...they're all really bad at figuring out toilet paper.
Now I really wanted to put up the recent one where it takes mama bear with her TELESCOPE to figure out that one, she must be legally blind to not notice her son sitting in a tree directly in front of her and her telescope and two, her son (and all of her other relatives) put their toilet paper seemingly everywhere butt (sic) the place it needs to go. I did some informal polling (my two roommates) and 100 percent of respondents said that they have never had a problem with left behind pieces and having toilet paper all over parts of your body that you don't wipe toilet paper. Toilet paper really doesn't need to be advertised, we all need it and are going to buy and generally won't think about the brand or the tissues structural qualities. So in order to grab that precious butt-wiping market share Charmin has declared themselves king of taking a lot, but leaving little when it comes to your behind.
So, bears who should probably be more aware of what's on their butts since they don't wear clothes. Until you can get your acts together I'm not letting you inside.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Branding video games as art.
There is a typical formula for a video commercial/trailer. It looks like this.
We see here the fast paced mix of video scenes mixed in with game-play scenes set to heavy metal music, all targeted to that extremely large video game playing base of teenage/young adult males. You could practically change the title card to a made up name (like bullet force 2) and most people would probably fail to take notice. This goes way back too, this commercial for the SNES version of Super Mario Brothers basically does the same thing, quick cuts, shots of gameplay, explaining why this game is cooler than others and those previous. Granted the music weighs a bit less on the metal side but this is Nintendo, the pioneers of making music out of telephone dial tones.
As video games have gotten more and more visually stunning the case is being increasingly made that some of these games have stretched beyond mere entertainment and into the art world. Certainly some games have made the case, trying to create a world that is both epic and mythological in its scope. Certainly titles like the Final Fantasy series and Halo have begun to create their own mythologies within their own worlds. Creating a Middle Earth that one can actively participate and play in.
The advertising for some of these games has begun to reflect this. One of the more famous examples (and first I believe) is the Gears of War "Mad World" trailer.
Here the music is set as an ironic counterpoint to the visuals on the screen. You have a slow and somber song that is the back drop to something terrifying. The character is moving fast and dives out of danger only to be met with an even larger monster.
This new breed of video game trailer has also gotten a lot more depressing the previous video shows that. Heck, that might not even be the character you play, that's just some dude who died.
Halo 3 upped this ante by putting out this commercial that uses models of soldiers whose faces are full of fear, despair and retreat. The music fits in with this and notably, doesn't show you anything of the actual game. They making the bold assumption that its mere presence is enough to sell the game and not hoping to sell to you based on something that looks really cool.
This may be the beginning of a new approach and the real creation of an aesthetic in video game making. We're seeing people delineating between a sort of "high-art" and "low-art" dynamic. The games that try to stretch the boundaries in their commercials are also trying to push the limits of video game design and play and go beyond merely providing entertainment for teenage boys. And for a medium that is driven by constantly advancing technology means that until we reach some sort of technological singularity with video games we can hope that video game designers see their product as art and continue to produce it as such.
For a final example,
We see here the fast paced mix of video scenes mixed in with game-play scenes set to heavy metal music, all targeted to that extremely large video game playing base of teenage/young adult males. You could practically change the title card to a made up name (like bullet force 2) and most people would probably fail to take notice. This goes way back too, this commercial for the SNES version of Super Mario Brothers basically does the same thing, quick cuts, shots of gameplay, explaining why this game is cooler than others and those previous. Granted the music weighs a bit less on the metal side but this is Nintendo, the pioneers of making music out of telephone dial tones.
As video games have gotten more and more visually stunning the case is being increasingly made that some of these games have stretched beyond mere entertainment and into the art world. Certainly some games have made the case, trying to create a world that is both epic and mythological in its scope. Certainly titles like the Final Fantasy series and Halo have begun to create their own mythologies within their own worlds. Creating a Middle Earth that one can actively participate and play in.
The advertising for some of these games has begun to reflect this. One of the more famous examples (and first I believe) is the Gears of War "Mad World" trailer.
Here the music is set as an ironic counterpoint to the visuals on the screen. You have a slow and somber song that is the back drop to something terrifying. The character is moving fast and dives out of danger only to be met with an even larger monster.
This new breed of video game trailer has also gotten a lot more depressing the previous video shows that. Heck, that might not even be the character you play, that's just some dude who died.
Halo 3 upped this ante by putting out this commercial that uses models of soldiers whose faces are full of fear, despair and retreat. The music fits in with this and notably, doesn't show you anything of the actual game. They making the bold assumption that its mere presence is enough to sell the game and not hoping to sell to you based on something that looks really cool.
This may be the beginning of a new approach and the real creation of an aesthetic in video game making. We're seeing people delineating between a sort of "high-art" and "low-art" dynamic. The games that try to stretch the boundaries in their commercials are also trying to push the limits of video game design and play and go beyond merely providing entertainment for teenage boys. And for a medium that is driven by constantly advancing technology means that until we reach some sort of technological singularity with video games we can hope that video game designers see their product as art and continue to produce it as such.
For a final example,
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