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Wes Anderson Directs Brad Pitt in Ad for Wacky Japanese Sensibility

Kyle Buchanan — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:46:21 EST

Royal Tenenbaums director Wes Anderson doesn't typically work with two-time Sexiest Man Alive winners (keep trying, Schwarzbaum!), so to imagine what the director could do with Brad Pitt doesn't come easily.

Nevertheless, here we have a Japanese ad for, uh, Volkswagens? Canary-yellow pith helmets? Oh, it's an ad for phones, we guess, Japanese phones, and Anderson directs Pitt in it as though the actor had just stepped off a Jacques Tati set. Aniston, your move. Might we suggest lining up David Lynch in a hallucinatory commercial for pachinko?

[Us]

Bold Starz Campaign Insists You Will Hate The Lindsay Lohan Film Airing Saturday

STV — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EDT

There's no denying Lindsay Lohan's "thriller" I Know Who Killed Me was among the most critically and commercially reviled B-movies of last year — of any year, really. But now that IKWKM is approaching cable oblivion with its premiere June 14 on Starz, we doubt our inbox has ever seen a publicity campaign this wonderfully defensive or reactionary — almost Warholesque in its celebration of its own product's awfulness, proudly emphasizing its Razzie Award cred and critical pull quotes exhorting viewers to check out "a disaster that exerts a perverse fascination" (Variety) or "the monumental trashiness of this mess" (NY Daily News).

While we're loathe to plug the film (in fact, we would sooner piss in our own mouths than watch it again) or its network, we acknowledge the vague intrigue of Lohan's pseudo-twin/stripper/victim antics among the IKWKM cultists out there. Here's hoping the torpedoed likes of Speed Racer and The Happening find this kind of love in their own pay-cable afterlives, perhaps on Starz soon-to-be-introduced sister channel Flopz.

I Know Who Killed Me [Starz]

Marketing 'Baby Mama': Universal Tries The Kitchen Sink Approach

Mark Graham — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:45:00 EDT

Ever since Mean Girls became a runaway success back in 2004, Tina Fey has been riding a wave of near universal acclaim. Her ability to ride that tasty wave of popularity for the last four years without succumbing to any nasty wipeouts has arguably turned her into the Laird Hamilton of the Writers-Turned-Performers circuit. But when Baby Mama hits theaters this weekend, all of that cred that she has built up will be put to the test. Not only has Variety's Todd McCarthy gone on record calling it "exceedingly predictable", but Videogum has been trumpeting the notion that "Tina Fey-Tigue" is about to set in for the last week and some change. Recognizing that this film doesn't exactly fit the mold of traditional studio comedies (namely, in that it stars two female protagonists), Universal has been throwing a bunch of dollars at Baby Mama television advertising over the last few weeks, alternately positioning the film as a Tina Fey Vehicle, a film In Which Amy Poehler Steals The Show and, gasp, as something that even sports-loving, beer guzzling men will dig (specifically, by scoring the spots with The Cars' dude-friendly power pop anthem "Just What I Needed").

While all three of these spots appear after the jump, we thought it would be fun to enlist Defamer's videographer par excellence Molly McAleer to cut a commercial for the film that would play to all the thrill-seeking teens who have made Prom Night one of this spring's surprise B.O. hits (above). Feel free to use our cut, Universal marketing team — all we ask for is a link in return. Enjoy!

Baby Mama as Tina Fey Vehicle:

Baby Mama as a film In Which Amy Poehler Steals The Show:

Baby Mama as something even dudes will like (note the use of 40 Year Old Virgin star Romany Malco):

Harrison Ford Pulls An Ed Norton, Demands Rewrites On A Pro-Bono Ad Campaign

Molly Friedman — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:10:00 EDT

When it comes to celebrity endorsements, Harrison Ford isn't exactly known for splashing his chiseled face across billboards shilling for shower gels and cell phones (Japanese beer, as you'll see after the jump, is whole 'nother story). But according to Mediabistro, Ford recently agreed to partner with powerhouse advertising agency BBDO to develop a series of environmentally angled ads. And, apparently, Ford's developed a case of the Nortons:

"He's finicky about scripts, mainly because he's so concerned about his voice and face being attached to the project...He's apparently so finicky that his demanded changes completely decimated a scheduled shoot in Latin America to get the campaign rolling."

This ad that Harrison shot for Kirin Beer sometime in the early `90s is the most disturbing celebrity endorsement we've seen since Diddy proclaimed his love for Proactiv. And after watching this monstrosity, we're left even more puzzled as to why Ford would give this oddball the thumbs-up but is fighting with the well-respected creative house BBDO over a series of spots to promote the least controversial cause of the moment. Sounds to us like ole Harrison might need some more green before he goes green.

HARRISON FORD...COPYWRITER? [AgencySpy]

Time Is Preciously Short For Agencies To Suck Up To 'Sopranos' Clients

Mark — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:45:59 EDT

Virtually any morning flip through the trades reveals a delightful succession of full-page reacharounds celebrating this milestone or that meaningless award, but today's special All-Star Tribute to the Final Season of The Sopranos edition of Variety provided a special occasion for the industry's finest talent agencies to engage in a particularly vigorous round of congratulatory handjobbery. So which agency loves its Sopranos earners the most?

While UTA boasts 15 names on its page (though closer inspection reveals some credit-padding dirty pool: Wilmer Valderrama? Really?) and CAA a typically staggering line-up of 14 commission-generators, on a pure per-client basis, plucky APA (all together now, Entourage fans: "Who the fuck invited APA?") outspent its ten-percenting betters in buying a back-cover tribute to its cherished tag-team of Johnny Sack and Bacala. We have no idea what happened to Endeavor's ad—we assume that either they don't rep any Sopranos people, or Ari Emanuel just took the money and made donations in their name to Barack Obama's Democratic primary campaign, entirely bypassing this sloppy round of interagency competition.

[ads via DigiVariety]