The ad industry percieved from the outside/in film/books
Submitted by monkchild on Tue, 12/13/2005 - 10:08.
In the Keanu Reeves/Charlize Theron version of "Sweet November" that johndoom mentions above, Keanu is an ambitious ad man who is so into his work he has no time for anything else, except maybe working out. There are a couple of scenes where you see him first pitch to a client, in a kind of intense humorous over-the-top manner, and then meet with an Exec (played with sinister glee by the always sinister Frank Langella) after Keanu got fired for the pitch! WHOA! johndoom quite correctly states that this movie is not worth your time.
Darrin Stephens, from ABC*s "Bewitched," is Television*s best known fictional ad man, and he was seen more as a nebbish who stumbled into ideas, at least in the Dick Sargent years. Samantha came up with nearly as many pitches as he did, based on some use of her magic. This, during the Madison Avenue days.
A Lesser known character in the biz was a fellow named Herb Tarlek, who simply SOLD advertising for WKRP, a FM Album Rock radio station in Cincinnati, OH. Again, here, Herb was seen as a little bit oily in relation to the rest of the cast.
I think, more often than not, advertising people are seen as, if not specifically evil, morally reprehensible people, at least when you*re talking about film. Themes of greed, trickery and lying come into play.
I wonder why that is?
Technorati Tags: 
Hello.
I*m writing a paper where I*m planning to investigate how the ad industry is portrayed and percieved from a mainstream point of view. How is the ad instutry portrayed in films? In books? In TV series? At dinner table conversations? If you know any mediums in which the ad industry is shown would you please list them?
I*ve already looked at the book caleld Up The Agency, the book E by Matt Beaumont (funny satire). Didn*t the characters in Melrose Place work at an ad agency? Donny Deutch and his TV programme. Jay Chiat*s condo in Hip New York Apartments (book).
That kind of stuff.
Thanks in advance.
Yep, Melrose place some people work at an agency.... Alison starts in reception, ends up a copywriter (or something..?) then two seasons later heads up the Hong Kong office as CEO .. (doing everything from scouting, accounting and art buying in between - who knows what she was supposed to be title-wise in that agency..)
Then there is the recent Mel Gibson film "what women want", and Sabrinas daddy in Bewitched (both of them - haha) worked at an ad agency. The 80s film with Daryl Hannah "crazy people" (i think) showed loonies creating succesful campaigns like the one for volvo "It*s boxy" - a play on truth in advertising and quite possibly a wink to Bernbachs VW moonlander ad "It*s ugly but it gets you there".
In North By Nortwest Cary Grant is an ad exec but we never see him work really, and another classic film is The Hucksters from 1947 link here where Clark Gable finds the aed industry really cut throat as he tries to climb the career ladder.
"E" is a really truthful book by the way, satire sure, but oh boy is it like that at (most) London agencies. Honestly.
I*ll probably think of a few more later, I know I*ve seen more ad related films. ChinChin.
woot, I just thought of another recnt one that I can*t remember the title of - Rachel from friends (name escapes me right now) works at a NYC agency and in order to get promoted she needs to fake her life, pretending to be engaged to get married etc..
They have brainstorming meetings with the entire agency (and not just the creative dept) in this film, something I*ve never witnessed in real life, but hey I never worked in NYC maybe that*s how they do things. Again, what each person is working as at the agency is really difficult to gather - creatives (Copywriter or art director) or account exec? In movies these tend to be the same thing.
Thanks for your reply, some good insights poppin* into my mind already.
And I agree, E is so truthful - great book. Beaumont is a copywriter, I suspect?
Yeah I think Matt was a CW - maybe he even modelled most of those emails on real inter-office emails! Hahaah!
He wrote another gbook that I haven*t had time to pick up yet, forget the name now, have you read it/heard of it/seen it? (searching on matts name at amazon.co.uk will bring the second book up, I would link but I*mon a terrible slow modem connection right now, sorry),,,
Wasn*t Angela on "Who*s the Boss" an account executive or something?
Mr. Mom sort of shows how a campaign for canned tuna happens.
A search on imdb.com turns up Advertising Rules- a German comedy about advertising.
How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Bosom Buddies
Don Rickles Show, The (1972)
On Our Own - seems like it was a short lived tv show in 1977. I*ve never heard of it though.
One Day at a Time -Ann Romano, the mom, worked at an ad agency.
Alice Blue - Canadian film.
Beer- I*ve never heard of this one. It*s from 1985. Some semi-big hollywood names for the time are in it.
Boomerang- lead character is an AE.
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Picture Perfect- Think this is the one Dab was talking about with that chicky from Friends.
IMDB has more here too...here too.
_________________
Cup of Java- strong, full-bodied, and freshly brewed.
mymy, good digging. Can*t believe I forgot Bosom Buddies - it falls in the "so bad it*s kinda good" funny-pile. I mean, sheesh, Tom Hanks in drag, faaantastic. Plus, their ad (creative director?) boss gal is a hoot. And so is their pitching on a mouthwater campaign. Teehee.
note Both Tom and his roomate play "copywriters/creatives" straight out of uni-school with very bad pay, just like in real life! wink
and oh yeah, Angela was an AE in CT..... I can*t believe I*ve watched this much crap TV... lol
lol I watched it all too. I guess it*s ok though, we were young and didn*t know any better. wink
don*t forget the classic How To Get Ahead in Advertising with Richard Grant
http//www.imdb.com/title/tt0097531/
Ok.. Don*t laugh but I actually have an episode of 30-something that was shot inside Chiat/Day Venice since one of the characters worked as an ad-man. (Creative Director I suspect). It*s in my old CD backups (used to be in the archive 1998-1999-2000 but moved) somewhere and I can go hunting for it after my vacation when I return to the office. I hope it*s not on the damaged CD.....
Yes, I agree with that, but how could you forget BOUSHI BOUSHI? o man thats the greatest. i watch it and eat avocados and fuer fuer. hahahaha. i love elfischlegel and al flishlegel. don*t you? cheese. bums. brains. perps. love. mermaids. eat. sleep. drive. cheap. COWS. adgrunt. flasho. basho. lingo. poop. onion. dog. hydrogen. gas. grin confused cool cry evil eek frown lol mad razz oops rolleyes smile wink smile rolleyes oops razz mad lol frown evil eek cry cool confused grin parrot. rum. viola. love always, me. i fell under your spell and went to hell. can*t u tell? cuz i smell. but i love mel.
BUMS.
_________________
Fuer Fuer!!!!! But i really love boushi boushi. Avacados! Guacamole! Elfischelgel. ennis fannoose!!
Lay off the spraymount. Seriously.
oh dear, nobody mentioned Crazy people yet!
"Volvo Boxy but safe" is a homage to "VW Ugly but it gets you there"
Matt Beaumont*s second novel was also a real hoot, and set in an agency again - it was called something like "The Book, The Film, The T-shirt" and focuses on amongst other things, the relationship between an agency (and all of the dysfunctional characters that we all know so well) and the client (in this case, a Tyre Manaufactuerer), complete with all of the quirky and insidious client-side players.
His latest novel is called Staying Alive - again really funny - in this he tries to get inside of the head of a *suit* who after years of *bag carrying* gets diagnosed with cancer (yeah, I know - it sounds really funny, not), however the story focuses on this guy deciding what*s important and how he is going to *live every day as if it*s his last* - another good *flight read* book from Matt.
BTW - he says that his biggest claim to fame as an ad creative is that he*s been fired by more ad agencies than anyone else he*s ever known.........
Wasn*t the second book only available to download? Or has it gone into "proper" print yet? I wanted to read it but I wasn*t up to printing out an enitre book to read. (yeah lazy).
Dab- no one mentioned Crazy People? Wow. We must have just assumed that it was as it*s such a basic and classic. grin
Was Bewitched mentioned?
The Book, the film, the T-shirt is in print - blue cover, clapperboard and a chimp on the cover if I remember correctly smile
Caffeinegoddess, check out
amazon link
_________________
Today is history, tomorrow
Ah! cheers. smile
I was thinking of "The e Before Christmas". That one is download only.
Advertising, it seems, is a profession you have your movie character involved in if you want to indicate that he/she is an outwardly cocky but inwardly farked up person whose life is missing a richness and depth that can only be found by
a) leaving advertising and doing some thing worthy/redemptive (Cuba Gooding Jr sets up a gospel choir in The Fighting Temptations, Danny deVito starts teaching army recruits in Renaissance Man)
or b) (more commonly) finding lurve. In addition to the list of "romantic" "comedies" (my inverted commas) on the previous page we can add White Palace (surely all slick ad execs should be played by James Spader?) and Sweet November in which Keanu realises the true worth of life outside his ad career when he meets terminally ill Charlize Theron.
Incidentally, all of the above movies are absolute crap, with the exception of White Palace which I kinda like.
God, we are, like SO misunderstood...