Mr.
Matt
Spangler

American Airlines Goes Up In The Air

Because of her job at ABC, my brothers wife Yvonne gets Academy screeners each year around the holidays. Last weekend we watched Up In The Air which comes out on Christmas. Mid-movie my brother wondered aloud how much American and Hilton had spent for a partnership with the film because of the incredible amount of logo placements throughout the movie.

There is an article today in Ad Age that covers the placement and dicusses how actually no money was exchanged but in fact each brand traded the exposure for no production costs on the usage of the facilities (airports, hotels, planes etc).

At the end of the day the formula for success with brands in this manner is the carefully crafted balance of art vs. commerce.  This partnership works because they aligned themselves with a Oscar caliber film and the nature of George Clooney’s character allows for the plausible integration based on how intrinsic the brands are to his characters self-worth. They are currently measuring the halo effect through social media and receiving positive feedback but since the message of the film is actually one of renewed connection to home and family and the displacement of the road-warrior, I wonder if it will provide the long term ROI they are hoping for.

The 90 Minute Movie

I just saw Where The Wild Things Are with my brother and his wife.  It was beautiful and I enjoyed it but I didn’t really connect with it (its a movie stuck between ages) and I felt it was 20 minutes too long.  I feel that way a lot and for the past few years I have been railing against movie length to anyone who will listen for most of my adult life. Movies over two hours are self-indulgent ego driven junk and I essentially have stopped watching films longer then that time frame and have can’t recall a single film longer then 90 minutes that I felt couldn’t have been better at 90 minutes or less.

So I was happy to stumble upon my friend Noah’s post sharing the sentiment on his site and linking to a commentary in Esquire.  Good to see I’m not alone on this one.  I am working on a personal project which I hope to launch before the end of this year that deals with this specific issue. Stay tuned.

A Michael Bay Audition

I guess this kinda redefines the whole Hollywood “casting couch” thing.

via robots:

Talking to Megan Fox who was in town for the Transformers 2 premiere, I found her more forthright and intelligent than her performance in the mega-hit would suggest. The role demands that she drapes herself over motorbikes and runs around in a vest. How did she get the part which has made her what lads’ mags call the “hottest girl on the planet”. She told me she went to director Michael Bay’s house to audition and he made her wash his Ferrari while he filmed her. She said she didn’t know what had happened to that footage. When I put it to Bay himself, he looked suitably abashed. “Er, I don’t know where it is either.”

via The Observer