What really comes through in O.J. Simpson’s 1970s commercials for Hertz is how much charm and charisma he possessed, and how much the camera loved him. It’s really easy to see, even apart from his much-heralded performances on the football field, why he was a natural, and extremely popular, spokesperson for the brand.
That O.J. Simpson was ever beloved, of course, may certainly be a revelation for lots of young people, many of whom are not even old enough to remember to remember his 1994-95 murder case and trial, not to mention his TV spots or NFL triumphs. Now, of course, Simpson couldn’t even get an endorsement from a knife company, and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t necessarily believe he killed his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman in June ’94. But what do I know?
Levitt and Dubner’s treatise on the economics of drug dealing, sumo wrestler cheating, and the effects of abortion on crime has sold over 3 million copies to-date. That kind of worldwide success, you think, would move other countries to tow the line, stay with what works, and, from the look of these other versions, most did. Not the Danes, though…or the British, for that matter, who avoided foodstuffs altogether for both the hardcover and paperback versions of the book.
Why? Hopefully Levitt/Dubner will explain it in their upcoming text, SuperFreakonomics. I kid you not.
“Beer goggles”—sexual judgement impaired by booze—is the excuse millions will be pushing this weekend, in order to explain why the eager hottie they eagerly shagged the night before looks like blechh in the golden morning’s light.
I recently discovered this spot while doing research on Rube Goldberg machines…and I was looking those up as an aspect of some religious writing I’m doing…which is, I should say here, what I’ve always loved about the net and, certainly by extension, Wikipedia: Its serendipitous nature, and that, following it, you never end up where you started or expected…that being, I think you’ll agree, what this advertisement is about, too.
While this juxtaposition of Yanni’s 1992 Dare To Dream and Ween’s 1994 Chocolate and Cheese CD covers, above, encourages a freaky moment of sexual ambiguity—due, depending on your orientation, to Mr. Chryssomallis’s striking ‘stache or model Ashley Savage’s bodacious ta-tas—it’s got nothing on this catalog of 15 unfortunately placed ads.
The lineup includes billboards for a juicer and a fitness center that should have got someone fired, and a subtle computer error jab. But, mostly, they appear to be combinations of content and advertising created by web-based optimizing software; the kind that, based on keywords, sticks a relevant advertisement on the page one is reading. Of course, as this coffee ad shows, sometimes the placement is just a little bit too relevant.
At MEDIA ASSASSIN, we work to make our heds particularly catcy, but, in this instance, need any more be said? It’s Crispin Glover on Happy Days!
I know what you’re thinking: Crispin Hellion Glover, the actor whose note-perfect George McFly in 1985’s Back To The Future broke him out—and whose subsequent appearances on Late Night with David Letterman and in the ratfest remake Willard (here, he sings Michael Jackson’s “Ben”) weirded audiences out—was on Happy Days?
It should have aired last week, but, due to technical difficulties, didn’t. It’s a great talk, so I’m eager for you all to hear it. Hopefully, there’ll be no more boo-boos this time.
Tune in at 2 pm. If you’re outside of the New York tri-state, check out our stream on the web. If you miss the live show, dig into our archives for up to 90 days after broadcast.
UPDATE: NONFICTION was pre-empted on Friday for a five-hor, “May Day special.” I was not made aware of this until I arrived at the station to do my show.
I’ll keep you abreast of when I air this, and other, programming.
Did you know that the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster of April 26, 1986 reportedly released 400 times more fallout than the Hiroshima atomic bomb blast of August 1945? Even more, did you know that, despite the fallout, both literal and political, the plant continued operating until 2000? Russia depends on nuclear energy for fully 16% of its electric power—nearly a sixth of the total. (Nukes provide 20% 0f U.S. electrical needs.)
But that’s just a start. Rosatom, Russia’s equivalent to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, plans to be generating 23% of the massive country’s electrical power with atoms by 2020, and fully a quarter of it ten years later. Clearly, the worst nuclear reactor disaster in history hasn’t made former Soviets the least bit gun shy. Perhaps that’s why they had no qualms about letting a photographer inside their 2.7Gw Smolensk nuclear power plant, 200 miles from Moscow, so he could take pictures of everything from a worker handing out safety helments, above, to the colbalt-blue glow of fuel rods in water. Take a gander. See it before it blows up.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, when I spoke with Clive Young in March on NONFICTION, my radio show, I referred to a Star Wars fan film I’d seen of whose name I was not sure. I thought it was The Way of the Saber, but had to research it.
As it turns out, I was mostly correct: The 6-minute short, 2002’s Art of the Saber, by brothers Calvin, Clarence, and Cary Ho, employs the basic phoneme of SW fan film language—two men locked in light saber battle—invigorating it with flashy martial arts. But as opposed to then rehashing tales of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, the Ho brothers, instead, frame their somber work with the words of Union soldier Captain Sullivan Ballou’s famed 1861 letter to his spouse, Sarah.
One of the most captivating documents to come out of the Civil War, the note is powerful for the beauty of its prose, the depth of its feeling, and that its author, writing in noble contemplation of sure death, never saw his wife and children again. Ballou, above, 32, was cut down at the First Battle of Bull Run within a week of writing the text.
By drawing from Ballou’s pathos, the Ho brothers imbue their piece with the Captain’s sober dread, forging a story that is both new, timeless, and a powerful meditation on the cost of war.
Apparently, the Danish didn’t want to go with the U.S.’s apples-and-oranges cover graphic, right, when they published 
Well, if that’s your steez, 
