Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with commercials

What do commercial actors get paid?

arm426 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:53:05 -0800

What do actors in nationally televised commercials typically get paid? Do they get paid each time it airs or a flat fee up front? An example: An actor in a Flomax commercial...he's on TV probably once every hour--if he's getting paid per air, he's probably raking it in...I just have absolutely no context for what he'd get paid. I guess if people know how the salary might differ for just voiceover, that'd be helpful too.

Willie or Won't He?

quelindo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:51:26 -0800

What are some examples of racism [subtle, or not-so-subtle] in advertising? I am aware of some of the web results, but I would like more examples. Recent adverts appreciated.

Does anybody remember this beer commercial?

LDL707 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:24:38 -0800

Apologies in advance for the lack of details. I'm trying to find a beer commercial from, probably, about ten years ago. It said something to the effect of, "we've never sent a man to the moon. we've never cured a disease. we just make beer, but we do it well. pursue your passion." Does anybody remember seeing this? Do you know what beer it was for? Do you have a link to it on YouTube?

Help Me Move From Pro Tools To Logic Without Losing My Mind!!!

2oh1 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:59:48 -0800

ProAudioFilter! Help a long-time Pro Tools user switch to Logic. My major concern is audio EDITING more than creating. Bonus Question: I have Logic Pro 8 and I'm considering upgrading to 9 if it's worth it. Is it? I've done quite a bit of searching online, but most of what I find is focussed on creating songs with Logic (which makes sense). I'm trying to learn editing. For example, here's a typical project for me: Let's say I'm creating a :30 commercial for an upcoming concert. I already have dry voicework, some sound effects and four songs to be used in the spot, plus various other audio stuff.

I'm really dying here as I try to work in Logic's edit window.

How did you make the leap from Pro Tools to Logic? Where can I find info that will help me make sense of this different way of doing things? I'm really excited about using Logic, but wow am I frustrated too.

Vespa!

Misciel — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:02:52 -0800

I'm looking for a video of an Italian vespa commercial from the early 60s (probably aired on the show Carosello), which featured the scooters driven by the boys and all the girls sitting side-saddle behind them. It had snappy music that was punctuated every few seconds by the single lyric "Ves-PA!" (The commercial I'm looking for isn't this one... It was instead made earlier and the kids should be dressed more formally.) Can you help me find it?? Thanks!!

Can you help me spot the spots?

HostBryan — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:49:59 -0800

Could you help me identify some commercials my girlfriend found to be adorable? I was wondering if the hive mind could help me figure out what two advertisements from a couple years ago were and what they promoted. My girlfriend thought they were adorable and has been asking if I can find them on Youtube, but I haven't had much luck.

Both commercials, I believe, were for banks or some other kind of financial service. The first featured a group of windup birds marching in unison towards and into a hole while a background singer crooned "Follow the crowd, follow the crowd!" One of the birds breaks away and finds happiness and fulfillment with whatever the ad was selling.

The second was an ad featuring a "cutout" of a piggy bank (it lacked fine detail but was red or pink and had white outlines, slot, and eyes). The piggy bank rolled around past various numbers and percentages. It may or may not have gotten bigger. I have seen similar ads for HSBC, so I think it could be associated with that company.

Know that finding these ads will bring joy to a lovely young woman. I appreciate your effort in advance.

Yes, fine, I'll even take Baywatch.

Netzapper — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:05:44 -0800

I need a reasonable quality video stream captured from recent US network television, with the commercials still in it. Oh, and no subtitles. And, actually, maybe more than one, if that's possible. The usual pirates, you see, conveniently strip the commercials. I need some US television as a data sample to train an algorithm. Specifically, I'm interested in segments of video that include transition to commercial (with a good chunk on either side). The higher the encoded quality of standard definition video, the better; I can't use high-def captures.

Flash video streams with web commercials are no good for my purposes--and, really, Flash videos are generally too badly encoded to work even if they're raw TV. The ideal video would be a raw MythTV DVR capture of live sports or a primetime 1-hour drama. The motherload would be about half a dozen of these. Cherry-like toppings might include having been edited to remove all but about 1 minute on either side of each commercial break, being encoded in h.264/MPEG-4part10(or whatever) and being contained in an .mp4, and instant delivery so I can soon achieve Maximal Productivity Status--my skin turns blue and my eyes laser-emitting at this power level.

Or, if you're familiar with MythTV: what's the format of the file? Is there a chance I could convince google to bring me hits from people's unlocked webserver/DVR uberputers?

I appreciate any suggestions.

I really don't know what to put here for this...

Mastercheddaar — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:19:02 -0800

My favorite beer commercial ever... I remember it but can't find it. Ok, this was a few years ago. Think mid 90s maybe. This commercial I believe was for a lower level beer like miller high life or maybe Milwaukee's best. Anyways the commercial starts with a curly blond haired floating guy's head floating down a beach talking about poetry. He sees a young couple on the beach setting up a picnic with the beer. The head floats on over and asks nicely for one. The girl freaks out and starts running. The guy grabs an umbrella and starts poking the head with it. This results in the head "head butting" the guy into the beach.

That is the commercial. I would like it if someone could say "Hey I remember that too!" I would love it if someone would say "go here!" My google fu has failed me. I need a great master of the arts to find it for me. Help me Metafilter you are my only hope.

I don't know why, but I really want to see this ad again

dreamphone — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:07:07 -0800

Can you help me find a specific Wendy's commercial? (Not the banned one, and certainly not the "where's the beef" one.) A couple of years ago, Wendy's ran a commercial of a bunch of office workers standing around while someone hands out the lunches they bought at Wendy's. The gist of the commercial is that one of the guys tries to float a new tagline or possibly nickname for himself by yelling out "Spi-cy!!" After gamely asking him to try it again, a fellow unimpressed employee tells him: "still terrible."

I've searched Google and YouTube with the search terms "Wendy's" + "spicy" + "still terrible" and other combos with no success. Anyone have any idea where I can find this one?

Commercila music ID with no details

xmutex — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:47:46 -0800

Music in a commercial: can't remember the commercial or the artist. Futile! Help? Can't remember the commercia or the artist, but the song's been in my head. It's just an almost looping bass line, sort of noisy/fuzzy. I _think_ the band/artist had either the word Book or Reading in the name/moniker. Maybe some kind of folksy experimental little band/artist from... the midwest or something? I know, this is totally vague. Any ideas? It was a few years ago.

Vintage Total Cereal Commercials

JJ Jenkins — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 01:05:35 -0800

Where can I find an old school commercial of "other" cereal bowls in which they compare how many bowls it takes to equal the nutrition in ONE BOWL of Total? I've found the spoons and all the other stuff on Youtube. I want to see it! It's for work. Thanks.

All politics is a multidimensional lexial space; and also local.

metaculpa — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:37:31 -0800

Where can I access transcripts of currently running political ads and/or political speeches? I'd like to set up a semi-automated system to look at similarities between candidate talking points and political ads run by "non-affiliated" groups. But I need to get access to a set of transcripts of these political ads and speeches. I assume I can get the speeches from Lexis-Nexis, to which I have access. But does anyone know of a reasonable source for transcripts of political ads?

Thanks!

Indie songs in TV commercials

ClaudiaCenter — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 09:28:38 -0800

Indie songs in commercials? I'm trying to remember all of the indie songs used in TV commercials over the past 5 or so years. Like: Nick Drake, Pink Moon (Volkswagon); Hem, Half Acre (some kind of insurance); Ingrid Michaelson, The Way I Am (Old Navy?). I know there are more. A Richard Bruckner song? Maybe Keren Ann's One Day Without?

Especially where the song is not super well-known before the commercial. (So Natasha Bedingfield in the Pantene commercial is not exactly the same thing.)

"Me and My Dog" song in a tv commercial

beachplum — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:52:36 -0800

There's a tv commercial that I can't get out of my head! I think it was for heartworm med. There's a little girl singing, "me and my dog. . ." It describes all of the fun things they do together. I think she was a redhead. It hasn't been on in a few years. Does anyone else remember this?

Can't...stop...buying...

greytape — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:19:03 -0800

What would happen if we banned all advertising? Seems to me advertising does a lot of harm, making people buy stuff they don't need, want stuff they can't afford, and reinforcing ridiculous notions of what life should be like. So why don't we just ban it?
Has this ever been seriously considered or even attempted? What would the consequences be? Would there be a recession as demand fell through the floor? Many businesses (especially TV/Radio) would have to find new business models, but with the rise of new media these obstacles don't seem insurmountable. There's been a lot of talk about banning kids advertising/tobacco advertising, why don't we just go all the way?

What are soundalike songs in commercials and TV called?

anildash — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 15:02:31 -0800

What's the term of art for songs that are written to sound very similar to well-known or current pop songs? For example, lots of commercials and TV shows use backing songs which are clearly meant to evoke (rip off?) a song you already know and might hear on the radio. I'm interested in how people who produce commercials or TV shows ask artists to create these soundalikes. Bonus points if you've actually been involved in such a thing.

True love: better than coffee.

tzikeh — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:32:19 -0800

1980s series of commercials told a love story. No, not Taster's Choice. Help! There was a series of commercials in the 80s that I'm trying to remember. It was a love story that followed the lives of the characters over the years. I think it was either for a phone company or food. It was a classic campaign that everyone talked about and even admitted to tearing up... No, it wasn't Taster's Choice. (I remember that much.)

Television ad summaries

Kemayo — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:32:58 -0800

ResearchFilter: I'm looking for summaries of advertising content at different times of day on different television networks. To be useful, the summary should include what products were advertised. It would also be helpful if it included general descriptions of the ad content ("four white men in a coffee-shop talking about Product" sort of thing).

How does DirectTV keep creeping me out?

Roman Graves — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:48:41 -0800

How the fuck do they make those DirectTV ads? You know the ones, scenes culled from old movies but with the actor pitching DirectTV. The Wikipedia entry says "The original actors from these productions normally reprise their roles, and are inserted in using blue screen technology". Normally reprise them? What do they do the rest of the time? They look so good it seems like it has to be more than just make-up...or maybe I'm underestimating a simple make-up/cgi combo that thoroughly makes Charlie Sheen look twenty years younger. Does anyone know exactly what the process is?

Sayonara Cereal

Aghast. — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:48:13 -0800

I've been trying really hard to find this commercial for a long time with no luck. It is from the late nineties I think and it is most likely a cereal commercial. Description: A guy is eating cereal but his long hair keeps falling in the bowl, so he goes to the bathroom and bends over as if he's eating cereal. He cuts his hair so that it won't fall in bowl anymore. Then he goes back and eats cereal without hair in the way. The song playing in the background has lyrics that go: "The time has come for us to say 'sayonara.'" Anyone remember this? Have links to commercial or song? Any info would help.

Radio Free Amarillo?

Bud Dickman — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:01:54 -0800

How do these radio stations pay the bills? There are two AM radio stations here in Amarillo, Texas that I listen to regularly. One is a sports talk station, an ESPN affiliate. The other plays talk radio like Alan Colmes and Michael Savage.

On both of these stations, I never, ever hear a paid advertisement. All they ever play is Ad Council PSA's like for the "Energy Hog," giving blood, and so on.

Conversely, another local AM station is full of local commercials.

How do these stations stay in business? Do they receive any money for playing PSA's? Even if they are part of a corporation, like Clear Channel, it would seem impossible to have a radio station broadcasting 24 hours a day without revenue.

Also, even if their listenership isn't that large, it seems like they could sell cheap ads - which would be better than all PSA's, all the time.

grapevine in the big apple

twistofrhyme — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 09:01:57 -0800

NYC Film & Theater Makers' filter: please suggest online resources for finding out what's going on in NYC! I'm looking for secret resources for all the good stuff happening in NYC in the film, indie film, tv production, theatre, and improv/comedy circuit.

Seeking resources that are applicable to any of the following sub-groups: actors, comedians, writers, directors, and producers, all genders and all ethnic groups.

I already know about the Shooting People NY mailing list- I'm looking for more stuff like that. Newsletters, open casting bulletins, calls for submissions, mailing lists, audition calls, classes, networking events, etc. etc.

Thanks in advance!

J.C. Penny Ad Music?

rtimmel — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:55:24 -0800

i was just watching the Oscars and there was a J.C. Penny advertisement that I assume was brand new. Completely forgettable -- people doing things in J.C. Penny clothes -- except for the music. It sounded like the Degados: the female vocalist had their lilt of Emma Pollack and had their signature offbeat pacing. It was a great song and I was wondering if anyone knows what it was and who did it?

Look into my eyes...and explain this commercial

uva_nupe — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:03:30 -0800

Can someone explain the meaning/point of the Las Vegas commercial (i.e What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas) featuring the girlfriend and boyfriend visiting a psychic/fortune teller? The b/f is hesitant to get his fortune but the g/f insists and then he and the psychic have some kind of weird stare down with no words exchanged. I've tried googling with no luck.

SUPERBOWL COMMERCIALS

iphog — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:13:59 -0800

Can anyone help me find the order of Super Bowl commercials for the game Sunday?