Here’s a thread to post links to video commentaries you would like to show in class on Thursday. I’ll embed a few of my own later today.
In the advertising chapter of my book Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, I talk about the Integrated Marketing Communication campaign that Denny’s started back in 2009 to build its brand among lapsed and infrequent customers. They put together some clever TV ads, print advertising, a press kit that generated a fair amount of coverage, a web site, and a “Give Everyone in America a Free Grand Slam Breakfast” promotion that ran two days after the Super Bowl. The campaign had a great response, despite the fact that Denny’s web site crashed as soon as the first Super Bowl ad ran; and the restaurant kept the promotion going for a second year in 2010.
This year Denny’s continued to advertise on the Super Bowl, but they discontinued the Free Grand Slam promotion. The restaurant chain is now using a variety of online projects to promote the company. Among these is the Always Open With Dave web series featuring conversations between Arrested Development star Dave Koechner and a celebrity guest taking place at a table in a Denny’s restaurant. The series is hosted at the College Humor web site.
Denny’s has also been pushing its “diner” image through ads and web series, and with ads promoting its “dinerish” food.
In addition to the 2009 Super Bowl Commercial, I’ve included a more recent ads below:
2009 “Diner” commercial
“Hon”
Here is a fun old RKO short on how the Walt Disney studio produced cartoons back in the 1930s. A great look at old-school animation. Thanks to /Film for the link.
(Pay attention to the narration. The inking work is all done by “room full of pretty girls…)
Students in my commentary class watched the Oscar-winning short film West Bank Story in class on Thursday. They’ve all written reviews, and are now competing for who wrote the best blog entry on the film. Here are links to the reviews; once you’ve read them, you can follow the link below to vote on which were your favorites.
Click here to cast your vote for your favorite!
My commentary students viewed the Oscar-winning short film West Bank Story as part of a reviewing assignment. It’s a fun little film that runs about 20 minutes and is a great choice for a review assignment. It’s short enough to show in class, it has lots of different reviewable elements in it, it provokes a wide range of responses, and it’s readily available. The version I showed in class I purchased through iTunes.
Here’s some basic background on it:
My JMC 406 commentary class is going to be talking about writing critical reviews over the next week or two. Here are several readings and great talk by movie critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert for my students. But for all of you thinking about reviewing, these materials are all great. (And, please, take the time to watch the C-SPAN video of Siskel and Ebert talking to National Press Club back in 1995. Get passed the complaints about Sen. Bob Dole and get to where they talk about what makes movies good or bad.)
Siskel & Ebert at the National Press Club
I find these stories fascinating because it frames the argument about digital music in terms of what is legal and profitable, not in terms of presumably illegal file sharing. Whose argument are you buying? If any?
/Film has another great Video of the Day up today. This one is of 36 death scenes from Alfred Hitchcock movies, timed to happen simultaneously. /Film has the list of all the movies up on their site.
