Where Were They?

This years Comic Relief spot saw no less than 13 brand mascots come together on camera and make a plea for consumer cash. But the crazy gang were not vying selfishly for their bit of the everyman’s pie – in fact the group were asking you not to buy teabags, or insurance or cereal or freeze-dried potatoes.

They were asking you to give to charity…



But who was missing from this brand mascot list of champions? Was this really the premiership of brand talismans ... or had they missed a couple?

We at the Reel thought they had missed a trick on a few…

Douglas - The Lurpak Man

Aardman’s superb trumpet playing maniac could have been the perfect play-pal for the angry mentalist meat man from Pepperami. Whilst the former is a bit of an animal, the buttery fellow’s dulcet tones could have spread a little more comedy gold on the piece.

Flat Eric

Levi’s 90’s talisman was an ideal sparring partner for the PG-tips Monkey. We were thinking a cage, an octagon and a fatman tag team partner to level Johnny Vegas… the smart money would have been on Matt Lucas being in his corner.

Homepride's Fred

Fred the flourgrader has been on the English tellybox since the dawn of time. Okay not the dawn of time, but Fred has been entertaining and flogging homepride flour since 1964. Why then did he not make it into the golden 13? Probably because he was too busy giving millions of pounds to Comic Relief or something…

Barry Scott

Missing out the undisputed king of bargain basement advertising and screaming VO’s ‘Barry Scott’ was a criminal faux-pas on the part of the Comic Relief team. We were flabbergasted that he wasn’t present, with his dirty penny ready to educate and entertain. Interestingly Scott has several foreign cousins Martin Grellis (in Australia) and Dan Dolan (in North America) who both have a penchant for Reckitt Benckiser.product “Easy-off BAM” and loud voice overs… hmmm….

Kia-Ora Crows

It’s too orangey for Comic Relief… Or rather it hasn’t been on the box for several years, which more than likely wrote these fabulous feathered junglebook-style characters out of the picture.

Mr Muscle

A wobbly re-brand from weed into weight-lifter was probably the reason that Mr (that’s actually his first name) didn’t make it into the hallowed comic relief 13. We preferred him when he was a douchebag…

The Milkybar Kid

Tough. Strong. Cant go wrong. Which bits of his resume didn’t Comic Relief look at? I mean, this kid was a NO BRAINER! Im assuming that current ASA rules have shackled the bespectacled hero to a cross or something, because really and truly, the Milkybar Kid should have been there.

P.S. We didn’t do Tony the Tiger because quite frankly, the idea of a talking tiger that eats frosted flakes is quite preposterous. HE WOULD HAVE EATEN EVERYONE IN THE ROOM!

NewsReel 20/03/09

More news from the advertising week. If you want in, chuck your press releases at editor@thereel.net and we'll give 'em a look!

Steven Sander’s in to Transparent

Former Quiet Storm director, Steven Sander, joins Transparent for UK representation. A Cambridge University graduate, Steven started his film career as a runner at Union Films, where he shot his first commercial, a spec film for Weetabix. which proved to be so popular with the client, it was actually broadcast, opening the door to paid for commissions from BT, Nokia, News International and BMW Mini, amongst others.

A multi faceted talent, Steven has also directed, shot and edited, a number of award winning short films and documentaries, most recently three outstanding films for Channel 4's Three minute Wonder, profiling relationships between sports coaches and their proteges, In 2008 Steve edited his first feature film "New Town Killers" while his harrowing commercial "Torture By Any Other Name" won Silver at The European Creative Advertising Awards and was featured in the APA 08 Collection of the best UK ads of the year, marking him as someone to watch.

Don’t just take these hastly cobbled press release words for it, check out his good stuff here - http://transparentuk.com/downloads/sander_showreel.mov

Anonymous gets some Purchase


Production and management firm Anonymous Content has hired the dynamic, two-man filmmaking team of David and Ian Purchase to its Commercial, Integrated, and Feature Film divisions.

On joining Anonymous' roster David Purchase exclaims, "Anonymous Content is an amazing company. There was hardly a decision to be made. It was a wonderful opportunity that presented itself and we are extremely happy to be working with them."

The Toronto-born brothers have earned an industry-wide reputation for putting together entertaining independent feature films with little to no budget, showing an impressive resourcefulness that bodes well for their professional prospects. The pair has single-handedly tackled nearly every aspect of their past projects soup to nuts (ed: We had to Google to find out that this means ‘from beginning to end’ in American. It is now part of Reel lexicon).

http://www.anonymouscontent.com/

Psst!

Not To Scale’s Steve Scott has joined forces with PSST! 3, a collaborative film project consisting of 17 films made by a team of 51 designers, directors, animators and composers.

The mission of PSST! is to produce original short films through collaborations, with each film being comprised of three sections produced by three different teams: the beginning, middle and end. The concept is derived from the Dadaist game of Exquisite Corpse and the children’s game Telephone and applied to the arts of motion graphics, animation and film-making. Got it?

If you’re massively confused, just come to the London screening on Thursday, 26th March. It will be screened at the Bodhi Gallery @ 7pm, 214 Brick Lane, London, E1 6SA.

http://psstpassiton.com

…and finally


You know we like a spot of Friday fun here at The Reel, so here’s a dose of web-based magic to give your digits a Daft Punk feel. Using the familiar Hawkings-like vocals of the duo’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, the web-app allows you to create a vocorchestra of uplift. Kudos Najle, kudos.

http://www.najle.com/idaft/