"Wake up your eggs..."

I wholeheartedly object to the product, but the ad is fantastic:



(Hat tip to Sheri.)

Prove it

I consider myself an agnostic, but if you made me choose -- God or no God -- I'd guess the latter. That said, the Freedom From Religion Foundation's recent bus ads really rub me the wrong way. Not just because they're confrontational -- confrontational can be okay. My real problem is that they're not witty. Check this out:


The ad is a parody of the famous line "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," which a 19th-century newspaper editor wrote to reassure a young girl that St. Nick exists, despite what her more skeptical peers had told her. Though the parallel between God and Santa is an old saw among the anti-religious -- both were dreamed up by humans in their desperate search for meaning, goes the logic -- the FFRF ad strikes me as smug, which is ironic considering organized religion's reputation for smugness.

It's been said before that atheism can and has become a kind of religion in its own right, and the so-called New Atheists (led, arguably, by Richard Dawkins) has brought that notion into clearer focus in the past 10 years or so. I imagine FFRF's ads and the New Atheist movement are backlash phenomena -- reactions to George W. Bush's religiousness, and the ways in which it affected his governing style. But there is such a thing as overcompensation, and I find the bus ads juvenile and irritating. Yes, their bold contrarianism is refreshing, but I wish the execution were better.

The power of "Mad World"

The venerable Tears for Fears song, famously covered by Gary Jules for the Donnie Darko soundtrack, has become the go-to recording for game and movie producers looking to imbue their cultural products with an extra level of gravitas or sensitivity you never knew was there (because it isn't). Darko's "Mad World" montage, which gives us a glimpse of nearly every character in the film, would be nowhere near as moving without Jules' cover:



His take on the song shimmers with the same kind of intelligence and sadness Darko conveys, which makes it something like a perfect match for the movie.

In contrast, the makers of Gears of War 2, a sequel to the extremely popular (and violent) combat game, went against conventional wisdom by scoring their trailer not with balls-out death metal, but with the deeply emotional strains of... yep, "Mad World":



Presumably, this was an attempt not only to suggest that the game had hidden emotional depths but also to attract a more adult audience than the game already had -- or simply to reassure adult Gears addicts that they'd chosen a genuinely sensitive, profound shoot-'em-up as the object of their addiction.

Finally, we come to the trailer for The Crazies, a 2010 remake of a 1973 George Romero horror film about a virus that turns people into zombies:



Et voilà! A seemingly conventional splatter pic becomes a melancholy rumination on the human condition, the existential reality that we're all basically alone, etc. Or something like that. What's also interesting is that Darko, Gears, and Crazies all share decidedly apocalyptic themes. The whole thing reminds me of Mike Barthel's excellent paper on Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," presented at the 2007 EMP Pop Conference. "Mad World" seems well on its way to "Hallelujah"-level pop-culture ubiquity and shorthand value.

Anti-Ref. 71 radio ad makes the TV ads look almost competent

Bad acting, poor logic, and a despicable message: This one's a real piece of work.

Pro-Ref. 71 ad pulls out the big guns

To wit: They've gone and found the most adorable lesbian couple the world has ever known. Okay, maybe that's a subjective statement, but these two have to be in the top five:

Anti-Ref. 71 ad resembles a bad parody of itself

First I find out from NPR that a majority of Republicans in Congress consider the Matthew Shepard Act "unnecessary," and now this?



I try not to fan the flames of the so-called culture wars, but c'mon. Social conservatives are practically giving us bleeding-hearts a great big license to fan.

P.S. Among the voices in opposition to the Shepard Act, one is especially galling:

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has spoken against the bill, saying that it is unnecessary, that it violates the 14th Amendment, and that it would be a step closer to the prosecution of "thought crimes."

What happened to Matthew Shepard was hardly a "thought crime." Jesus.

My childhood shul rules

I think this is a great campaign, both from an advertising perspective and in terms of the principle involved. (West Seattle's Kol HaNeshamah is similarly inclusive, which I've always appreciated.) Well done, T'chiyah!

The American way

Coke, a white picket fence, and a miniscule dog. Does anything say "U.S. of A." more than that? (Additional photos here; thanks to Sheri for the tip-off.)

Culture jamming

Courtesy of Indymedia.org, a few "improved" local billboards.