Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Hate Something, Change Something, Make Something Better

22:21 / 11.10.04

discuss

06:06 / 12.10.04

Explain.

07:31 / 12.10.04

I do apologise. This thread may be a tad opaque to non British readers. And indeed to British readers who do not watch commercial television..

09:13 / 12.10.04

Yes, I must say I'm bamfoozled - what's the reference?

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:34 / 12.10.04

Ah - it's an advert. An animated television advert. I've also got a postcard through my door with this slogan and some stickers.

Can't remember for the life of me what it's for, though. I have a nasty suspicion this may be another example of a very good slogan being - argh I hate this term 80% if the time - "co-opted".

I guess the principle could be interpreted as "Don't just sit around bitching, put the fucking work in", which I think is very good advice.

14:03 / 12.10.04

This is a pretty bloody feeble post to be put in one of the serious sections of the site, so I'm going to have it moved to the conversation.

14:12 / 12.10.04

Honda

14:16 / 12.10.04

Can't remember for the life of me what it's for, though.

Honda automobiles--specifically their diesel line.

14:16 / 12.10.04

Oh, I see, it's an ad for Honda. Well - I haven't seen it, but the fact that it's yet another bloody car advert yergh does rather make me agree with Fly that it's a very good slogan/advice which has been compromised by the product it's advertising...

Or is this a hopelessly snobby attitude towards car adverts? What's actually wrong with using a snappy tune/slogan/animation etc. to advertise a product? I feel intuitively as if it is egregious and dispiriting, but am not sure whether I could actually justify this except by saying 'all cars are evil and I am fucking sick of car manufacturers pushing endless adverts for cars which all look the same and do the same things, in an effort to get people to replace their existing and perfectly functional models', which might not be very rational...

I mean, are all adverts wrong, or only some?

Is it pleasing? I am unlikely to see it for various dull reasons, but we could discuss whether it's a good advert in advert design terms, I suppose. Or rather, you lot could.

14:16 / 12.10.04

It's Honda's new campaign for their 'whisper-quiet' diesel engine. It features Garrison Keillor singing a rather catchy folk song about whether or not hate can be a good thing, citing the designer's hatred for noisy diesel engines leading to them creating the new one, accompanied by a gorgeous animation of the nasty old ones flying through a landscape filled with sweet cuddly dancing animals who then destroy the engines as they pass.
And it's good. I'm afraid to say despite it being Honda's attempt to seem enviromentally friendly I find the song really catchy and the animation is wonderfully rendered. I say we re-co-opt it. De-co-opt it?
Grr.

14:33 / 12.10.04

"This is a song that Charles Manson stole from the Beatles--we're stealin' it back..."

14:41 / 12.10.04

What's actually wrong with using a snappy tune/slogan/animation etc. to advertise a product? I feel intuitively as if it is egregious and dispiriting

I accept that the point of advertising is to make a product attractive to the viewer, but what gets me is when they are particularly heavy-handed with the inspirational bollocks, which I find happens a lot in ads for cars and banks, more than other products. Ads for these two products are often all about achieving your goals and being an individual and blah blah fishcakes, which is so far from what they are actually peddling. I reckon the best ads are those with a little (just a little!) evidence of having test-driven their products on the streets of selfawaria.

22:51 / 12.10.04

(shudder). I just remembered a few years back, the Bank of Montreal changed it's name to the ever-so-modern Mbanx. The commercial announcing this showed a group of kids, running, skipping, flying kites, etc. while singing "The Times They Are A' Changing."

...I guess the inspirational crap is as you say, just trying to put the focus on the customers dreams, since it's needed to deflect the focus from the massive amount of cash they make off you...

14:18 / 14.10.04

I think the ad's marvelous. Given that the bit about Honda is tacked on the end, and silent, it's entirely possible to not notice that it's selling anything at all, and feel happy that it happened, in the middle of some depressing things.

If the Go! Team made adverts...

14:38 / 14.10.04

What in the hell is this thread about? Adverts? Honda? Change? Cange for the better? Loose change? Bunnies?

....err?

*scratches head - looks puzzled*

14:42 / 14.10.04

It should be obvious by now Lillith: this thread is about Steve.

15:19 / 14.10.04

Steve is with Miss K? Damn, Steve gets around.

*puzzled look again*

So, Miss K is really a guy?

I am still confused.

Lilly Nowhere Late

05:34 / 16.10.04

Funny enough, I saw the "honda" ad last night for the first time. Very psychedelic in a way. I felt confused about everything for a few seconds(confused about my surroundings, my conciousness, etc.) then realized that it was a honda ad and I also remembered seeing the title here on Barbelith. I had not read the thread yet. I thought perhaps Honda had hijacked Barbelith for a few minutes and then I wondered if we'd soon all be driving to Barbe-meets in our new Hondas. Then I figured it more likely that Barbelith hijacked Honda and soon all the workers for the Honda Corps will be on Barbelith not doing their jobs and the great little car company will collapse.
My conclusion on the whole, in the light of day, is that TV rots your head and advertising like that takes up too much thought power and we should all ban modernity as a rule.

10:23 / 16.10.04

As soon as I saw that stinky diesel engine puttering away through the psychadelic la-la land I thought, that's it, it's ruined that perfection, and no amount of fluffly clouds, bunnies or rainbow flowers will ever really get rid of the poisons it just spat out. They'll all be tainted now.
The advert left me quite depressed.
Perhaps it's a good thing that I don't watch telly.

16:31 / 18.10.04

The adverts on the web if you have a broadband connection o'doom.
I liked it, it's good to see animators with talent getting paid work for once.