Friday, August 17, 2007

8/17 is Finally Here


I can't stop myself from writing something about Superbad, the much-anticipated Judd Apatow movie that debuts today, so rather than post a video of me quoting lines from a movie I haven't seen yet, let's take a look at the marketing efforts associated with this potentially iconic film.

Their most notable effort is the AreYouSuperbad YouTube channel, where dozens of clips, interviews and trailers have been compiled. It's a perfect fit for this type of movie, where (apparently) every individual scene is funny enough to forward to all your friends, and every interview the lead actors do is strange or clever enough to be watched several thousand times. If the movie is as wildly successful as people are predicting, investing in young creative talents that embrace the DIY of web 2.0 is going to start looking really good.

I'm a little concerned that having seen most of the 30 posted clips that the movie will be a little diminished for me, a function of overexposure. Remember back when we used to go to movies without having had the opportunity to dissect an HD version of the theatrical trailer frame by frame? Yeahhhhh.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Ketchup 2.0!



Back in May, The New York Times gave a lukewarm review to Heinz's strategy of user created advertising content, worrying it was risky and a little exploitive. While this submission does use the old ketchup-as-blood gag (something Heinz is probably trying to avoid), it proves that television-quality advertising can come from the masses. And while I doubt the guys who made this actually have a passion for Heinz (more likely they're into improv comedy and film making), it's still the funniest ad I've seen recently. Let's hope it makes it to TV.