Category — Cult Branding

Audi’s new ad campaign, Meet the Beckers, is the story of a wealthy, dysfunctional family, each of whom drives a different car. It’s slightly reminiscent of the show Arrested Development, if only because I have that show seared into the hilarity centers of my brain.

Audi driver and regular guy, Jason, is bringing his girlfriend to meet his family for the first time, for Thanksgiving. As he describes each new family member, we see them in their particular vehicle. Obnoxious brother Billy drives a BWM and has a bluetooth headset in his ear while he cuts off a Prius. His drunken, country club-visiting father (The Commander) drives a Mercedes and has a young trophy wife in the passenger seat, browsing a catalog of adoptable little foreign children. He pulls away with the wipers on and turn signal blinking. And, the effeminate, henpecked yuppie Lewis, with his insane twin daughters (who call him “Lewis”), drives a Lexus. It’s spot on.
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Blip Festival 2008: The Promo from Richard Alexander Caraballo on Vimeo.

The BLIP FESTIVAL 2008 is a four-day (Dec 4-7) event showcasing nearly 40 musicians and visual artists in the lo-fi chipscene. It’s presented by the Manhattan art organization THE TANK and NYC artist collective 8BITPEOPLES.

The chipmusic phenomenon is like 8-bit punk. They essentially use old video game equipment and home computer hardware as musical instruments. The NES, Commodore 64, Atari ST, Nintendo Game Boy act as the lo-fit, low-res, high-impact electronic music makers.
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Yes yes, the chill is in the air now, fall is here and retailers are humming holiday tunes and setting up lights, reminding us all exactly how many days we have left until the ultimate deadline. They need to put on the pressure to make it feel like an obligation and not just an optional gift-giving occasion. And I don’t feel the pressue until I see Nieman Marcus peddling overpriced fantasy gifts via catalog.

And look at that, Nieman Marcus put out their annual holiday gift guide, called the Christmas Book, just the other day. It’s jam packed with things even the top 1% of the American financial elite would think twice about buying. These are difficult days economically, not the best time to be putting out catalogs filled with $110k dollar motorbikes and $45k dollar gold rings owed by 12th century Vikings. Some people may take offense. Not me, I think it’s fine reading and enjoy it thoroughly. Some people, though.

Here’s a sampling of some of the contents:
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Harley-Davidson has a pretty hardcore fanbase of older American motorcyclists, but the way things are going, that’s not going to last. Harley realizes there’s a whole generation of younger riders embracing foreign brands; Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Aprilia, and Ducati all make high performance, high quality bikes that generally cost less than a Harley. So they need to make a bike that appeals to that crowd, and find a way to make them take notice of it.

That’s why they paired up the V-Rod Muscle and Marisa Miller. I’ll admit, I’m one of those young upstarts who trash talks the last great American icon, Harley-Davidson. I like Ducatis and cafe racers and European names on my bikes. I like to go fast in a straight line, but also be able to go through corners. Call me a snob, what can I say? Still, the V-Rod Muscle, even though I hate the name, is a Harley I might consider riding. And the fact that Marisa Miller is bent over athletically on one got me to take notice too. So the ad worked on me.
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Obama’s new political ad, “The American Promise” is the single most frightening political advertisement I have ever seen in my life. It’s absolutely chilling. The rabid cultist gleam in the eyes of the supporters nearly weeping as Obama repeats his meaningless rhetoric. Can this be real?

I’ve never had much faith in the political understanding of my fellow man. Admittedly, I’m a horrible misanthrope, of the opinion that the masses are irrational chumps, with about as much understanding of basic economics as I have about the inner workings of the Large Hadron Collider.

Maybe I’m out of touch, but I imagine the average person setting out nachos every Sunday to root for Red or Blue like a political football game; shouting out buzzwords like “More Regulations!” and “Al Qaeda Hates Freedom!”, then talking about it the next day at the water cooler. Why else follow politics if not as conversation fodder, right?

I figured I’d just watch the madness from the sidelines for a while and move to Costa Rica when the shit really starts to hit the fan and the freaks inevitably vote themselves into slavery. I didn’t think it’d happen so quickly though.
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Remember this?

I had no words for these commercials. I hesitated to even write about them since I thought there would eventually be some sort of punchline commercial to cap them off. But no, they were just odd for the sake of oddity, and now they’re canceled. The internet spoke unanimously and Microsoft listened. It might just have been the worst way to spend $300 million dollars in the history of the modern era.

Maybe that’s what Microsoft was getting at: “We’re so successful, we can spend $300 million dollars on a meaningless ad campaign, suck it Apple”. If that were the tag line, I’d at least respect their testicular fortitude.

But it’s over and done with, a thing of the past. What we’re interested in now is the future. Thankfully for Microsoft they have a new series of commercials that are actually good. Check out the video after the jump I’m A PC
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