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A public conversation about our worlds.

  • Monday: Morgan J. Locke
  • Tuesday: Madeleine E. Robins
  • Wednesday: Maureen F. McHugh
  • Thursday: Bradley Denton
  • Friday: Steven Gould
  • Saturday: Caroline Spector
  • Sunday: Rory Harper

Brain Activity



To Market, To Market, To Buy A Fat Pig

January 12th, 2008 by Steven Gould

I don’t watch broadcast/cable TV. Don’t have the time. Hate commercials. Not a sports guy. When I do hear about a series that is worth watching, it ends up on DVD and I catch it that way.

So I get phone calls like this.

My Dad: “Are you by any chance watching the Sugar Bowl?”

Me: “No.”

My Dad: “Well they just ran a commercial for your movie!” (For some reason it’s “my” movie.) It really looked good!”

Me: “Cool.”

(I want the movie to be as successful as possible, after all.)

It still wasn’t going to make me watch football, I mean, outside of a dramatic setting where a blimp full of explosives is going to crash into the stadium.

So, I thought I’d have to wait for the DVD Special Futures to see the TV spots being run for “my” movie Yumper, but in this age of the InterTubes and all, turns out I don’t.

MovieWeb has the commercials over on their site.

Here’s a link to three 30-second spots (please excuse the ten second commercial in front of each.)

But here’s an odder little example of cross-marketing: A combination Hewlett Packard/Jumper commercial.

I’m probably missing out of a huge swath of shared culture by missing all those TV commercials. As my beloved said, on returning to the states after two years in the Peace Corps in Kenya in the early eighties, American advertising is actually smart, funny, and arresting. It has to be. It has all the selective pressures of an evolutionary maelstrom. Survive (sell) or die.

But I don’t have to watch it.

Posted in JumperMovie, Pop. Culture, Steve | 2 Comments »

2 Responses

  1. James Hollaman Says:

    i know that there are a few people at work (i work at walmart) that are (and i quote) “So ready to see that movie, it looks good!” I told them to go because the writer of the book its based on is wanting it to do great, but also told them to buy the book and the graffic novel when it comes out….

  2. Christopher Long Says:

    I’m right there with you on not watching TV — and buying seasons of shows I care about. Though I never did the Peace Corps, I did, one day, realize that the vast majority of TV is . . . well, crap.

    I’d rather read a book.

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