Giant Beach Balls
I’ve been working on a Syrup screenplay for
a while now. Longer than I like to think about, really. Anyway, there’s
a bit I’m using from the book where our hero, Scat, is trying
to come up with a brilliant new idea for a Coke TV ad, and instead
has a bad one:
I have started to wonder about the beach: about variations on a giant inflatable beach ball. I am thinking about this ball rolling through a major American city, with people running and screaming.
It’s the kind of idea that is stupid yet oddly attractive. I have lots of those. So, apparently does Pepsi.
Now come on. That’s Scat’s stupid idea. The only difference is it’s Pepsi instead of Coke, and people having fun instead of being crushed to death. And that change, frankly, was disappointing. I really thought I was about to see some mayhem.
(Thanks to Jake for the heads-up. So to speak.)
Comments
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Location: St Kilda
Posted: 5701 days ago
Jak (#2464)
Quote: "The Straight-Jacket makes it hard to type."
Posted: 5701 days ago
Arianna (#3243)
Posted: 5701 days ago
Jake (#1479)
Location: In front of the computer
Quote: "Here's two herring and a squirrel: Amuse us!"
Posted: 5701 days ago
Location: Adelaide
Quote: "Here, have a shovel."
Posted: 5701 days ago
I reckon you should give serious thought to hiring a full time patent officer to follow you around and patent every idea, sentence - hell, every word you come up with...
Imagine all the people you could sue!
Keely (#1602)
Location: easy-peasy-24.livejournal.com of course!
Quote: "I always wanted to see the lights of Broadway... but then you get there and they're really kind of annoying."
Posted: 5701 days ago
Do you think it's too late to sign up as official prophet of business in the midwest? You could set up a fortune-telling business and make billions.
Joscelyn (#754)
Location: California,USA
Posted: 5701 days ago
Location: London
Posted: 5701 days ago
Jake Staines (#2395)
Location: Peterborough, UK
Quote: "I'm not going outside! There's carcinogenic space rays out there!"
Posted: 5701 days ago
But, being an HIV spot it was... you know... not quite as jolly as a beachball.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=R7FQu-zYVAU
...it was a lot more touching before some ass added Katamari music to it.
Ryan Speck (#3203)
Location: Seattle, WA
Quote: "I don't know what to put here... Typical."
Posted: 5701 days ago
Leave it to Pepsi to ruin a perfectly good idea.
(Though, in truth, all I could think about was how much a giant beach ball would weight and how many people would be crushed beneath it.)
Location: Canada
Posted: 5701 days ago
Obviously the marketing folk at Pepsi knows that it's a brilliant idea to, erhm, read your books.
Elle (#2618)
Location: New York
Posted: 5701 days ago
Jaap (#3247)
Location: The mystical land of frolicking naked nymphs
Quote: "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
Posted: 5701 days ago
Yubi Shines (#1664)
Location: Canada
Quote: "HOPE RIDES ALONE!"
Posted: 5701 days ago
(pause)
(begins to think about this idea carefully as a flash mob event)
Hazran (#946)
Location: UK (bottom bit)
Quote: "Only smoke when on fire."
Posted: 5700 days ago
Celeste (#2590)
Location: St.L. MO, USA
Quote: "You can't child-proof the world, so world-proof the child."
Posted: 5700 days ago
I would be willing to bet that there is some guy like Scat at Pepsi, sitting in a brainstorming session, and he comes up with this stupid but weirdly attractive idea, and half the group says, "hey yeah, thats cool!" The two guys on the end dont get it, they only see the stupid part, and point out why we cant do that-and then everybodies faces fall as they realize the party poopers are right- and some other brilliant guy says, 'wait, there is a way we can use this" and he gets the bonus for the ad you just saw.
By the way, I've decided to go into marketing. With my eyes open, because I think everything you say about corporations is right- but they've got the group psychology on their side, and it works. I want at least to know how I'm being played!
Linnea1928 (#2654)
Location: Rosemount, MN
Posted: 5700 days ago
Location: Rockford, IL
Quote: "Insert witty quote here."
Posted: 5700 days ago
http://youtube.com/watch?v=8kj87G2BHDI
Ian Harris (#1034)
Location: Cambridge, UK
Quote: "£256.50, exc VAT"
Posted: 5700 days ago
1. Idea nicked off Max.
2. Soundtrack a pastiche of Dandy Warhols' "Bohemian Like You". Surely Pepsi can afford the licensing?
3. An American street, but what look like the white cliffs of south east England...
4....with a shark in the waters where there are NEVER sharks.
5. a grammatically ridiculous strapline 'more happy', the most obvious attempt to make a slogan stick by making people 'but that's wrong' since Pink Floyd sang 'we don't need no education'.
Cuh.
Location: Sydney, Australia
Quote: "Why are the pretty ones always insane?"
Posted: 5699 days ago
Hey, it just occurred to me that one of the big issues most US presidents have to deal with is whether they are a "Coke" or "Pepsi" president, yet I've never seen or heard anything about which camp president Bush falls into. I know way too much about his mutt and nothing at all about his taste in multinational sugared water pushers. I'm sure his failure to come out and clearly state his preference is at the root of all his problems. Are Coke and Pepsi so lacking in influence nowadays they can't even get the incumbent president to push their brand? Talk about pathetic...
Katy (#2345)
Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 5699 days ago
Katy (#2345)
Location: Los Angeles
Posted: 5699 days ago
Love your writing!
Posted: 5694 days ago
Posted: 5694 days ago
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3005080
Robin (#3256)
Posted: 5693 days ago
http://www.adweek.com/aw/creative/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003627028
"Through the short film and other promotional elementsincluding authentically designed movie posters, movie-style trailers, an interactive digital program, promotions and packagingwe are able to extend the life of this campaign." said Judith Snyder, a Coke representative.
Ted Shaw (#3257)
Posted: 5693 days ago
I would rather name my kid 6.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22260769-5012895,00.html
Lottie (#3093)
Location: Sheffield, UK
Posted: 5692 days ago
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