Once upon a time people bought magazines even when they weren’t going to be on a plane. Most magazines took themselves very seriously, and in effect, most of them sucked. Recognizing an open niche, William Gaines set out to create a new kind of magazine — one that didn’t suck.
In honor of one of the greatest voices in satirical publishing, here are our 10 favorite spoof ads from Mad Magazine in the late 50s and early 60s.
The trailer for sci fi flick Branded just premiered at the San Diego Comic Con and it just went up online.
Crave Online describes it as “A bonkers combination of They Live, Inception, and some drug-inspired anime,” while the Facebook page for the movie calls it, “A dark and mind-bending sci-fi thriller into a surreal, dystopian society where mega corporations have unleashed a monstrous global conspiracy to get inside our minds and keep the population disillusioned, dependent and passive.”
In other words, it’s the real world + aliens. From what I’ve gathered, the film centers around a parody of McDonalds to illustrate the ill effects advertising can have on the human psyche. Personally, I can’t wait to see it! Although, since the whole premise seems to be “advertising is bad” I wouldn’t be surprised if the film fails to reach an audience, because, ya know, that’s how one would go about promoting the film. Oh the irony!
Branded hits theaters September 7th and stars Leelee Sobieski, Jeffrey Tambor, Ed Stoppard, and Max von Sydow.
And oh yeah, there are those annoying little QR codes strewn throughout the trailer. I haven’t tried them, but I bet they’ll lead you to some more content related to the film.
According to a report from Reuters, “Intel is counting on facial-recognition technology for targeted ads” that “doesn’t identify specific people, but it could provide general data about viewers’ gender or whether they’re adults or children to help target advertising.”
So, in case this isn’t clear, Intel is developing a set top box with a camera in it, pointed at you, the viewer. The video signal is then analyzed by facial recognition software running on the set top box, which then guesses your age, gender, and possibly other identifying markers to best customize your ad-viewing experience.
Sounds great, right?
Last week, a lot of announcements were made about NBC’s Thursday night comedies, specifically Community. First it was announced that they were picked up for a fourth season (yay), but later that it would only have an episode order of 13 instead of the usual 24 and it would be moved to Friday nights following Whitney. That certainly doesn’t seem like the move of a network that has faith in a show. Then, late last week, the studio that produces the show, Sony, announced that creator and showrunner Dan Harmon would no longer be in charge of the series but would have “creative input.” Harmon later stated on his personal blog that he was “fired.” Now, this is a huge blow to fans of Community, of which I am one, but moreover it’s a blow against people who watch and enjoy this type of show in this way. This is NBC taking a stand against smart television.
Looking back over the events of last week’s ROFLcon, the overarching theme seemed to be a concern for the future of Internet meme culture. At ROFLcon II two years ago, we were all concerned about the extent to which the internet was leaking. Today, with Keyboard Cat hawking pistachios on the teevee and Stephen Colbert referencing Anonymous, it’s clear that the ROFLsphere is going the way of Punk and Hip Hop. That is to say, it’s here to stay, but most of what you see has gone pop. But keep in mind, there are still good indie acts out there too!
So, in this post, I’ll briefly recount some of the better points made at various panels I attended.
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