I don’t think any commercial has ever made me laugh before I have seen it. This one did. They had me with the title, “Dokken Vs. Chicken“. After hitting play the 50 second commercial did not disappoint. I was expecting a piercing guitar rif or a shrill scream in true 80’s hair band fashion but, instead was treated to a matter of point by a surly voice over, a thrust of the hips, and an exploding chicken. All elements of a great commercial. Now, if the product were as good as the commercial…
First we had to sit through and watch that deplorable WWF ad trying to somehow connect the 9/11 attacks and global warming. Then Hitler surfaced having sex at a party. This ad is to bring awareness to Aids. There’s a print ad campaign featuring Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam. I’m glad that there are those out there that feel these subjects need our attention. But the lack of creativity here really is the real issue. Has shock value replaced all creativity? Are these ads the Starving Dog of the ad world? Are they that desperate to produce something they can’t even take the time to really think these campaigns through? I really think these ad agencies that make a lot of money to do this work can do better.
WWF ad:
German PSA featuring Hitler: Warning:sexually explicit material.
Mike Judge has rolled out our old friends Beavis and Butthead to tout his latest film, Extract starring Jason Bateman or Master Bateman to Beavis, Mila Kunis, and Ben Affleck. By pulling out these sophomoric critics from the 90’s Judge must be trying to spark nostalgia in the Gen X crowd. Beavis, who was banned from saying “Fire, Fire” in the 90’s opens up with , well, just saying “Fire“. The two are still very affable when talking about Master Bateman and guys who get paid to have sex. Beavis really got excited about the latter. Butthead manages to calm him down without slapping him. Could it be that maybe Beavis and Butthead have grown up a little? Let’s hope not! Seeing something new from them really made me want to sit down for two hours and watch The Great Cornholio find tee pee for his bunghole or see the two rip on Winger. It really didn’t make me want to see another movie about a 30 something year old couple having problems with their sex life, again.
Film Forum with Beavis and Butthead:
This is a short film by two classmates, Clément Soulmagnon & Gary Levesque, that attended the Supinfocom, a French school for computer graphics and 3D animation. They made this film while working at Wizz Design, their present job. Great animation and a very funny version of a the unwavering Guy Tries to get a Girl story.
Ok, I know nothing about fashion. I have however been watching Project Runway for at least 4 seasons now. What I really like about this show it is pure design and drama. When you put a bunch of eccentric and talented designers in close quarters like this you’re sure to get something entertaining out of it. Project Runway has to be the most well rounded reality TV show to date. You have professional, accomplished, talented, and very off beat personalities competing with one and another while also trying to maintain some sort of decorum. Heidi Klum, while not the most energetic host in the world, holds the show together with help from Tim Gunn, Chief Creative Officer at Liz Claiborne. Tim’s tactful opinions are classic.
Season 6 as offered the usual stable of quirky contestants. All very talented designers in their own rights. Now that week 2 is officially over we can start to see who’s in and who’s out, as Heidi would say. One designer destined to for a strong finish is Shirin Askari, who also happened to be this week’s winner of the pregnancy challenge. At age of 24 she’s already proving to be tough competition and is one of the designers watch this season. I found some of her designs from her website and posted them here. You can really see why she made the cut to be on Project Runway.
Here is a sample gallery of the pictures I took on a recent visit to the Winnebago County Fair in Pecatonica, IL (near Rockford). You can see the gallery in it’s entirety at RCRphotography. Enjoy!
Here’s a viral video about addicted social media users. They are meeting in a gymnasium and discussing their addictions to Facebook, Twitter, and such. A nervous nerdy type guy get’s up in front of the group and claims he has 700 friends on Facebook but, only one special one. He’s distraught that she hasn’t poked him back. The video is campy and subtle (one of the high points or low points is when a girl starts to cry and a large amount of snot oozes out of her nose). It seems like a long two and half minutes until the Sony Vaio W Series notebook finally makes it’s appearance. If you’re a heavy social media user and have a sense of humor you’ll get a laugh or two out of this. Enjoy!
Louis Vuitton a powerful icon in the fashion world known for their designer hand bags and accessories. LV has a new a new book coming out in September 2009: Art, Fashion and Architecture. It covers the brand’s history and associations in the art, fashion, design, architecture, and photography worlds. It is 400 pages of pure eyeful bliss and will be priced at $130 USD. To help promote the release of the book LV teamed up with Camille Scherrer to create a beautiful animated presentation of the soon to be released book. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did.
Ubisoft’s ad (see full ad here) for it’s latest release of the video game Call of Juarez was done in house and hits the mark for aftermath violence. Pour a shot of whiskey and enjoy the company of a seductive saloon girl. It’s John Wayne meets Reservoir Dogs. The artwork is well done with lot’s of broken whiskey bottles, money bills, and poker cards strewn about. Most notably absent: blood. What’s a massacre without blood? The website is also definitely worth checking out. It even offers a pre-release strategy guide. Six shooter not included.
When I am looking for inspiration the 80’s is not always on the top of my list to pull from. Everything seemed too big, too bright, and way over the top in the 80’s. It was as if Bozo the Clown and Willy Wonka’s Oompa Loompas were the puppet masters of pop culture. Well, that might explain Max Headroom, anyway. I happened to stumble upon a designer from Portland, Oregon, Tabor Robak. I very much enjoyed viewing his portfolio that was dark, edgy, and pulled a bit from that neon sess pool that was the 80’s. His illustrations are clean, twisted and a joy to view. This was the 80’s I wish I grew up in. To view more of his work visit his blog and his portfolio.
Graphic Design | Rick | 
September 11, 2009 6:22 pm | 
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First we had to sit through and watch that deplorable WWF ad trying to somehow connect the 9/11 attacks and global warming. Then Hitler surfaced having sex at a party. This ad is to bring awareness to Aids. There’s a print ad campaign featuring 
Mike Judge has rolled out our old friends Beavis and Butthead to tout his latest film, 
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