Author: AdweekMedia

It’s not an image I’d ever have conjured up in my own head, but let’s indulge Michael Lynton, the head of Sony Pictures, who had this to say during his keynote speech at the Showest convention in Las Vegas on Monday: "I can almost imagine the Romans eating popcorn and drinking Coke at the Coliseum 2,000 years ago. Or the Greeks munching on Sno-Caps at the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens." Really? Anyway, the point he was trying to make was that junk food will always be part of the moviegoing experience—Milk Duds, you’re safe—but he called on theater owners to branch out with fruit cups, veggies and dip, yogurt, baked chips and the like. Lynton shared the results of a survey in which 42 percent of parents said they would buy food at theaters for their kids more often if healthier choices were offered, and two-thirds of moviegoers overall said they’d buy healthy concessions if available. It’s a nice thought, and an opportunity for marketers. But I seem to recall that no one went for the air-popped popcorn years back, turning that experiment into as big a flop as The Wolfman. It’s more acceptable (when confronted with a survey) to say you’d turn down greasy popcorn, sugary soda and candy, but would you? Honestly? I say, bring on the Hot Tamales and start the show.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Because every athlete knows (or should know) that beer is the cornerstone of any training regimen, Miller has introduced an iPhone app called the MGD Pedometer 64 that lets you track the amount of calories you’re burning while doing cardio. The app is related to MGD 64, a brew that clocks in at 64 calories, which is roughly the amount the average person would burn by running about half a mile at a decent speed. Of course, there’s a social-media function as well: You and your Facebook friends can try to walk up Mount Everest 64 times (a mere 704,000 steps) or burn the 152,896 calories you’d ingest from 64 pizzas. While doing your calculations, you may decide that drinking water rather than MGD 64 will save you even more calories, or you may discover that all that extra exercise makes you extra hungry, prompting you to eat even more, in which case you may want to bag the whole thing, get a six-pack of Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre beer, accept the fact that you have a beer gut, and call it a day.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Sure, plenty of baby boomers knew Peter Graves best for Mission: Impossible, the long-running TV series about spies and spooks and such. But so many of us cherished him as the dry-quip-a-minute pilot, Capt. Clarence Oveur, in the Airplane flicks, the guy who couldn’t keep his stream-of-consciousness questions to himself. That young passenger visiting the cockpit had no idea what hit him when Oveur asked, "Joey, do you like movies about gladiators?" and "Ever been in a Turkish prison?" Graves, who died in L.A. on Sunday at age 83, also lent some nonsensical gravitas to the Geico ad posted here, and since we feel compelled to dredge up every star’s commercial turn when they die, here you go.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Have you ever gotten a Whopper, looked at the wrapper and thought, "I wonder how my face would look on this"? Probably not, but the people in this purported hidden-camera video for Burger King seem pretty tickled to see their portraits embossed on burger diapers. Ogilvy Brazil apparently took photos of patrons while they were in line, then printed the portrait wrappers to reinforce the "Have it your way" positioning. The "WhopperFace" idea could be seen as an invasion of privacy, but then, Burger King customers have been through a lot lately, including being encouraged to shed Facebook friends in exchange for food and being misinformed about the availability of their beloved Whopper. On a positive note, forcing repeat customers to see their bloated, pimply faces might be a hell of a wakeup call as well. Via The Denver Egotist.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

Taking a wild stab here, but I’d say nary a day goes by in Hollywood that some executive doesn’t think of himself as a superhero, saving the entertainment world by casting Taylor Lautner in every single movie and then releasing them all in 3-D. But thanks to Fast Company and artist Kirk Manley, some honchos will actually make the move into spandex. The magazine has done some clever illustrations that put Disney/ABC executives in classic Marvel comics. (The former company bought the latter in 2009, and there have already been suggestions about mashups of the two titans’ characters. This is the first I’ve seen of the suits getting in on the game.) Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the masterminds behind the cult-favorite series Lost, appear as Thor and Hawkeye; Captain Iger, the cartoon version of president/CEO Bob Iger, shows us how he’ll "unlock video content forever" (with a shield and multiple distribution platforms, of course); and new film-studio chief Rich Ross leads with his optimism (and adamantium claws) in X-Factor. Pixar’s Brenda Chapman has to be pleased with her va-voom makeover as the Invisible Woman, and Disney/ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney makes a fetching Spidey. See all the pictures here.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Discussing Burger King’s King mascot, Adam Carolla once noted that actors in the ads reacted strangely to the appearance of the King in their homes. Instead of being nonchalant, Carolla suggested, they should yell something along the lines of: "Who is this madman? Get him out of my house!" So, give Crispin Porter + Bogusky points for verisimilitude in this latest BK ad: At least here the King evokes something of a normal reaction. "Stop that King. He’s crazy!" yells one man, as the King, shown in an office setting, busts a window, starts a fire and pushes an employee out the way. The King really is crazy here. He jumps off a building and lands (safely) in a dumpster. But the King also means well. He presents another worker with a fresh Steakhouse XT burger just before the men in white suits tackle him. This spot isn’t likely to prompt me to try the new offering, but I do applaud this new story line. In future installments, how about the King in a straightjacket? Or maybe give him the Hannibal Lecter treatment. After all, that burger would probably go well with fava beans and a nice Chianti.

—Posted by Todd Wasserman

The new Lady Gaga video is finally out—my palms are sweaty!—and it does not disappoint on creative short film, bumping beat and product placement levels. Oh, Gaga, ever the brand ambassador. The pop singer/found-object-fashionplate crams in Plenty of Fish, Wonder Bread, Miracle Whip, Virgin Mobile, Diet Coke (empty cans serve as rollers for her fabulous hair) and two, count ’em two, placements for Polaroid in the music vid for her newest single, "Telephone." Lady Gaga signed on a couple of months back to be the marketer’s creative director and inventor of specialty products. No one really knows what that means, but judging from her first video release since announcing the deal, it translates to a flash of an ad and Gaga snapping an instant pic of Beyoncé in a video that’s racked up more than 15 million views on YouTube since last Thursday. Hey, the girl is hot. If you’re not already inclined to watch the video—who are you, by the way?—here are a few more enticements: "prison for bitches," Beyoncé in destroyed denim shorts that are a fraction of the size of Daisy Dukes, and the first appearance since Kill Bill of the Pussy Wagon. Yeah, take a seat.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Considering the sorry state of our country’s health care, it could be viewed as unseemly to make a movie about repossessing artificial organs from folks who can’t pay for them. Either that, or it’s totally prescient. Universal Pictures is launching just such a flick, Repo Men, with an outdoor/mobile campaign and an alternate reality game intended to draw people into a world where those pricey organ transplants can be traced via bar code. Information about the action thriller is dispersed in the same way. Scan an iPhone over the billboards and bus shelters for Repo Man in the top 15 markets and you’ll see sales brochures hawking the latest in artificial tickers and the like. Other links take you to Web sites about The Union, the shadowy corporation that loans the money and then reclaims the property when various poor bastards default on their payments. Some mock commercials for mechanical organs are instant creepy classics, with a spot for a new liver featuring the tagline, "We encourage you to drink irresponsibly." Studios have been using interactive ads for some time, but rarely do they fit so seamlessly with a movie’s theme. Universal worked with 360i and The Visionaire Group on the campaign, which also features a real-world game where players win cash for finding "fugitives" on the lam from The Union. Repo Men, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker, opens March 19.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Mattel, in partnership with Lionsgate and AMC, today unveiled Mad Men Barbie dolls. Having watched the series, I’d say the dolls are not intended for children. In fact, the Mad Men replicas are meant for collectors, who would appreciate their couture clothing and accessories. The action figures, which retail for $74.95, are modeled after four of the show’s characters:  Don Draper, Betty Draper, Roger Sterling and Joan Holloway (now Harris). While the Barbies don’t look exactly like the characters, I can see the resemblance and the 1960s fashion they represent. Ironically, this is pretty good advertising for a show that’s about advertising. Don Draper would be proud.

If you’ve ever browsed the shelves at your local bookstore, you’ve probably wondered how it is that a rock star or a pro basketball player who can scarcely assemble a coherent clause has managed to "write" a book. The answer, of course, is that he hasn’t—he paid someone else to do it. Surely, however, the far more respectable realm of business titles can’t be up to the same hocus pocus. Well, a recent press release from the folks at FastPencil has us wondering. The Campbell, Calif.-based company has just launched what it calls the Concierge Thought Leadership Book Program that allows "busy executives" to produce a "high quality book… without having to actually type every keystroke themselves." Enrolling in the program, the company promises, "simplifies the book authoring process by providing influencers with an expert team of ghostwriters, designers, and editors"—all of whom will help said busy execs to "solidify their credibility" with a book. In fact, the whole process takes a mere 90 days, and you can even choose from a variety of templates, including "personal memoir" and "the great American novel." We hate to spoil the fun by pointing out that much of today’s thought leadership preaches the importance of honesty and integrity in your brand—but heck, Mr. CMO, somebody knows you’re too busy to actually write that book that’ll have your name on it. So, call today! Ghostwriters are standing by!

—Posted by Robert Klara

While the Fed declared the recession to be officially over last September, millions of Americans remain skeptical—leaving many economic crystal-ball gazers to reach for all sorts of indicators that’ll supposedly tell us how the economy is really doing. The folks at Packaged Facts recently weighed in with what has to be the hairiest indicator of all: pet spending (properly termed "Pet Parent Spending," since it’s probably not kitty doing the shopping). No, nobody’s claiming that volume sales of chew toys should replace the GNP, but it is interesting to see the manifold correlations between the economy and what people will drop on the family dog or cat. For one thing, while 2009 was the worst year on record since the Great Depression, pet spending was actually up 5 percent (to $53 billion), with some items registering staggering growth (cat snacks, for one, up 15.3 percent over 2008 sales). But with the jobless rate still hovering around 10 percent, what can explain this countertrend? According to the report, 83 percent of dog and cat owners "cite their pets’ emotional support as helping them to survive the difficult times." So, that’s it, folks: Fido gets a treat because he loves you—employed or not.

—Posted by Robert Klara

All those Alice in Wonderland licensing deals are starting to look a lot smarter now that the 3-D movie has blown away box-office records with its $116.3 million first-weekend domestic haul. Not only do OPI, Urban Decay, Zac Posen and Stella McCartney stand to capitalize on teen and tween girls’ rabid interest in the Disney flick, punk-pop princess Avril Lavigne and Kohl’s are now wading into the fray together. Among the Alice-themed offerings: graphic tees, boyfriend jeans, tank dresses, twill shorts and silk-screened hoodies. The merch, part of Lavigne’s Abbey Dawn line at the retailer, hit stores just as Alice was dwarfing all competitors with the highest debut of a 3-D movie ever, whipping past Avatar’s $77 million opening (though on more screens). The psychedelic Johnny Depp adventure, from director Tim Burton, beat pre-launch expectations by nearly $50 million and rose above middling-to-poor reviews. Lavigne could be a double winner with her Alice associations—she recorded the first single, "Alice (Underground)," on the movie’s Almost Alice soundtrack.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Holy crap. This must be the biggest paper-towel roll we’ve ever seen in our life. Procter & Gamble has sent its Bounty brand on the road with a traveling companion of (ta-da!) a shopping cart in a campaign to raise $50,000 in product donations to five food banks. (All you have to do is go to Bounty’s newly launched Facebook page and become a fan of the brand.) "Just as the new Bounty Huge Roll aligns with our commitment to provide consumers with huge value, our goal through this campaign is to make a huge difference in the lives of those in need," Bounty brand manager Chris Brown said in a statement. The ginormous paper towel is making stops in five markets, including San Antonio (eek, that’s not far from the Irving, Texas, HQ of Kimberly-Clark, which makes rival brand Viva) and Grand Rapids, Mich. Let’s hope there’s not an all-out paper-towel war!

—Posted by Elaine Wong

We watched this Terminix commercial after we ate a salmon and avocado sushi roll (and some Thai iced tea), and we’re so grossed out. The ad from Publicis in Dallas shows the damage that termites and other unsightly—and unseen—pests can do to your home. It opens with a gigantic close-up of the "Queenius Destructus" (this is really gross), which lays "over a million eggs a year." The baby freaks, in turn, fly out to the millions of homes in the U.S. and do their little damages. Termites, it turns out, are capable of living up to 20 years, "swarm one in every 30 homes in the U.S." and "eat 24 hours a day." (Also, they cause "$5 billion in damages a year." Holy cow!) We can’t help but turn our head away every time that nasty, pulsating Queen Termite’s body occupies the screen. Now, we’re not particularly squeamish, but these termite facts are hard to stomach, particularly after eating a happy meal. (Ugh, excuse us one second. Barf!)

—Posted by Elaine Wong