Fact: Cee-Lo Green has a new song with a teaser music video that’s nothing but text. No chicks, no boats, no Cristal, no ice. Just colors and fonts.
Bonus points for the LACK of Sketch Rockwell font. I think we can all agree on that one.
In related news, the song’s lyrics, title and theme all contain a word that is giving my mother heart palpitations right now and she doesn’t even know it exists. You can find it easily enough on google. Pretty screen shots, full speed ahead!
Update: This version is miles better than the recently released “official video.” You’ll always be the official version in my heart all-text video!
This is by far the greatest thing I saw on the interwebs today, a worthy successor to my gal Oprah. I just hope she doesn’t pull a Leno and take back his show once he gets one, which is completely inevitable.
Remember when they came out with the state quarters which were (and still are) completely awesome (or lame if you’re Texas…like anyone really needs a reminder of what the outline of that state looks like)? And remember how just when you thought, this is a great idea, how awesome is this, it got even more awesome when the Muppets got involved? The most exciting change America has ever seen! And how!
These days it’s the census shaking up your expectations of boring old government with fantastic advertising. And good on them. I love the census! It’s such a noble and impossible undertaking. Plus, it happens so infrequently it’s a big honkin’ deal. Add a little Christopher Guest & Co. into the mix and let the magic happen. Tap into AMERICA!
When I first heard about the Thomas Jefferson Hour podcast I was super stoked. If there is an interviewer discussing the issues of the modern day with any of the Founding fathers, I’m so there. I imagine those cats hat a pretty good sense of humor to go along with their leadership skills. Unfortunately, with so much potential for comedy the podcast went the purely educational route which led me to take the “nap” route.
Henry 8.0 on the other hand is a man who was truly made for these times. Dressed in his old timey regalia, Henry VIII is hands down the most techno-savvy semi-fictional dead person ever.
His videos are as awesome as are his facebook page and blog posts wherein he befuddled by online shopping. And then, of course, there’s his twitter page. Loyal subject present and accounted for!
Though I was on several sports teams throughout high school, I am sure that both I and my fellow schoolmates would all agree I was most definitely a card-carrying member of the “nerd herd.” This past weekend, fellow nerd, John Hodgman, gave a delightful speech on “the cultural war of our time: jocks vs. nerds” at the Radio & TV Correspondents Dinner. You might remember Mr. Hodgman from such hipster-havens as The Daily Show,McSweeneys and This American life.
Those of you would would like to do some extra credit reading (overachievers), are encouraged to check out American Nerd: The Story of My People by Benjamin Nugent. While not the greatest book in the history of mankind, it’s amusing enough and the cover is gorgeous.
So my pal Jason over at Little Red Bird, just did a blog post about how he spent an entire afternoon coming up with the perfect shade of blue for a client. Nerd alert! Although, this is coming from the girl who was the ONLY person on our entire branding team to choose the wrong shade of red in a vote on color selection (and apparently among designers there is a “wrong” shade) so take that assessment with a grain of salt. Perhaps this is why I feel a special kinship with the Tiny Art Director, a four-year old who has been providing her father with art assignments and insight for fully half of her life.
To wit, the piece entitled “Duck Biting Dinosaur,” found here:
The Brief: A dinosaur eating a baby, like last time Artist Negotiation: How about something other than a dinosaur? The Brief, Revised: A duck. A duck biting a dinosaur’s tail. The Critique: I want a goat and a piggie Job Status: Rejected
In related news, My Kid Could Paint That is an amazing documentary that you should immediately rent from your local library or nearest Netflix shipping facility. It features a pre-k artist and her meteoric rise to fame…or does it? Dum dum DUM! Mystery artist theater! It’s also a fascinating study in psychology, family relationships and the sunk-cost fallacy. Psychology, art and dramz! Oh, my!
I’ve been a huge fan of The Go! Team for a few years now, and in addition to having an awesome band name, they put out some amazing music to write by. Some of their stuff has a more laid back ’60s vibe, and then there are tunes like Junior Kickstart. If I was running the show over at NBC, I would have thrown money hand over fist at these guys until they were forced to sell-out and let me use this very song to put together the greatest commercial for the summer Olympics of all time. For now, it suffices as a caffeine-free pick-me-up for the 3pm sleepies.
The Go! Team’s modern-day, live-action Mrs. Pacman video for Junior Kickstart will blow your mind with its mute humor. Truly, truly inspired stuff. It might be an overstatement to call it “the greatest thing ever,” but it basically is.
I saw the new Healthy Choice commercials this weekend on hulu and omg, they are fantastic. Funny, irreverent, not starring an actor portraying a chef or a harried office worker–pretty much everything you would never expect from Healthy Choice. Huge props to my dad who immediately recognized they were the work of Christopher Guest and Co. (of Best in Show, Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind fame).
The ads also continue in the very now-tro tradition of being about something other than the product they’re selling…swoon. Plus, the attention to detail is in top form, check out the movie poster on the wall: 9 Kilometers…look familiar? Multiple layers of meaning requiring repeated viewing to fully get all the jokes…double swoon.
In other news, these ads could not have been more on target for someone who grew up in a household that revered Spinal Tap and taped every episode of Seinfeld, but refused to even consider getting cable until I moved out.
You know what it looks like when you give a dog peanut butter?
It only lasted a year, and that’s good because that’s how you establish a cult…
Pair a completely boring, tasteless cereal with a great branding concept and suddenly you’ve got a delicious ad. The copy feels like it’s read a bit too rushed and you really have to watch it a couple times to get it all, but it’s totally worth it. In other news, this guy could just as well have been played by Mr. Bookman, the library cop from Seinfeld.
