Archive for May 2nd, 2006

May 02 2006

Things that make you go mmmm?

Published by Fence under TV

I can’t make up my mind whether or not the new McDonald’s ad is a piece of subversive genius, or just a really bad ad. Either way I loves it.

It isn’t really for McDonald’s, instead it is advertising MDs as a great place to have a career[1] But the reason I love it is because it achieves the exact opposite of what it sets out to do. It should make you think that being a manager at a fast food shop is not all “fries and grease”, shouldn’t it? But it doesn’t. It highlights and points out all the negative aspects.

Now I don’t think that there is anything wrong with working for McDonald’s[2] I’ve worked in my share of fast food joints, and being a manager there is presumably quite like being a manger anywhere else, albeit with more chip smells.

They start off the advert with our hero[3] telling all his mates he’s got a new job. “Working at McDonald’s” And straight away the jokes begin. Jokes that take up most of the ad. At a football match his team-mates throw in the ball, asking “does he want fries with that?” Late at night his friends coming home ring his buzzer, giving an order for chips[4] and burgers. The ad is all about how easy it is to take the piss out of working for those happy shiny golden arches.

So you’re sortof expecting some reversal. I mean, why on earth would MacDonalds make an ad pulling the piss out of their own job opportunities unless they reversed it, successfully at the end.

But they don’t. They make a half-hearted attempt by telling you all the positives, flexible hours[5] erm, ehm, there were others, I just don’t remember them[6] and it ends with one of dweeby-hero-boy’s mates asking a customer “do you want fries with that” and hero-lad giving him a self satisfied “nyah nyah now you too must suffer this indignity” look[7] And then a voice over, from a clearly bored and distraced girl asking you “D’ye wan’ a career wi’ that?

So, what are McDonalds thinking? And to spend €500,000 on an ad like that!

Linknotes:
  1. like we’re going to buy into that ↩
  2. lets not get into ethical consumerism debates ↩
  3. obviously, hero here doesn’t mean heroic it just means the star of the ad. Unless working at McDonald’s is a lot more demanding than I though ↩
  4. only obviously calling them fries, cause this is McDonald’s ↩
  5. otherwise known as we’ll let you know 10 minutes before your due to start. And what do you mean you can’t come in on your day off ↩
  6. commercial clearly working then ↩
  7. maybe it was supposed to convey some other emotion? ↩

15 responses so far

May 02 2006

Slither

Published by Fence under Moving Pictures

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.usDir & Writ: James Gunn

    starring

  1. Nathan Fillion - Bill Pardy
  2. Elizabeth Banks - Starla Grant
  3. Gregg Henry - Jack MacReady
  4. Michael Rooker - Grant Grant

I’ll be honest, at first I only wanted to go see Slither in order to support Nathan Fillion. But the trailers made it look entertaining, and the reviews were pretty good, so in the end it wasn’t just [tag]Serenity[/tag] love that made me go.

Slither isn’t going to win any Oscars, it isn’t about any great themes. It is content to be a film about a gross alien invasion with plenty of humour thrown in. And cursing. Plenty of cursing.

Bill Pardy is police chief, or sheriff or something I don’t really know how the US police system works, in a small town. Where his partner checks the speed of birds and the like, disapointed if he is more than two miles out with his guess. Bill has a cruch on local teacher, Starla. But she is married to Grant Grant. The trouble starts when Grant goes out and gets himself infected by an alien parasitic monster thing, that takes over his body and soon attempts to take over the entire town and then the world in its desire for “meat”.

The plot isn’t really that important though. What is important is the blend of gore and humour, and Slither is a perfect example of this sort of film. You’ll be laughing through your disgust. And wondering how a film where every second word seems to be fuck managed to only get a 15A rating.

Nathan Fillion gets to show off how good he is at falling on his face. There are a few pretty girls for the fellas, but mostly this is about the ick-factor.

I think my favourite part was after the slug things attack the police posse and more than a few officers end up unconscious, but alive, and one of the unaffected officers says “Praise be Jesus!” This prompts Mayor Jack MacReady to rant about how far these slugs are from being a reason to praise Jesus. “This shit is about as far from God as shit can get!”

IMDb | Official Site | Grant Grant’s blog | Cinematical

9 responses so far