Creepy Cartoons

Just in time for Halloween comes Fears of The Dark, a collection of six animated shorts from some of the world's leading graphic artists. Each animation is presented in black and white—and, perhaps, more than a touch of red. The trailer looks pret-ty creepy, and I love that they paid homage to Saul Bass with the title typography.

Next on my reading list

Came across this book, The Happy Soul Industry over on AdPulp. A modern fable about the advertising industry. Sounds like a fun read.

A Nut Snack Update

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a seemingly risqué commercial for True North nuts. 

Well, I saw the same commercial again tonight. Since my post, the word "nut" has been edited—badly—from "nut snack" in the voice-over. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had a WTF Moment.

I wonder how many letters True North received from incensed grannies to force such a hasty, and noticeable, revision. Too funny.

Going Batty

Since the country will be in the throes of Bat-Mania this week, I figured I'd add to the collective noise with an entry about my own take on the Caped Crusader, and his latest film franchise.

I've always been a comic book fan. In fact, I owe a lot of my artistic development, as well as a nascent understanding of visual communication, to the countless hours I spent drawing my favorite heroes and self-styled comics. Still, I was never much of a Batman fan. I was a rabidly loyal Marvel Comics reader, so DC titles were anathema to me. Consequently, I never had much exposure to the character and, frankly, watching re-runs of Adam West mincing around in his gray tights failed miserably in selling the pre-teen me on the idea of Batman as a hero. Any punk kid from my hometown would've laughed derisively at West's Batman before gutting him like a big lycra-clad fish, so how was I supposed to take the character seriously as the protector of a sprawling, crime-ridden metropolis?

The later Keaton/Kilmer/Clooney film franchise didn't do much to promote the idea of Batman as a serious hero in my mind, either. I thought the first of the series was the best (owing mostly to my Jack Nicholson man-crush), and while I applaud Keaton for his go at the title role, I couldn't help but see Mr. Mom every time he appeared on screen. 

As for the rest of the 90's films, I think the only sensible thing to do would be to gather up every available copy and bury them. Deep.

The latest film adaptations of the Batman mythos, largely based on Frank Miller's re-imagining of the character in his hugely popular Dark Knight series, looked immediately promising to me. I enjoy Miller's work, and thought Batman would benefit from his gritty storytelling. I was right. The first installment, Batman Begins, was excellent. It hooked me immediately and introduced a Batman that I could really like, even admire.

I remember the exact moment when I became a Bat-Fan. There's a scene in the beginning of Batman Begins which finds Bruce Wayne rotting in a Chinese prison for some minor offense. He's accosted by a menacing giant in the chow line, who informs him, "You're in hell, little man. And I'm the devil."

"You're not the devil," replies Bruce, "you're practice." He then proceeds to trounce the living hell out of the giant and a good number of his minions.

That scene —that one line— gave me more insight into the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman than all of the previous films combined. This was not some technophilic rich kid with delusions of costumed grandeur. No, this was a hard, scarred, and deeply-flawed Bruce Wayne: fearless, self-destructive, and possessed of a formidable badass-ittude he'd travelled the world to obtain. My respect grew for this all-too-human hero as he further tried to exorcise his personal demons under the martial tutelage of the mysterious Ra's al Ghul and his League of Shadows. It was in the company of this brotherhood of assassins that Batman truly began to take shape. It was where Wayne learned the difference between justice and vengeance, and chose which he would uphold.

Most importantly, what Batman Begins gave us was a good story, some fine direction that was stylized without being distracting, and some damned good performances from Bale, Caine, and Neeson. These elements combined to inject some much-needed character and realism into the franchise, and brought the collective "us" as close as we're going to get to identifying with a billionaire industrialist/vigilante. 

So, the stage is set quite nicely for The Dark Knight. As a newly-inducted Bat-Fan, I'm really looking forward to it. From the advance reviews I've read, Ledger's raw performance as the Joker is something to behold. One reviewer called it "epic". I'm interested to see the Joker portrayed without the camp that, until now, seems to have been as integral to the role as greasepaint.

It's interesting to note that some early praise for the film has been tempered with caveats about the truly evil nature of its villians, and the movie's bleak, nihilistic tone. I say bring it on. After all, a grinning sociopath who wreaks havoc and destruction just because he can holds no surprises for me, especially after the past eight years.

It's just a shame that Batman doesn't work in Washington.

Media Pimp

I shared my thoughts on the Adpulp post about viral marketing (mentioned in my last entry) with a good friend and colleague in the biz, remarking, "Sure, the stuff ends up on YouTube for mass consumption, but who do you think puts it there?"

He agreed, adding: "It isn't viral if it's forced, is it?"

A good point which got me thinking about the nature of viral marketing. Specifically, I thought about how it "finds" its way to the user. It's not as though viral content is some naturally occurring and self-replicating digital life form. Yet the perception persists that viral is an innocuous method of potentially enlisting legions of users to willingly—even enthusiastically—engage with a brand. 

It's a bit more insidious than that, though. It's infection by design.

Make no mistake, "viral" is exactly the right word for the way these things propagate. Semantically speaking, anyway. Viruses are not passive, they're aggressive and wholly opportunistic organisms. And the ad industry is Patient Zero. 

You have to applaud the PR that turned the concept of a virus on it's head and made it a positive thing, especially in the digital realm. Used to be, you mention "viral" in the context of computers, and people would grow cold with thoughts of gigs of scrambled or lost data. My friend's question illustrated just how pervasive this connotative shift has become. Proof positive that you can sell anything to anyone if you package it correctly.

I wonder how successful, or appealing, viral marketing would be had the industry called it what it really is: Media-Pimping.

Horn-Tooters

Saw a post over on AdPulp which asks if the success of viral marketing is something solely perpetuated by the advertising industry itself.

Not sure that I agree with the assessment. Sure, the industry is responsible for a fair amount of self-aggrandizing proliferation of viral content, but the same could be said of any media. Those of us in the biz love to see clever and ground-breaking new work. The fact that we share the hottest new viral—or print, or broadcast—efforts with each other doesn't diminish the effectiveness of the work. In fact, I'd suggest the opposite is true, as this content invariably shows up on YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, prepped and ready for consumption by a worldwide audience.

Maybe the author does need hipper friends.

A WTF Moment

Tonight, I saw a commercial for True North nuts and nut-related products. The spot features a CG animation of various kinds of nuts arranged in a domino-type display, which tumble into an elaborate floral design to the ethereal sounds of a harp. Admittedly, I didn't really catch the V.O., except for the tagline, which is spoken as the "camera" reveals three nicely-branded bags of nuts.

"Makes for a truly extraordinary nut-sack."

My wife turned to me, eyes wide. "Did that just say—?" 

I snatched up the DVR remote, rewound, and we watched the spot again. 

Carefully. 

Twice.

"Snack!" I said. "Nut snack!"

It sure as hell didn't sound like "snack" the first few times.