They’re commercials, not ‘films,’ people I don’t usually take up space on AdFreak for venting, but could we please stop referring to commercials as “films”? Ever since the debut of BMW Films—and perhaps before—people in advertising have taken to this “films” terminology, as if to convince themselves that their art-school training might land them not only a gold Lion someday but perhaps an Oscar. The latest two transgressors are the Nissan Sentra campaign from TBWA\Chiat\Day wherein Marc Horowitz lives in his car for a week (yeah, I know, we’ve written about this three times in four posts now), and the Dove commercials from Ogilvy Toronto that continue to tackle the issue of women’s low self-esteem. (One person who commented to that post had a similar problem with the “F” word.) It seems the loophole that allows people to call these things films (besides general self-aggrandizement) is that while these ads may appear in the old-fashioned 30-second format on TV, they can go on for minutes at a time on the Web, as the Sentra campaign does. But to my mind, if a piece of video is selling something, and particularly if it appears on TV and is paid for by a client, it’s a commercial. I feel better.  —Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

October 26, 2006 | Permalink

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Comments

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The fact that there's an advertising festival in Cannes, the week after the Cannes film festival, is another pathetic example of advertising creatives thinking they're filmmakers.

Posted by: person | Oct 26, 2006 9:31:42 AM

In Cannes the category is called Film for TVCs. I adopted the same for advertlover.

Posted by: ivan | Oct 26, 2006 2:16:33 PM

So when a real "film" is jammed full of product placements, shouldn't it lose it's status as a film?

I'll start the list...

Michael Bay's "The Island" is not a film.

Posted by: ChrisM70 | Oct 26, 2006 6:15:13 PM

blame the euros! they all refer to ads as films. "when we made ze film, we wanted to capture ze energee of ze sodah."

Posted by: nick | Oct 26, 2006 6:19:51 PM

fin

Posted by: And at the end... | Oct 27, 2006 10:25:00 AM

Referring to TV spots as "films" may be annoying, but the practice is a lot older than BMW Films. Ask anyone in the business older than Britney Spears (if you can find them) and I think you'll learn that the European ad community has commonly referred to TV spots as "films" for decades. The same way many Hollywood types still call movies "pictures." So the next time you hear an ad person from Europe use the term, realize that its natural for them to do so. It's only when you hear an American use it that you are correct in labeling it an annoying affectation. Like Madonna's British accent.

Posted by: alittlehistoryhelps | Oct 27, 2006 10:59:45 AM

feel good

Posted by: marc | Oct 31, 2006 6:06:12 AM

I always knew that "Evolution" was a very long commercial for H&S... thank you for making it so clear :)

Posted by: Vicomte Raf | Oct 31, 2006 12:34:19 PM

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