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I’ve wanted to have children for a long time, but given the expense of raising them and sending them to school these days, I decided a long time ago that I wouldn’t pursue this 20+ year investment until I could find a corporate sponsor. I jest (I think), but as absurd as this idea sounds, can it really be far off? We’re all more aware of than we were even just a few years ago of how much advertising has become part of the fabric of daily life rather than something we’re “exposed to” from the outside. One of the first great coups was probably when cable television found an audience. There was a time when you could buy a TV and immediately start watching free programs, with your only additional payment being the punishment of occasional commercial interruptions. This was actually a pretty good deal. In fact, the commercials provided a nice break during which you could get up and grab a soda or make a sandwich from the horrifying meat products they might be advertising. But suddenly, one day, you found yourself paying through the nose for the same experience, only with more ads, and the possibility of your programs being shut off if you missed paying the bill. Another great advertising breakthrough was Star Wars. An epic, six part, twelve hour commercial that the public paid millions to see, and then dutifully went out and spent even more millions on, to procure the product tie-ins. Although I personally consider myself immune to advertising, I know I can’t escape it, and that it’s not going away soon. So even though I in fact detest it – if given a moment to reflect on its net effect on society – I remain fascinated with it. I’ve mentioned before that I like television commercials more than the programming these days, and although I obsessively watched most of the first season of Mad Men, I quickly lost interest when it devolved into actual storylines and character exploration. I mean really. If they were going to drift so far off topic, they should have sold commercial time on the DVD’s. I would have kept watching. All of which relates to why I was impressed by two recent masterpieces of advertising innovation. The more impressive of the two is The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, the ultra-meta documentary about product placement that was funded by….product placement, and was the first film at Sundance to get picked up for distribution this year. If you haven’t read or heard about it, it’s the brainchild of Morgan Spurlock, the guy that brought us Super Size Me. Which, with hindsight, was probably one of the greatest McDonald’s commercials ever made. It certainly didn’t stop anyone from eating at McDonald’s, and gave them more highbrow media exposure than they had had in years. In fact, I think the last time I ate McDonald’s was right after seeing the film several years ago. You may have noticed a few sentences back that I said “if you haven’t read or heard about it”, because I certainly didn’t receive a screener, so I assume you didn’t either. That’s because Sony is going to make you pay to see this advertisement for Morgan Spurlock and his sponsors Pom juice (which disturbingly reads like “Porn Juice” in certain screen fonts), JetBlue, Ban deodorant, Mini Cooper, Hyatt hotels and the island of Aruba. Now that’s what you call “meta”. There isn’t even a trailer for this film yet, and it’s getting more exposure than Bai Ling’s nipples. The other campaign that impressed me a little recently was Volkswagen’s TheFunTheory.com. This is a totally natural progression into a slightly new territory, what one might call the acceptable, self-aware viral campaign. I was first exposed via the Piano Stairs video (also below) when a friend shared it on Facebook. I vaguely noticed it was a Volkswagen project, but didn’t learn more until later, when I wanted to show it to a friend and Googled “Piano Stairs”, which led me to the site. I still didn’t wade through Volkswagen’s pitch about “Fun Theory”, but by golly, I sure think of Volkswagen as a fun brand now, and may just go out and buy one. I hope it has interactive ads for The Greatest Movie Ever Sold holographically embedded in the windshield. Vids below.

The “Fun Theory” Piano Stairs Video

Of course the “Fun Theory” can get out of hand when a couple of your creative guys accidentally leak a clip like the infamous “VW Polo Terrorist” commercial.