and the girl character (that we followed since her employment to KGB) enter a university room in hazmat suits to tell the class (who are brain farting) who created "The Thinker." Anyhoo, there is a brand new commercial that can either be considered racist or bold.
The age old question... what are weaves (extensions woman put in their hair) made from? The commercial claims from an Yak. The commercial centers around black women in a beauty salon. And they did do the cliche stereotype of one woman saying "Hell nah you best not be putting no Yak hair in my weave!" Lord.
These new volkswagen commercials with a family or a black man at a dealership visited from their future selves (supposedly just a week or so in the future) with futuristic suits. Aren't we over this future look? Also, this Scyfy channel commercial showing off gadgets that we may never get like hologram portable phones and fancy hologram watches. Can't we have a new vision of the future?
For those wondering, Stephanie Courtney (a Groundling!) plays the woman or girl in those Progressive commercials, she has for like more than a year, well since 2008. She has had multiple commercials. The character's name is Flo and I love this character! She has grown on me. She has also appeared in television commercials, such as Skittles (2008), Wienerschnitzel (2005), SC Johnson Glade products. Wikipedia even has a page on her and on the character!
Lisa Kudrow is in the Nintendo DS commercial for Professor Layton and the Curious Village with Lynn Brown Kogen, wife of Jay Kogen, producer of "The Simpsons" and "Malcolm in the Middle." They are friends.
I saw the funniest thing the other day. I was at the gym and they had a telenovela (soap opera) on and there were two girls together and all of the sudden it became one of those old product placement segments. One girl was timid about talking about her period and the other busted out with maxi pads. It was hilarious, this actress was doing the whole nine yards of spokesman-ship.
I liked the first three but not the last one. The David Cook/David Archuleta Guitar Hero commercial was strange enough (Mormon boxers on a 17 year-old anyone? cringe factor). But now for this 'Rock Band' competition game from Guitar Hero commercial... they gathered along four athletes and the strangest combo ever. Tony Hawk? A bit played out, but fine, dunno how I feel about the helmet. Alex Rodriguez? Okay, fine, whatever. They didn't make him wear a helmet. Michael Phelps? Awesome! Great! Should have been just him! But awk! What?!! Mr. Raped a teen girl Kobe???! What the frak? I mean, okay, maybe he wasn't guilty but no one wants to see him in underwear, he was in nylon shorts but still.. thinking about the sequence, from Tom Cruise's Risking Business and we got to see Cruise's tighty whities, and that thought with Kobe. Eek. And it was kinda cool that Michael Phelps didn't wear briefs but his siwmmer trunks. Wish we saw more.
I got to say, for those people that don't pay good attention, that new PC commercial with a guy that looks like the guy that plays PC in the Mac commercials is not the same guy. He sounds like him, more than he looks like him. Those that are familar with the actor, they will obviously know he is not the same.
Jerry Seinfeld has lost his charm and Bill Gates has never have it. I don't even know what the heck they are advertising but this commercial royally sucks and you can see through their lame charade.
After Michael Phelps won his eight gold medal, a Visa commercial celebrated him. What would they have aired if he didn't win? Oh, well, at least you got 7?
I just saw a commercial for this Straight-to-DVD movie Alice Upside Down, that according to a IMDB review is a dismal movie. It is the first starring role for dancer/actress Alyson Stoner, who has been in Cheaper By The Dozen, "Camp Rock" and the Missy Elliott video "Work It." So the commercial advertises Alyson Stoner and Lucas Grabeel ("High School Musical"). Luke Perry plays his dad but he is not advertised. It is probably because the commercials is on ABC Family and that is their audience. Or the real reason is... the movie sucks and they don't want to embarrass Luke Perry any further.
Up next for the 15 year-old is The Alyson Stoner Project written and directed by fellow child actor Kevin Schmidt.
This commercial is the American-version but the original is with British actors. In this version, their voices were dubbed over by American actors and their cereal box was photoshopped to the American style of the box. In Canada, they see the real version but sometimes also see the American version. One believes this is done to achieve 'familiarity' with Americans, but there have been commercials with British actors before but i guess advertisers see it if the product applies for it like Grey poupon.
When I was a kid, I remember a freaky computerized guy. My dad had to explain to me it was a mask. I found it interesting. When I was older, I saw the show Max Headroom and 20 Minutes into the Future on reruns and I knew actor Matt Frewer starring as Edison Carter and Max. I thought Max was only featured in those new Coke commercials and the show. What I didn't know was that he actually started out in the U.K. The Max Headroom character originated in 1985-86 as an announcer for a music video program on Channel 4, the British television channel and it was called The Max Headroom Show. The intent was to portray a futuristic computer-generated character. Max Headroom appeared as a stylized head on TV against harsh primary color rotating-line backgrounds, and he became well known for his jerky techno-stuttering speech, wisecracks, and malapropisms. The Original Max Talking Headroom Show was made by Cinemax in 1987.
The Max Headroom Show was developed into the television movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future which in turn became the pilot for a series which ran from 1985 to 1987. The first episode was presented in an extended edition to American audiences in 1986 on Cinemax. Though officially two seasons, only fourteen episodes were created, and only thirteen aired. And then he became the New Coke spokesman. Notwithstanding the publicity for the character, the real image of Max was not computer generated. 3-D rendering and computing technology in the mid-1980s was not sufficiently advanced for a full-motion, voice-synched human head to be practical for a television series. Matt Frewer was in latex and foam rubber prosthetic makeup with a fiberglass suit, superimposed over a moving geometric background. n a 2002 web chat with Scifi.com, Matt Frewer expressed pleasant surprise at Max's continued popularity, and informed fans that he had a new Max Headroom project "in the deal-making process." No further information is known on this project.
In November 2007 Channel 4 Television made a campaign to warn UK households of the impending digital TV switchover featuring an older looking Max Headroom.
And of course, the famous...
During a broadcast of the Dr. Who episode "Horror of Fang Rock" on WTTW Chicago Channel 11, on Sunday November 22nd, 1987, at around 11:15pm, a Video "Pirate" wearing a Max Headroom mask broke into the signal and transmitted one of the weirdest, unauthorized things ever to hit the Chicago airwaves. Earlier in the evening on the same day, during the Nine O'Clock News on Channel 9 (Yes, a completely different channel) the Max Headroom Pirate also broke in - although it was for a much shorter time and there was no audio. He was never caught.
This commercial freaks me out all the time, a nice couple asks for napkins at the drive-thru and suddenly a car pushes them with the wheels burning. He is so hungry for this new burger, but I feel it is so irresponsible. I am surprise nobody is raising hell about it. To make it worse, the Spanish version of this commercial has a woman doing this.
