Brilliant ad

This is a brilliant ad, in both visual design and message.

Readers of Boing Boing or cnoocy will know the punchline already, but if you don't, take a look at this version that I've intentionally shrunk so that its smaller text is illegible.



We have:

Lonely looking guy wasting a perfectly good party-night in front of a computer

Stark, scratchy typeface labeling him as a basement-dwelling elf-pretender

Amber-colored smudge in the corner that's clearly the logo for the product being sold

So it's probably a beer ad, right? With the tiny text saying something along the lines of "Don't be a pathetic loser like this guy; get out, drink [Foo] and get laid", right?

Nope: full image link.

Not only is it simply clever, but any gamer who first encounters it (even in full-sized print, I'll wager) will initially assume it's a setup for a sarcastic attack on their lifestyle (whether or not they're MMORPG players per se) in order to sell its thing, and it ends up in a loving embrace. (In order to sell its thing.) Holy crap. Give its designers 10d20 GP.

"Fever Pitch" (U.S. version) micro-review

Meh: romantic comedy; meh: "normal" people; meh: women incapable of conversation topics among themselves besides men. (I am being strict counting a (male) boss and a father as "men" here, but that was only one brief conversation apiece. Everything else was husbands & boyfriends, real & potential, which is all that movie-women usually ever have to talk to each other about.)

Kind of unfair because duh I knew it would be a romantic comedy and the latter two meh are formulaic elements thereof. I wanted to see it anyway because E&R loved it (though I find myself listening only to E these days, because R lately strikes me a total ass). I liked it for the same reasons they did, depicting how a truefan's obsession can get in the way of romance, especially when said fan can no longer walk away from it than he could his religion. Which is to say: he could, and many movies would take the easy love-conquers-all route, but this one doesn't play it like that, and it works. I guess. Speaking as one who hates romantic comedies. Which this was.

And I liked all the Boston stuff of course (loved the establishing shot of the old Hancock reflected in the new one; I mean, I see exactly that every time I ride the Red Line but it's neat to see it in a movie as a visual shorthand for "we are in Boston now"), and all the Red Sox stuff. There were some nice carefully researched bits, my favorite being the male lead's ballcap. He never talks about it but it's clearly his years-old lucky cap, just as you'd find atop real-life hard-core fans. It's filthy -- there are deep salt stains on it in mid-summer -- and according to jhango the "B" logo on it is old-style, without a white border. (His friends sitting beside him wear newer caps, as a clue to the viewer.)

Bonus meh for multiple "ball washer" jokes and uncomfortable-gay-moment jokes. Oh you Farrelly brothers, you couldn't help yourselves, could you. Minus half-a-meh for a great blooper reel, and the DVD's inclusion of the film's original ending, where the Sox lose. (We didn't watch it. Minutes later, the Sox won their game against Toronto iRL. Coincidence??)

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I am reminded that I really want to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which from all that I understand is an entirely un-formulaic romantic comedy. And therefore might not even be a romantic comedy even if it's funny and there's a romantic relationship as its driving force. I also have the intriguing comment from temvald that the main character in that one (Jim Carrey in one of his "no really it's not a Jim Carrey movie" roles (yeah, speaking of the Farrellys) (I think also I'm conflating him with Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love here but who's counting)) is reminiscent of me. Were I in that situation, anyway.