Tag Archives: commercials

How to Get Your Home in the Movies

Do you want to get paid to have your home appear in a movie, television show or commercial? You could earn up to $5,000 a day and have the bragging rights that your home appeared in on the big or small screen. Here is what you need to know! Location, location, location First of all, it helps to have your home located in an area where a lot of filming is done. Southern California is a good one, and so is the greater New York City area (I can’t count the number of times our New York apartment building, neighborhood … Continue reading →

Stranger Things Have Happened

I live in Wisconsin so technically I should be a Brewers fan who sends bad wishes in the direction of Chicago and their world famous Cubs. The problem is I love Eddie Vedder and the Pearl Jam font man has just released a song for the Chicago baseball team that I find intoxicating. The new tune (which was created at the request of Cubs great Ernie Banks) is called “All the Way.” The song is available on Pearl Jam’s Web site right now, but you can hear it being played almost non-stop on Chicago radio stations and in bars near … Continue reading →

Controversial Tourism Commercial Creates Drama in New Mexico

I’ll admit the first time I saw the state funded commercials aimed at attracting travelers to New Mexico I laughed—a lot. The 30-second ads feature creepy looking reptilian spacemen dressed like tourists with the tag line “New Mexico—-the best place in the Universe.” Anyone who knows anything about the state realizes the campaign pokes fun at New Mexico’s famous connection to aliens. Most notably the fact that in 1947 the U.S. military said a weather balloon crashed in a Roswell desert, but the overwhelming consensus by residents (both past and present) is that it was a UFO. Since then the … Continue reading →

Goodbye “Gilmore Girls”… Hello Maytag Repairman

Television is losing a fan favorite. “Gilmore Girls,” a drama about an independent mother and daughter, is ending its run after seven seasons. The show used to be one of the most popular sagas on the WB lineup, but last year it moved to the CW network (when WB and UPN merged) and ratings dipped. Yesterday, network executives announced it will be pulling the plug on the series that some described as a show filled with “memorable and lovable characters.” The series stars Lauren Graham as single mom Lorelai Gilmore and Alexis Bledel as her equally sharp and beautiful daughter. … Continue reading →

A Jumpstart For Summer Blockbusters

If you are a film buff who is already counting the days until the debut of the much-anticipated summer movie season then you’ll enjoy hearing the following news. According to NBC’s website, an exclusive preview of “Spider-Man” 3 is set to air during the network’s primetime show “Heroes” this week. The commercial will also invite Spidey fans to visit the network’s site to see seven minutes of never-before-seen film footage. “Spider-Man 3” is considered one of the summer’s most anticipated movies along with “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” which will debut its trailer during the “Dancing with the … Continue reading →

“Cavemen” Craze

I have a friend who loves the cavemen from the Geico commercials. The ad seems to be on all the time. It features cavemen (they look like rejects from the defunct TV series, “Land of the Lost”) who appear insulted by a Geico pitchman’s claim that the company’s website is so easy to use that “even a caveman can do it.” My friend used the line the other night when I asked him if he could help me reconfigure a program on my computer. “Of course,” he said, my request was so easy “even a caveman could do it.” (Silly … Continue reading →

The Super Bowl Commercial You Didn’t See AND The One You Will Never See Again

THE COMMERCIAL YOU NEVER SAW I don’t know about you, but for me the Super Bowl doesn’t conjure up romantic thoughts (unless you have a crush on Peyton Manning). The commercials that air throughout the game though, are an entirely different story… at least for one couple. Rand Fishkin spent more than a year devising a way he could propose to his girlfriend during the Super Bowl. The Seattle CEO eventually settled on buying airtime during the big game and proposing on national TV. To help finance his efforts (keep in mind the price to secure one of the coveted … Continue reading →

Stop The Marketing To Your Kids

Children are constantly being influenced by the media from the clothes that they wear to the cereal that they eat. I don’t know how many times my children have said to me “I want this” or “I want that” because they have seen a commercial on television. My four-year-old often comments that she wants to buy things she has seen on T.V. for her brother, sister, my husband, or myself. In a book titled Who’s Raising Your Child? Battling the Marketers for Your Child’s Heart and Soul authors Laura Buddenberg and Kathleen McGee of Boys and Girls Town, discuss how … Continue reading →

Michael J. Fox vs. Rush Limbaugh

A few days ago I wrote about Michael J. Fox’s appearances in a slew of 30-second TV ads (airing on television and on the Internet) for five Democrats who support stem cell research. Many called the ads controversial, not because of the commercials’ subject matter, but because the subject speaking—Fox—is shown shaking and rocking as he directly addresses the camera, the effects of his disease clearly apparent. Shortly after the ads were aired commentator Rush Limbaugh claimed Fox was “either off his medication or acting” during the ad. In the days that followed Fox remained mum about Limbaugh’s comments, but … Continue reading →