Cats dig the Whiskas Web site

Call it “kitty porn.” A computer teacher from San Francisco writes to Whiskas’ ad agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., that her cat, Boop, is addicted to the Whiskas Web site, which includes an interactive online feline that can be played with and fed. She has captured her cat’s craze in a movie (“Boop Meets a Virtual Kitty”) on her own site. “The reason we did the site was to get people involved with the virtual cat,” says Doug Speidel, ecd at Tequila, the integrated marketing arm that created the Whiskas cat. “We just never knew a cat would get interested in it. It looks he’s having a pretty good time. I hope it doesn’t affect his cat vision. We never imagined that a cat on a computer screen would be more interesting to a cat than the mouse.”

—Posted by Gregory Solman

Published on April 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Salad days for the cookie monster

Somehow, “C is for carrot” doesn't have the same ring to it. According to this story, Sesame Street's Cookie Monster is going to cut back a little on his cookie consumption and eat more fruits and vegetables. Apparently it's all part of the program's initiative to encourage healthier eating among children. We're all for that, but it seems like making poor Cookie suffer is a bit cruel. It doesn't seem like he's obese or even overweight (though judging from his googly eyes, he could probably use glasses); maybe he's one of those people/monsters who can eat whatever he wants and never gain a pound. As far as Muppet lore goes, this development could be as tectonic as when adults started to see Snuffleupagus (a bad day for imaginary friends everywhere). And in the annals of food lore, this might even rival Grimace's shift from shake-stealing Hamburglar cohort to giggling purple being.

—Posted by Aaron Baar

Credit: Richard Termine
Sesame Street® and associated characters, trademarks and design elements are owned and licensed by Sesame Workshop. © 2005 Sesame Workshop. All Rights Reserved.

Published on April 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (21)

Zen: Now part of a complete breakfast

So, you’re seeking a high fiber cereal *and* spiritual enlightenment? Rolled oats and old rotes rolled into one? You’ve found it in the latest cereal by Nature’s Path. It’s called Optimum Zen and it boasts the ability to bring “inner harmony.” It features ginger and cranberry bits, along with flax seed and many high-fiber crunchy things AdFreak can’t identify. Whatever they are, they are grown with “no sewage sludge on fields,” as noted on the box’s side panel. (And that, my friend, can only be good.) So we decided to try it. We swallowed our first bite cautiously, afraid we might fall into a trance or begin levitating as the kibble hit our stomachs. But we were fine, fine. We continued to eat our breakfast and read the box, which provided five minutes of blissful diversion from current events (good for anyone’s inner harmony). Now for the best part: The box, when turned upside-down, includes a secret message from the Dalai Lama. (We won’t tell you what he says—it’s a secret!) For added intrigue, the inside of the box features mysterious messages about organic food. What do they want to tell us that can’t be printed for all to see? Overall, Nature’s Path delivers a tasty combination of grains, roots and berries, all of which keep their appropriate textures in milk. Does it deliver inner harmony? No, not really. Nonetheless, we’re going back for more tomorrow morning.

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on April 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Great opportunity: A depressing job at JWT

CAUTION: Side effects of working at J. Walter Thompson’s Detroit office may include depression, dry mouth, ulcers and stress-induced hallucinations that, if you’re lucky, may inspire an award-winning campaign. A classified ad placed by the agency this week in Adweek touts creative angst as a perk with the headline, “Taking anti-depressants? Want to?” The agency is looking for a copywriter and art director, ‘but not necessarily a team. After all, depression is so much better when endured alone.” Appealing to the masochist inside every creative is a shrewd move, and should the lucky candidate grow to hate the job, he can’t accuse the shop of false advertising.

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Published on April 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Beware any bewildering bewailing

As part of this Saturday’s ceremony at which the Church of England blesses their marriage, reports BBC News, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles will acknowledge their “manifold sins and wickedness.” Now, we’re aware that some AdFreak readers tend to celebrate their own manifold sins and wickedness, but the prince and his bride will “bewail” theirs as they recite what the BBC describes as “the strongest act of penitence from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.” This seems like such a good idea that we hope it becomes standard practice on all sorts of occasions. The advertising business, for example, could only win greater respect from clients and the public alike if agency CEOs bewailed their manifold sins and wickedness when they’ve lost an account. Clients might do the same when they fire an agency for having done precisely what they’d hired it to do in the first place. And while the financial transparency mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is fine, it still wouldn’t be a bad idea for a public company’s annual report to include a bewailing of management’s manifold sins and wickedness during the preceding year.

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

Published on April 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Profanity, special sauce, lettuce, cheese

Well, McDonald’s was asking for it, and they got it: A group called Gatbustaz has released a hip-hop song laden with Big Mac references—and laden also with sex, violence and profanity. Some of the tamer lyrics to “McGangsta” include: “Kinda feel like a sesame seed bun/Don’t we all/Wait, let me get my gun/Let’s make a McDonald’s run.” Though Gatbustaz appears to be a kind of Weird Al Yankovic of hip-hop (and the song sounds like it’s from about 1985), the song, currently circulating around the Internet, is still infectiously catchy. We doubt they’ll be getting any checks in the mail from McDonald’s anytime soon.

—Posted by Mae Anderson

Published on April 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Anderson

One Campaign video finally sees light of day

Bono’s One Campaign is finally going to get its allotted time on the airwaves. The organization—which is working to motivate U.S. citizens in the fight against the AIDS crisis in Africa and in helping the world’s poorest people—will air a 60-second video originally planned to air on the Oscars this Sunday on both ABC and MTV Networks, according to this release. Fittingly, its debut on ABC will be during an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” featuring a woman who has helped three of her adopted children face living with AIDS. The video, produced by @radical.media, incorporates people from the left, right and center, ranging from Pat Robertson to Brad Pitt (pictured gratuitously here), talking about the need to get involved. I'm glad to see ABC is finally airing the thing because its non-appearance on the Oscars was, quite frankly, disturbing. I'm on the email list for the One Campaign and try to support the organization in the modest ways that a harried working Mom can, and so was in the loop about its planned Academy Awards appearance. Its debut there had been touted not only by Bono in a speech he gave in February at the TED conference (upon winning the TED prize) but also in emails from The One Campaign. Then, the day after the Oscars, I got this perplexing email: “Unfortunately, despite repeated assurances, our ONE Campaign video was not shown during the Oscars award ceremony. We are all disappointed and concerned, and we are looking into why this happened.” In fact, one of my colleagues called over to ABC; after getting passed around for awhile, officials there never came up with an explanation for the video’s non-appearance. OK, enough talk of corporate mix-ups. While we’re on the subject of getting media time and space for what is probably the world’s greatest crisis, I'll shine the AdFreak light on something from that Bono TED speech that didn’t get nearly the press it should have, at least among the media people who can do something about it. TED winners get to make three wishes, which Tedsters—some of the most influential people in technology, entertainment and design—then try to fulfill. And one of his wishes was to get one billion donated media impressions for the cause by the time of the G8 Africa Summit in July. (That would be one hit for every severely impoverished person on the planet, BTW.) Hey, media people out there, there are less than four months left. Get moving and donate thy media impressions. Now, AdFreak will return to its regular snarky programming.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

McGriddles touted as hangover cure

So we saw the ad pictured here on the back cover of the current Rolling Stone, and the only conclusion we could come to is that McDonald’s is finally touting its breakfasts as the hangover cure they are—without explicitly saying so. Look at this thing! The guy’s got a reverse mohawk, stubble, and—though it might not be clear from the smaller version pictured here—bloodshot eyes! Then there’s the headline: “Bad night? Good morning.” We’re lovin’ it.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

McKesson named king of bull-bleep

With all of the hype surrounding March Madness, you might not have participated in Manure Madness, the blog Fight the Bull's annual tourney to name a Shining Beacon of Business Idiocy, based on the verbiage of corporate America's newly-released annual reports, alternatively described on the site as, "the clichés, platitudes and truckloads of bull that grace some of the most expensive print materials ever destined for the recycle bin." Thirty-two of the Fortune 100 were picked for the competition, but in the end it came down to McKesson vs. Lockheed Martin, with the healthcare behemoth winning 55 percent of the online vote. By providing investors with such mind-blowing insights as "McKesson is well-positioned for growth" and "the forces for change are intensifying" voters obviously thought the company excelled at saying a lot without really saying anything at all.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bring that radio spot back to life

For those of you whose radio scripts have been killed off before they saw the light of day, here’s a chance for resurrection. Radio ad agency Oink Ink’s latest “Dead Radio Contest” is going on now, with no entry fees and everything to gain. “Last time they ‘showed it around the office,’ your guaranteed-Mercury-winner came back as an Addy runner-up,” the Web site says. “Keep your dignity and most of your integrity. Enter your tortured-soul of a script in our 8th Annual Dead Radio Contest.” The winner gets his or her script produced start-to-finish, plus a trip to New York City or lovely Santa Monica, Calif. Last year’s winner, “Testing” for Miller Lite, by Greg Christensen of Young & Rubicam in Chicago, was selected from more than 1,000 entries. To get an idea of other scripts that had been killed, the site has an archive of past winners. Check out the horrible brat in the 2003 winner, “Babysitter.”

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on April 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s the Charles and Camilla Show

Let the romantics treasure their recollections of his fairy-book first wedding to Diana Spencer. For my money, there’s no better entertainment value than the unscripted reality-TV version of Prince Charles’ nuptials with Camilla Parker Bowles, set for Saturday, unless some unforeseen event forces the rescheduling of it again. There’s the sublime irony of it all: The head of the Church of England—an institution created in defiance of a Catholic pope’s refusal to allow Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage—must postpone his own wedding to a divorcee in order to pay his respects to the recently deceased Pope John Paul II. Then there’s the tabloid-fueled silliness of it all: A citizenry heretofore uninterested in the image of Charles’ mature lover Camilla, after the virginal Diana, is clamoring now for the wedding’s commemorative tea towels, stamps and china—as a sort of national joke, since they have the wrong date embossed on them. Further indignity was heaped on the couple when Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria announced she’d be skipping the big day because she’d prefer to go to Japan to open a new Ikea store. So, lift a glass to Charles and Camilla on Saturday, but don’t count on any kind of media honeymoon. It’s all downhill from here.

—Posted by Noreen O’Leary

Photo: Hussein Anwar/SIPA/Newscom

Published on April 7, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under O'Leary

With a name like PB&J, it has to be Smuckers?

At first read J.M. Smucker Co.'s legal battle to keep its patent on Uncrustables, a sealed, crustless peanut butter and jelly "pocket" may seem humorous (as does this cute little picture we're running with this post of a cartoon Uncrustable). It doesn't help that "Uncrustables" is possibly the ickieset product name ever. But Smucker's is serious about protecting the highly profitable product from other crust-cutting PB&J poachers. The round sandwiches (which come frozen) generated sales of $27.5 million in 2004, according to this story. The crust-free treat was developed in 1995 by two fathers who began selling them to Midwestern schools. Smuckers knew a goldmine when they saw it, bought the fathers out and were granted a patent in 1999. Controversy followed when Albie's Foods started selling its own crustless PB&J. Although they went to  court, both parties eventually dropped their cases. This week, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Smucker's will try to get exclusive rights for this method of sandwich making.

—Posted by Lisa van der Pool

Published on April 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is Jose Mourinho worthy of AmEx?

Excuse us while we indulge our European soccer fandom. We find it curious timing that Jose Mourinho joins American Express’ “My life. My card” campaign tonight with a TV spot in the U.K. during a match between Chelsea and Bayern Munich (thanks for the correction, Casper). Mourinho, Chelsea’s Portuguese coach, won’t be at the game—he was suspended after accusing Barcelona’s coach and a Swedish referee of cheating after a match between those clubs. (The ref even received death threats following Mourinho’s comments and promptly retired.) Mourinho has had other troubles, too—he was fined for saying Manchester United players cheat; he was booted from the dugout for making provocative gestures at Liverpool fans; and he’s under investigation for an alleged illegal move to poach a player from Arsenal. Maybe all this confirms his “will to win attitude,” as AmEx puts it. Or maybe it just means he’s not above creating a poisonous atmosphere if it gives his team the upper hand.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on April 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (6)

TiVo, Comcast to distribute updated unwatched ads

Here’s another item for the list of silly ideas to make TiVo advertising-friendly: it and Comcast, which announced a partnership last month, are working on a system to update the commercials in already-recorded TiVo programming. Is this so people who are catching up on already-recorded shows can now fast-forward through newer commercials? The two companies will also try to make the inserted ads more relevant to those viewing them, which sounds a bit more to the point. But not everyone who heard about the initiative, which was announced yesterday at the NCTA show in San Francisco, thought viewers would particularly care. This story in the Baltimore Sun quotes America Online chief Jonathan Miller as saying, “Advertising is going from being an involuntary service to being a voluntary service ... that puts a high bar on relevance and other things." We’re with you Jonathan. Separately, we’re wondering if Google co-founder Larry Page, who was also at NCTA, really meant to be held up as the new official spokesperson for the cable modem. The home page of the conference attributes its quote of the day to Page, who purportedly said at Monday’s general session, “I just switched to a cable modem from DSL. And it's much faster."

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

San Diego plumbers clean up their act

Score one for the hot-plumber fantasy. According to news service Wireless Flash, Steve Fox Plumbing in San Diego is offering consumers a “no stink” guarantee—promising that only polite, punctual and clean-shaven plumbers will show up to unclog your sink. Company owner Becki Fox, whose hubby’s name is on the door, says customers are tired of putting up with wise-cracking—and otherwise cracking—professional plumbers. And just who is the arbiter of these high standards? Becki herself. (Does Becki also travel the land giving diction lessons to subway conductors and showing Duane Reade employees how to smile? How Pygmalion of her.) So stand up straight, tuck in that shirt and have a Certs, Joe Bluecollar. Otherwise, your customer gets her money back.

—Posted by Deanna Zammit

Published on April 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Seeking clarity, we look to Al Gore

If you were planning to launch a current-events cable channel, what would you call it? Hey, I know: How about Current? Oh, right. That one’s taken. In a bold attempt to provide greater clarity about what his network is all about, Al Gore has named his current-events network (what else?) Current. OK, not exactly out-of-the-box thinking, but let’s give the guy credit: It’s a helluva lot better than the previous name, IndTV, which gave no clue what it’s all about. But heck, if we’re going clarity, why not call it the Cable Channel With Very Short News and Information Clips Designed Not to Overtax the Ever-Shortening Attention Span of the Nation’s Youth With the Slightest Interest in the World Revolving Around Them? Kinda catchy, isn’t it? Maybe not as environmentally sound as the former vp might prefer. As Gore explained this week at a national cable conference, where he unveiled the network, many of the segments on the channel are branded with its name. Thus, a segment about music is labeled Current Playlist, while one giving career advice is called Current Gigs. Whole forests would be used up cranking out press material with the longer (albeit clearer) name suggested above. And what about a logo? Hmmm, this channel-naming stuff isn’t as easy as it sounds. Or looks. Whatever.

—Posted by Steve McClellan

Photo: Rahman/Agence France Presse/Newscom

Published on April 6, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Media trend of the moment: post-prison PR

We only have two examples so far—but given the swelling ranks of white-collar criminals, we’re ready to announce the birth of a new subgenre of PR: post-prison communications. You may have seen in today’s New York Times that shoe designer Steve Madden is actively promoting his release from the Big House in new ads, including the one pictured here, in which one of the creepy Madden girls wears an ankle bracelet, à la Martha. And then there is, of course, Martha herself, who is the cover gal on her eponymous magazine’s “Welcome Home” issue. (The cover shows her standing outside—doesn’t that violate the terms of her house arrest?—and holding a rooster. We’ll assume it was shot before her sentence.) We suppose it’s a step forward that any white-collar ex-con would admit to being away anywhere besides a tony resort, but since both Martha and Madden decline to mention the “P” word in their comeback communications, it’s unclear just how big a step it is.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Will the next pope be a blogger?

The pope-as-blogger idea might not be so outlandish. We don’t mean the conclave of cardinals will pick someone from the current blogging community as the next pope, although Andrew Sullivan would be an intriguing candidate. But one can easily imagine a new pope using a blog as a way to communicate with his flock in a manner less formal than encyclicals and more far-reaching than papal audiences. It’s not as though the church is too old-fashioned to make use of the Internet. For years, the Vatican has had an elaborate, multilingual Web site. Among other things, it currently features the complicated rules (as updated a few years ago by John Paul II) that govern the election of a new pope. If you’re tempted to bribe some cardinals to buy the papacy for yourself, better check out paragraph 78 of that document, which begins thus: “If—God forbid—in the election of the Roman Pontiff the crime of simony were to be perpetrated, I decree and declare that all those guilty thereof shall incur excommunication latae sententiae.” Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

—Posted by Mark Dolliver

Photo: Molina/Zuma/Newscom

Published on April 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Stadium naming rights make sense again

What’s this? An arena naming-rights agreement that doesn’t feel gratuitous? In a world of American Airlines Theaters and US Cellular Fields, it was refreshing yesterday to learn that L.A.’s Universal Amphitheatre will soon carry the name—can it be?—of Gibson Guitar Corp. A musical venue carrying the corporate name of a respected music company—genius! For 18 months the theater will be called the Gibson Amphitheatre at Universal Citywalk. Then it will become simply the Gibson Amphitheatre. The deal reportedly calls for Gibson to pay a little more than $1 million a year for a total of $14-15 million.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on April 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not everyone in the world is a rock star

Bring AdFreak the head of whoever it was that started calling any exemplary person from any walk of life—technology to religion—a “rock star.” The term is so mis- and overused that it’s all but lost its meaning, and not simply because of the caffeine-laced energy drink of that name or the asinine 2001 movie loosely based on Judas Priest. (Jennifer Aniston as a metal girlfriend? Please!) This screamingly annoying term is used to describe everyone from Donny Deutsch to Carly Fiorina. Then, over the weekend, we actually heard Diane Sawyer refer to Pope John Paul II as the “rock star” of popes. Say what?! Real rock stars drink too much and do too many drugs and pay a lot of child support to women other than their wives. They have blistering conversations with accountants about royalties. They float in and out of rehab. They fight with former bandmates and brag about themselves. They lie to their fans. They laugh at other bands, especially ones selling more records. Does that sound like the Holy Father to you? And for the love of God, stop calling any corporate schmo in tassled loafers a rock star because he’s gotten a little publicity, or your pal Greg in accounts receivable a rock star because he made a good presentation to the regional manager. This man is a rock star. As is this one. Any questions?

—Posted by Celeste Ward

Published on April 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

The voice of Verizon, now on Broadway

Irony of no irony department: We recently went to a preview of the new Broadway production of On Golden Pond, starring James Earl Jones in the Henry Fonda part, floppy hat and all. It’s a mostly African American cast (Leslie Uggams plays the Kate Hepburn role), and the casting twist is brilliant and greatly refreshes a ’70s-era play. (No matter what the critics say later in the week, the audience loved it, and gave it a standing O.) But here at the ’Freak, we thought the producers might make at least one concession to Mr. Jones’ ubiquitous sideline gig as Mr. Verizon. For example, the pre-curtain announcements about turning off all cell phones would seem to be a great time to make a little joke. Nuttin’. Then, in the opening act, Jones’ character, that old curmudgeon Norman, is on the phone (big old ’60s table model), hyperventilating at the operator about how phones don’t work and how he can never remember his number. (“Don’t you have it?!” he screams at the operator.) But the revolution in telecommunications culture, so ably and aggressively promoted in TV commercials featuring Mr. Jones, did invade at one point. In the heavy final scene, after the buildup of so much emotional and compelling psycho-drama, Norman is able to open up enough to tell his daughter that he loves her. Then he has what appears to be a heart attack and lies on the floor while his wife hovers around him, crying. By now, most of the audience is crying also. You guessed it—somewhere in the back row, a cell phone went off.

—Posted by Barbara Lippert

Photo: Scott Suchman

Published on April 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Lippert

The great Jack in the Box voicemail

We’re pretty sure this isn’t a viral-marketing campaign for Jack in the Box, but who knows? An audio file has been making the rounds in e-mail lately, and is posted online as an MP3 here, that is purportedly a recording of a voicemail that a Jack in the Box operations manager once left for his boss. The guy starts out by explaining why he’s late for a meeting, then he witnesses a sudden minor traffic accident. The two parties involved—one young man and four evidently vicious old ladies—leave their cars, and the gleeful Jack in the Box guy, who has a remarkably infectious laugh, proceeds to give a wonderful play-by-play of their ensuing confrontation. The ever-vigilant Urban Legends Reference Pages has tried to determine whether the message is for real—even going so far as to contact the company. It apparently got this reply: “Thank you for your inquiry. The message that has been in circulation is an actual voice mail message. The incident occurred 5-6 years ago in Texas. I’m not sure how the recording got outside the company or if the employee still works for Jack in the Box, but the recording periodically re-surfaces on the radio and the Internet.” So it may not be new. And it may not even be real. But it sure is funny.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on April 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The healthcare provider strikes back

Something has always bothered me about ads for health-insurance companies. It's just that deep down (or actually, not so deep) I know their main goal isn't their customers' health, despite what the ads say. It's finding ways to avoid paying claims. I was reminded of this the other day when I received a claim back from my health insurer. OK, let's put it in big bold letters, the company's name is: Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield. Back in February, I had to go to the emergency room after spraining my ankle as I stepped off a parked shuttle bus at a ski resort. I got the claim back on Friday, with this explanation for why they wouldn't pay: "Your automobile insurance carrier is primary for any treatment due to an automobile accident." Yes, folks, my stepping off the shuttle bus and klutzily landing on my ankle is, in Empire's view, "an automobile accident." "But I could have done this just as easily stepping off a curb," I said incredulously to customer service. Nope, they assured me, this was a claim for my car insurer. I haven't called the car insurer yet, but I'm sure they'll be thrilled to pay the claim.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

Published on April 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Building the perfect banana

Everyday life offers plenty of reminders that we do not live in a perfect world, from the release of new Ashton Kutcher movies to pieces of damaged fruit. We may have to accept that Ashton won’t go away, but not so bruised bananas. Some clever folks in the U.K. are selling individual plastic banana-storage containers. The “Banana Guard” promises to make the vexing problem of “banana trauma” a thing of the past, with a “patented device” that protects the fruit while keeping the ripening process going with an intricate ventilation system. The hawkers of the vaguely obscene-looking product do not duck the tough questions—the fact that bananas come in different shapes and sizes, for one. According to FAQ No. 1, not to worry. “Our testing indicates that over 90 percent of commercially available bananas will fit into the Banana Guard. Highly curved bananas can be straightened ever so slightly without harm to fit the Banana Guard shape. The opposite holds true of very straight bananas.”

—Posted by Brian Morrissey

Published on April 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Morrissey

The terrifying return of Mr. Six

It’s spring and that means? Aaahhh! He’s baaaack! Mr. Six—that freakishly festive old bald guy (actually, probably not old) with the oversized glasses and bad makeup is invading our televisions once again with his manic dancing and annoying “We Like to Party” song for Six Flags that inexplicably gets lodged in your brain. In a new spot heralding the seasonal opening of the theme parks, Mr. Six wakes up in a retirement home, realizes it’s spring and drives off in his Six Flags bus to get the parks ready. Some of us wish the tuxedoed toe-tapper had stayed in hibernation. Or better yet, that someone would have finally put him to rest. He’s not an appealing character, and he would seem to frighten some children. (He frightens some adults.) But somehow he’s getting the job done for Six Flags. The theme park reported brisk sales of Mr. Six memorabilia last summer, and the kids came out in droves for look-alike contests. This year, he even got his own roller coaster, “Mr. Six’s Pandemonium.” Looks like Mr. Six won’t be deep-sixed anytime soon. Go figure.

—Posted by Eleftheria Parpis

Published on April 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (13)
Filed under Parpis