Blogbook

Thistles and Thorns is a fairytale about the adventures of a young girl called Assata trying to bring magic back to the Garden of Sisterhood.

Power is Power is a tie in single by SZA, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott about everyone’s favourite tv show, Game of Thrones. Via io9:

The only thing Game of Thrones’ last season was lacking was, let’s be real, a great tie-in album, and now it’s got one. For the Throne, out now, is an album full of songs inspired by Game of Thrones, and now the lead single has a stylish music video.

“Power Is Power,” by SZA, The Weeknd, and Travis Scott, is an emotive, immediately catchy song about the competition for the throne. It captures a bit of the same vibe as “Pray For Me” off of the Black Panther album, and it captures a similar sort of fantastical grandeur.

Life and Love in Advertising as told through a series of ads is a short film by director Ben Callner, whose Superbowl spot Goat 4 Sale was highly regarded. Via Adweek:

What happens when you successfully crash the Super Bowl? For 10 years, Doritos offered aspiring commercial directors the chance at Big Game ad glory, with tens of thousands applying for one of the brand’s Super Bowl ad slots.

Ben Callner was one of the chosen few from Crash the Super Bowl, and his spot “Goat 4 Sale” (which you can revisit below) ended up being one of 2013’s top-ranked spots in polls like the USA Today Ad Meter.

The ad’s success did usher in a strong career for the Callner Brothers—Ben and producer sibling Adam—but it also locked in a reputation for them as slapstick comedy creators.

“After the Doritos ad, I was the goat guy for a year,” Ben Callner says. “A lot of comedy directors, you start to get pigeon-holed and put in a box.

Jeff Bridges is an actual bridge in this strange if funny Amstel ad, which was created by Adam & Eve/DDB for the Heineken-owned beer company. Via B&T:

In a role he was born to play, actor Jeff Bridges has been turned into an actual bridge for Heineken-owned beer brand Amstel’s latest ad campaign.

The strange but humorous spot, “Bridges on bridges”, was created by Adam & Eve/DDB and features a larger than life version of Bridges quite literally bridged in an Amsterdam canal, acting as a path for pedestrians and cyclists.

As the actor reaches to pick up a huge pint of Amstel, he muses on how bridges can bring people together: “Amsterdam. The ‘dam. A city where togetherness is king. And why do you think that is? Bridges, man. And I should know because, well, I’m Jeff Bridges.” He continues: “You see, a bridge is not just a physical structure that connects two places – they allow people to come together, find common ground and literally bridge their differences. They’re powerful things, man. So, from the city of bridges, here’s to togetherness.”

The ad will debut on TV across the UK and Europe and will also run in cinemas and on video-on-demand and digital platforms.

Amstel is also planning a PR campaign based on the role pubs play in bringing people together in the UK.

Heineken brand director Nic Casby said: “We really wanted a campaign that would get the brand talked about.

“With Amsterdam, the brand’s home city, having plenty of famous cultural connotations, the initial discussions with the agency were about which of these could work to create something brave and culturally relevant.”

If you’re wondering why Jeff Bridges + beer feels familiar, yeah, the Dude was recently in a Stella ad.

Amstel is a Dutch brewery that was founded in 1870 on the Mauritskade in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was taken over in 1968 by Heineken. After the brewing plant closed in 1982, production moved to the main Heineken plant at Zoeterwoude. Interested in discussing beer campaigns like this one? You can reach us here.

Watch Rilakkuma and Kaoru on Netflix, a surprisingly bleak slice of life stop motion animation about working class life in Japan. Yes, we thought it was cute too, up until Kaoru swiftly gets a pay cut in the first ep and is abandoned by her friends. Via Gizmodo:

No one ever stops to ask why Kaoru’s roommates-slash-pets are plush animals that only communicate in adorable little chirps—nor do we learn of some grand origin story of how they came to be, although a later flashback episode covers how Kaoru first met them. Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma, and Kiiroitori just are, and the world of Rilakkuma and Kaoru is fine with that. It’s a classically cozy fantasy—a hazy mix of the absurd and the mundane. The closest thing to an existential threat on Rilakkuma and Kaoru isn’t a mad alien with a love of costume jewelry that can decimate life with the snap of a finger, but the fact that Kaoru’s apartment building is being demolished, and the gang needs to move out and find a new place that’s within her budget.

The first faked photograph — by the true inventor of photography, an amateur French tinkerer named Hippolyte Bayard, made in protest. Via the Nonist:

This photograph, shot in 1840 and titled Self Portrait as a Drowned Man, is not of a drowned man, and if it had been it would be far less interesting or important. This humble image, so far as anyone knows, can claim all of the following honorifics- First instance of intentional photographic fakery. First photographic practical joke. First use of a photograph as propaganda / protest. And, quite possibly, a result of the world’s first reliable photographic process, direct positive or otherwise.

The image was shot by (and pictures) one Hippolyte Bayard. He was a French civil servant who, in his spare time, happened to invent his own method of reliably capturing photographic images on paper; an interesting fact considering, at the time, none other was known to exist, anywhere.

Hippolyte Bayard is not exactly a household name is it? More of a “buried in an unknown ditch on the other side of the Earth, who knows when or why, and basically forgotten” kind of name. It might have been otherwise, and during his lifetime, Mr. Bayard was well aware of that fact.

As it happens, after inventing his direct positive photographic process, Hippolyte was visited by one François Arago, who convinced him, using who knows what logic, to postpone making an announcement of his find to the French Academy of Sciences. As it turns out François Arago was a close personal pal of another fellow, who shortly thereafter made his own presentation to the members of the Académie des Sciences, by the name of Louis Daguerre. Ever heard of him? Yeah, thought so.

Old Town Road is the surprise viral hit of 2019, partly due to the instant controversy that was sparked when Billboard removed it from its country charts. Via Pitchfork:

Atlanta rapper Lil Nas X is the country-trap star who never was. His viral hit, “Old Town Road,” was removed last week from Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart, after just one week there. But it remains on the Hot 100 chart and the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

First came ire from Nashville types—“‘Old Town Road’ is no more country than the Beastie Boys’ ‘High Plains Drifter,’” wrote Saving Country Music on March 23—before Billboard put its boot down. “Upon further review, it was determined that ‘Old Town Road’ by Lil Nas X does not currently merit inclusion on Billboard’s country charts,” Billboard said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “When determining genres, a few factors are examined, but first and foremost is musical composition. While ‘Old Town Road’ incorporates references to country and cowboy imagery, it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music to chart in its current version.”

The aftermath of this decision has prompted fierce debate about what is and isn’t country, bringing up longstanding questions about where black artists are allowed to exist on the charts. Black country stars like Darius Rucker, Kane Brown, and Jimmie Allen may be thriving, but the whitewashing of the genre is well documented. Just last year, Rucker and Brown became the first pair of minorities to follow each other with No. 1 country songs in the 28-year history of the Billboard Country Airplay chart.

This hilarious ad for Ladder involves Arnold Schwartzenegger and LeBron James with their duelling gym playlists… and a muted Coachella guy. Via Adweek:

If you don’t know that Ladder was founded by an eclectic group of A-listers—Arnold Schwarzenegger, LeBron James, Cindy Crawford and Lindsey Vonn—you might wonder how a supplement startup could afford the kind of ad it just dropped.

But obviously it’s a challenger brand with star power to spare, so it’s not all that surprising that one of the company’s first ads would feature Schwarzenegger and James in an odd and somewhat nonsensical playlist battle at the gym.

The ad opens on a truly (and intentionally) annoying gym bro loudly describing his life-changing experience at Coachella, when Schwarzenegger decides to mute him with some music. Soon, King James gets involved, with some motivational backup from DJ Khaled. The spot might not be the most towering feat of creativity you’ll see this week, but it’s effective in leveraging the massive cachet of the celebs behind the brand—and helps it stand out in a crowded field of protein providers.

The ad also gives us a sense of what to expect from Ladder, which launched in November 2018 as a subscription-focused supplements brand with its star owners front and center. Pushing back from some of the long-running hype around supplements, the company has geared much of its early marketing to the message that “there is no magic pill” and that its products only work for those willing to put in the physical effort as well.

John Leguizamo’s Pepsi ad follows him through his day as he’s late to his show. You may remember John from films like Ice Age and John Wick. Via PR Newswire:

During tonight’s Billboard Latin Music Awards telecast on Telemundo, Pepsi will premiere a new national television advertisement starring award-winning actor John Leguizamo. The commercial follows John throughout his day, while he overcomes mini obstacles on his way to his evening curtain call – highlighting his resilient personality and encouraging others to defy hurdles to reach their dreams. Pepsi will also bring an exclusive Latin music concert series to life through Billboard En Vivo, giving fans special access to their favorite artists this summer.

In addition to partnering with Telemundo and Billboard around the award show, Pepsi is partnering for the first time with Billboard for the fourth year of its En Vivo concert series taking place across Los Angeles, Miami and New York this summer. The series will celebrate Latin music and give passionate fans a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see chart-topping artists live at a series of exclusive shows, brought to you by Pepsi. More details on the concert series and ways to win your way in will be available later in the season via Pepsi’s social channels.

“I was thrilled when Pepsi approached me to star in their new commercial,” said John Leguizamo. “I especially love the message we’re sending to our fans through the spot… which is that no matter what type of obstacle or doubt comes your way – big or small – if you stick to your passion and listen to your own voice, you can get one step closer to living out your dreams.”

Pepsi has had an interesting week, what with CNN reporting on its lawsuit against Indian farmers for planting their patented potatoes without permission. Did you know that potatoes could be patented? Neither did we.

The reason Boeing’s new 737 Max planes crashed twice, as explained by Vox: an ongoing Boeing scandal that seems to be getting buried. Via Vox:

Boeing executives are offering a simple explanation for why the company’s best-selling plane in the world, the 737 Max 8, crashed twice in the past several months, leaving Jakarta, Indonesia, in October and then Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in March. Executives claimed on March 27 that the cause was a software problem — and that a new software upgrade fixes it.

But this open-and-shut version of events conflicts with what diligent reporters in the aviation press have uncovered in the weeks since Asia, Europe, Canada, and then the United States grounded the planes.

The story begins nine years ago when Boeing was faced with a major threat to its bottom line, spurring the airline to rush a series of kludges through the certification process — with an underresourced Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) seemingly all too eager to help an American company threatened by a foreign competitor, rather than to ask tough questions about the project.

The specifics of what happened in the regulatory system are still emerging (and despite executives’ assurances, we don’t even really know what happened on the flights yet). But the big picture is coming into view: A major employer faced a major financial threat, and short-term politics and greed won out over the integrity of the regulatory system. It’s a scandal.