HBO still taking shots at George W. Bush

The George W. Bush era is thankfully gone, but HBO and Venables, Bell & Partners channel the former president's less-than-lucid vibe and penchant for incoherent phrasing in this banner and billboard push touting the DVD release of the Will Ferrell special You're Welcome, America: A Final Night With George W. Bush. The election-poster-style ads include Bush-inspired slogans like "Never misunderestimate me," "Celebrate the era of strategery" and "Mission still not accomplished." The work's amusing, but the tongue-twisted ex-leader of the free world is such an easy target, attempts at parody are, as the man himself might say, akin to shooting fish in apparel. OK, he probably would've said something worse. He wasn't good with words, though his eight-year record of anti-achievement speaks for itself.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on November 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under Gianatasio, HBO, Politics, Venables, Bell & Partners

HBO characters not wonderful houseguests

This HBO promo borrows stars from its various original series to convince bored families to stay in on Sunday nights and watch TV. They do a good job of fitting everyone in, and it amused me that Larry David can't even promote his own show without coming off like a whiny asshole. Come to think of it, a lot of those characters were pretty inconsiderate—finishing all the orange juice, breaking the smoke detector, and barging in on husband/wife time aren't things that get guests invited back. It's a shame Oz and Deadwood aren't on the air anymore. I'd love to see those guys wreak havoc in the suburbs.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on July 30, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under HBO, Kiefaber

HBO's Comedy Fetish may scratch your itch

My colleague Mark Dolliver, perhaps the least weird person imaginable, christened HBO's ComedyFetish.com campaign "truly weird" over at Adweek.com. What's really weird is how genuinely amusing the spots by Venables Bell & Partners turned out, given the potential for disaster inherent in mixing elements from cut-rate cable-TV commercials, porn come-ons (it's only a pun if you think it is) and Chiller Theater-type programs. It probably works because the cues are immediately (almost subliminally) familiar to generations of comedy fans, so combining them to promote a site that houses humor clips feels perfectly natural. In others words: If you get the campaign, there's a strong chance you'll also enjoy the programming it promotes. Personally, I found the host's passing resemblance to Kenny "Footloose" Loggins circa 1981 exceptionally weird. His sidekick was just annoying. With her phony Euro-accent, slinky get-up and litany of faux-fetishes, she seems more like a representative of the PR industry than a sexcapades mansion.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on July 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Gianatasio, HBO, Venables, Bell & Partners

Branson helps bring HBO cartoon to Virgin1

Richard Branson is showing up all over the place in Virgin's advertising lately. After playing the homeless-looking baggage handler in that love-tunnel spot for Virgin Trains, the company CEO now stars in this animated clip for The Life & Times of Tim, the HBO show that will premiere soon on the Virgin1 network in the U.K. If this spot is any indication, the cartoon stretches Family Guy-style "awkward conversation" jokes for episodes at a time. And Branson fits right in, going incognito as a Mexican stereotype in an effort to evaluate the standard of competitors' airlines. So, of course Tim confuses him with Diego, a male stripper with a huge dong. Which is an honest mistake, given that Branson once parachuted into Times Square wearing a nude suit to promote a cell phone.

—Posted by David Kiefaber

Published on June 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Filed under HBO, Kiefaber, Virgin

Real brands target vampires for 'True Blood'

True Blood, the HBO vampire series that kicks off its second season next month, has embarked on a marketing blitz. And while its ill-fated Bloodcopy adver-blog deal with Gawker Media has gotten most of the headlines, its banner ads, in which real brands (Mini, Ekco, Geico, Harley-Davidson, Monster.com) reach out to vampires, are pretty amusing. Note I said "vampires" and not "the living dead," to make a distinction between the fang gang and the rest of the generally mindless media-consuming population (myself included, naturally). One ad shows a blood-red Mini and the headline "Type GO," with the "Type" and "O" rendered in crimson. It's hemoglobin humor! Harley offers a TrueBlood motorcycle that helps vampires "Outrun the sun." And yes, the humor continues in that same—you know what's coming—vein in the other ads. (Geico's Kash also appears, but even with the vampire motif, he doesn't "Count" for much.) It's all in fun, which is good, because the demographically insignificant vampire population wouldn't do much to boost sales overall. Though vampire brand loyalty is legendary, often stretching for a thousand years. If nothing else, this may mark the first time blood-suckers have been both the targets and creators of an ad campaign.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on May 28, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Geico, Gianatasio, Harley-Davidson, HBO

Turns out it's not that great to work for HBO

To promote season three of Big Love (theme: "Everyone has something to hide"), HBO today outfitted 150 actors with embarrassing thought bubbles above their heads and sent them out into the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago. The messages represented "their innermost thoughts, desires and secrets," according to the press materials. In addition to the one shown here, other bubbles read, "My wife thinks I'm straight" and "I wasn't born with this nose." Some observers probably thought these poor people were suffering through some kind of court-ordered punishment/therapy. Anyone who approached got the real story—in so many words. The actors "were instructed to 'keep their secrets to themselves' and not speak with passersby. If asked about their signs, they would silently distribute a piece of collateral with tune-in messaging and be on their way." The guerrilla campaign was conceptualized by New York's Civic Entertainment Group. Check out the companion Web site here. Big Love returns to HBO on Jan. 18.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

Published on January 14, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)
Filed under Guerrilla, HBO, Nudd

'Sopranos' does pretty well on election map

Venables Bell & Partners created this election-themed ad touting Tuesday's release of the complete-series DVD set of HBO's The Sopranos. On the map, Obama and McCain are represented by blue and red. They haven't won a state, but the show, represented by black, has run the board. Maybe the agency should have gone with some other color—any other color—to brighten things up. How about plaid? Gangsters like plaid, right? Look, there was no reason to attempt a Sopranos election tie-in. It was more of a stretch than Ralph Nader's third-party candidacy.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Published on November 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (4)
Filed under Gianatasio, HBO, Venables, Bell & Partners