MetLife famously drafted Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang as ad mascots in a nostalgiac to appeal to newly-aging Boomers back in the days when that sort of thing was novel. Now, they’ve dropped a new spot that not only adds Looney Tunes to the mix but also Hanna Barberra’s 70s TV pantheon, Fat Albert and, yes… early-80s staples He-Man and Voltron
Yup. Mark the date, Generation X – “The Market” has officially decided that you are now old enough to be a target-demographic… for life-insurance.
It wouldn’t be an election-year Super Bowl without at least one eye-poppingly awful political spot.
This year’s winner is Michigan Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra, who rechristens his Democrat opponent Debbie Stabenow as “Debbie Spenditnow” via a young Asian woman who parks her bike in a rice paddy (really) to thank “Spenditnow” for selling America out to China in overly-accented “me so horny”-style broken english: “Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs!”
Yeah, but there’s no racism in the Republican Party. Zip. Zero. None at all. All made up by the Liberal Media. Yup.
Here’s the long version of “The Avengers” Super Bowl spot, featuring – among other delights – our first look at the team (Hulk included!) together in broad daylight.
HOLY. SHIT. This is a real thing.
(UPDATED AFTER THE JUMP!)
UPDATE! Here’s a screencap – enlarged, cropped and color-enhanced – of the brief shot of what may be the first glimpse of the (thus far) top-secret creatures who’re supposedly serving as Loki’s soldiers. Still can’t tell what they are, but a look is a look.
Most people have been calling them “Skrulls” generically, but apparently they can’t be because Fox owns screen-rights to them via the “Fantastic Four” license. Others are guessing it’s just the Frost Giants again, but from the image it doesn’t look much like them – they’re wearing some sort of shiny gray/green armor (the lower guy also seems to have a blue lens-flare light coming from his) for one thing, and even if that’s skin the Giants were blue.
The main distinguishing features I can make out are that they’re feet, hands and forearms are bigger in proportion to their body, three-toed feet and are wearing some sort of helmets with an extended “crown” peice. So… Thanos-related, maybe? Eternals? Celestials? Deviants? The Phalanx? Kree?
I will say that I remain vaugely concerned about the “scale” of the thing – nearly all the action beats we’ve seen seem to be the same NYC location and there’s a paucity (so far) of mass-extras or broad scope. Maybe that means they’re holding back, maybe it means it’s a “one giant extended battle sequence” thing, but it’s an issue given that the sole knock against Whedon is that he’s a TV guy without much big-scale moviemaking experience (no, the theatrically-released TV movie that was “Serentity” – which I liked – doesn’t count.)
On the other hand, scale isn’t everything (see: Bay, Michael.) If the screenplay is as densely-packed with well-utilized Marvel mythos as the lead-up films and the dialogue crackles like that final exchange between Loki and Stark; a less-than “Transformers” scale mini-epic is more than a fair trade.
Here’s the SuperBowl commercial that got Ford so pissed they actually petitioned NBC to ban it; in which Chevy implies that their rival’s trucks will not protect you from The Mayan Apocalypse. Yes, really:
In “Osombie” – currently seeking kickstarter funds for post-production – a NATO Special Forces outfit is out to stop Zombie Osama Bin Laden from re-conquering Afghanistan with an army of Undead Terrorists (“The Axis of Evil Dead”.)
UPDATE! After the massive public outcry and deluge of high-profile donors pulling out, Komen has reversed it’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood. Good news, but their official statements are packed with caveats and CYA language that leaves things open for them to try and pull the same shit in another form later on. Frankly, I don’t think I’ll be giving them any more money myself until they purge the pro-life nutters from their leadership ranks. But that’s just me.
ORIGINAL POST: For a variety of reasons I’m a bit more cautious about approaching politics and/or muckraking related to cancer research – breast cancer research in particular – than I am about similar goings-on with other issues. Also, believe it or not I do try to consider that any attraction to allegations of malefeasance by supposed charitable organizations might need to be second-guessed; since it plays waaaay too well into my natural trust-nobody/fuck-the-world cynicism.
WARNING! POLITICAL STUFF AFTER THE JUMP:
This is partially why I haven’t done any posting about the buzz-gathering documentary“Pink Ribbons Inc;”which bills itself as an expose of unflattering practices by the ubiquitous Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity – chiefly alleging that the organization has become more concerned with it’s role as a corporate-synergized “brand” than actively seeking a cure. I’ll confess, I’ve often felt that seeing the yearly deluge of Komen-branded “pink products” to be a bit on the tacky side however well-intentioned… but I wasn’t totally as comfortable with this particular “go get `em!” as I was with, say, a whack or five at PeTA.
But given recent events, it feels like I have to agree that this organization – at the very least, it’s LEADERSHIP – needs some major scrutiny. So here’s the trailer:
The film has, of course, jumped back into buzz-territory as of yesterday; when SGK stunned and outraged many of it’s longtime supporters by announcing they would cease all funding of breast cancer screenings performed at Planned Parenthood facilities – one of the top resources for such screenings for low-income women in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, this comes not long after the foundation raised eyebrows by appointing virulent anti-abortion zealot (and failed gubernatorial candidate) Karen Handel to Vice President of Public Policy. So… yeah, the whole thing stinks to high heaven so far as I can see.
I’m sure there’s already no shortage of petitions and protest sites associated with this, but given how new the happenings are I’m not looking to post them just yet – again, cautious about these things… but speaking only for myself I feel placed in an ideologically-awkward position. I’m pro-choice for the exact same reasons I want to find a cure for breast cancer: I care about women’s health, and I can’t really fathom how one could be decoupled from the other.
So… yeah. That’s the trailer, them’s the facts, make of it what you will.
I maintain that Stephen Sommers’ original “G.I. Joe” movie was overall pretty good, mostly because it managed to nail the proper ‘tone’ for a movie based on a children’s cartoon based on a line of scifi-inflected army toys; but I’ll be the first to admit that it might’ve been better if they hadn’t tried to “streamline” to gonzo-eclecticism of the source material’s design aesthetics – if G.I. Joe and Cobra’s nonexistant dress-codes really bother you, you’re probably watching the wrong movie to begin with.
As such, the fact that the John Chu-directed sequel thus far looks like the same basic “fuck you, reality!” tone re-skinned with a megaton of ripped-from-the-toybox fanservice continues to inspire a surprising level of confidence. Check out the film’s Super Bowl ad below – featuring a much better look at Cobra Commander’s “classic” mirrored-helmet, Ray Stevenson as Firefly, a Rattler jet(!) and Ninjas in a shurikens vs. minigun shootout:
MOVIEBOB CENTRAL 