Hardbopjazz Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 (edited) Pretty funny? Hum? http://snopes.com/photos/commercials/sportka.asp Edited April 29, 2004 by Hardbopjazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Man with the Golden Arm Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 oh man... check out the pigeon one as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claude Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 The pigeon movie is rather funny, although it would not have been necessary to demonstratively "kill" the pigeon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardbopjazz Posted April 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 The pigeon one was fuuny too, but the cat one was the best. This could never be shown on the air here in the US. Too many people would be up in arms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrome Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Holy Mission Impossible! This has already been causing much trouble for Ford. Ford Disavows Cat Decapitation Ad DEARBORN, Mich., April 18, 2004 “The action in the video clip was totally computer-generated, and we would like to assure you that no animal was harmed in its making.” statement by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide (AP) Ford Motor Co. is upset by the release of an Internet commercial that depicts a computer generated cat being decapitated, saying it didn't authorize the proposed ad or its release. The ad for the Sportka, a hatchback sold in Europe, shows the realistic-looking orange cat climbing on top of the car and curiously poking its head into the open moonroof, The Detroit News reported Sunday. The moonroof slides closed and the cat struggles briefly to escape before its headless body slides to the ground. Ford says the clip was conceived without its approval by ad agency Ogilvy & Mather as part of a viral marketing campaign for the Sportka. A type of e-mail marketing, viral marketing is the electronic version of word of mouth — usually inviting the recipients to forward an e-mail to others. “We find this unauthorized ad totally unacceptable and reprehensible and deplore the fact that it has been unofficially issued,” Ford spokesman Oscar Suris said. In a statement, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide said the unapproved and unofficial video clip was leaked April 1 and transmitted by e-mail around the world. The company said the ad wasn't sanctioned by Ogilvy or Ford. “Both companies find this unofficial advertisement totally unacceptable and reprehensible,” the statement said. “The action in the video clip was totally computer-generated, and we would like to assure you that no animal was harmed in its making.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Ol' Cat Shatner told me he's going to quit poking his head into sunroofs. OUCH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 “The action in the video clip was totally computer-generated, and we would like to assure you that no animal was harmed in its making.” statement by Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Ok, but you can see the cat's head falling off into the inside of the car. Some things are sick, but funny in the abstract. When you actually SEE them, they lose the humor that comes from the situation not REALLY happening. They become purely sick. Computer-genrated or not, this falls into that category for me. Just sick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Ok, but you can see the cat's head falling off into the inside of the car. Some things are sick, but funny in the abstract. When you actually SEE them, they lose the humor that comes from the situation not REALLY happening. They become purely sick. Computer-genrated or not, this falls into that category for me. Just sick. huh? I should think this falls into the abstract category. Monty Python-like exaggeration. No one in her right mind would think this was NOT computer generated in this time and age (people in Texas maybe... ). It's not in the depiction. If it's sick, it's the idea, the script, the arc. There is no gross tasteless bloodshed. It's all very factual. Maybe that pisses you up the wrong leg, the factualness of the story-telling, the way it enhances the impact of what's happening. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AfricaBrass Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Ok, but you can see the cat's head falling off into the inside of the car. Some things are sick, but funny in the abstract. When you actually SEE them, they lose the humor that comes from the situation not REALLY happening. They become purely sick. Computer-genrated or not, this falls into that category for me. Just sick. huh? I should think this falls into the abstract category. Monty Python-like exaggeration. No one in her right mind would think this was NOT computer generated in this time and age (people in Texas maybe... ). It's not in the depiction. If it's sick, it's the idea, the script, the arc. There is no gross tasteless bloodshed. It's all very factual. Maybe that pisses you up the wrong leg, the factualness of the story-telling, the way it enhances the impact of what's happening. I thought it was funny too, but I too see it in a Python-esque way. I also realize there are a lot of people who don't see it as surreal humor. I guess there's always at least three sides to every story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 All sick humor is sadisistic, but not all sadism is sick humor. An obnoxious SOB who gets decapitated by a sunroof, well, yeah, that's funny. A really whiny girlfriend or some such? Yeah, same thing. There, it would be setting up a revenge scenario that I could see the humor in. But a plain ol' cat? Sorry. Doesn't do it for me. If the cat had been set up to have been a really EVIL cat in someway, like clawing the upholstery or something like that, yeah, then I could laugh. But this poor little thing was just hanging out, jumped up on the car (which is grounds enough for execution w/some people I know, but I'm not one of them), stuck it's head in (ditto), and the evil car (it LURED the cat over to it) bit its head off. Not funny to me at all. Not because it's "cruel", but just because it's not funny unless pure sadism makes you laugh, and for me, it doesn't. There's nowhere near enough context or nuance in the setup, and it's not even TWO-dimensional in the execution. Just plain Dice Clay-ish - "Here kitty-kitty... WHACK!!!" Some people thought Dice Clay was a riot. I thought he was an idiot. All fire, no heat. Different strokes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 I thought it was funny too, but I too see it in a Python-esque way. Like Tibbles? Now, THAT was funny! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 I won't quote everything he's said in this thread, but I'm totally with Sangry on this one. Mildly amusing, at best - perhaps - but it struck me as mostly being very mean-spirited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Pahooh. there's LOADS of stories to think up about why the car would want to revenge itself upon the cat. Think something up, place the punchline the clip provides at the end. There you are. For people who enjoy out of context Charlie Parker or Frank Zappa solos, this is a tough public. Some imagination and some utter abstraction is called for. "Curiosity killed the cat," anyone? No one ever complained about that, but then it is *only* a figure of speach.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 (edited) It's a commercial for a car. A FORD, no less! The car hates cats. So if YOU hate cats enough to lure them over to you and then decapitate them, THIS is the car for YOU! That's the only message I get from this advertisement. At least the pigeon ad, which I DID find funny, had a context. Pigeons shit on things. It's what they're famous for. But - the pigeon was not overtly killed. Hell, it might have just been knocked senseless for all we can tell. But the cat's freakin' head FALLS OFF in plain sight! Sure, I could imagine any number of contexts for the cat deserving its fate. THEN it would be funny to me. But in a commercial (any work, really, but ESPECIALLY in a commercial, where the start-to-finish story arc is usally the key to its successful mass appeal), that context should either be explicitly provided or else implicitly suggested in some way. None was provided here. It's a crude concept crudely executed. All I see is a car that bites a cat's head off for no other reason than it's a fucked-up piece of malevolent machinery. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Not. Edited April 29, 2004 by JSngry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 All I see is a car that bites a cat's head off for no other reason than it's a fucked-up piece of malevolent machinery. Then again, it IS a Ford.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
couw Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 But in a commercial (any work, really, but ESPECIALLY in a commercial, where the start-to-finish story arc is usally the key to its successful mass appeal), that context should either be explicitly provided or else implicitly suggested in some way. None was provided here. It's a crude concept crudely executed. Man, that's OLDfashioned! we live in post-post-post-modern times. Things do not need to relate to other things anymore once again. The success of many a commercial is based on its utter irrelevance to anything, not even the product itself. This is the MTV age all over again! it at least has drawn your attention BIG TIME; mission accomplished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceH Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 This could never be shown on the air here in the US. Too bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardbopjazz Posted April 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 (edited) Now where is this Sportka sold? I guess just in Europe. The commercial never made to any market. If it did I think many would have something to say against it. Now, I wonder if Ford will keep the ad agency that did this? Edited April 29, 2004 by Hardbopjazz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 No comment from me; as a cat lover, the comments here are enough to warn me away from watching the thing, and people who complain about things they haven't even seen always annoyed me, so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockefeller center Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Now where is this Sportka sold? I guess just in Europe. The commercial never made to any market. If it did I think many would have something to say against it. Now, I wonder if Ford will keep the ad agency that did this? Why should Ford not keep this agency? That clip reached a whole lot of people all over the world (no matter how many have something against it). Like couw said: mission accomplished. I'm not sure what you mean with "the commercial never made it to any market." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 But in a commercial (any work, really, but ESPECIALLY in a commercial, where the start-to-finish story arc is usally the key to its successful mass appeal), that context should either be explicitly provided or else implicitly suggested in some way. None was provided here. It's a crude concept crudely executed. Man, that's OLDfashioned! we live in post-post-post-modern times. Things do not need to relate to other things anymore once again. The success of many a commercial is based on its utter irrelevance to anything, not even the product itself. This is the MTV age all over again! it at least has drawn your attention BIG TIME; mission accomplished. Post-post-post-modernism is a context in and of itself. This commercial lacked even that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrome Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 The Ford Ka's are sold in Europe ... I believe they're competition for the DCX Smart vehicles, if anyone's familiar with those ... probably too small to appeal to U.S. drivers. Regarding the ad, I'm with Rockefeller. And for all we know, it WAS authorized by Ford ... there have been a number of these "outrageous" ads for different companies that generate a lot of brand awareness and then the company tries to distance themselves from them in this way ... it's almost getting to be routine. Has anyone seen the Puma oral sex ad? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Man with the Golden Arm Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 Cat footprints on cars are about the same as pigeon poop. I'm sure there are some more up their sleeves - hopefully the Sportka can do battle with a big ol SUV, calmy deflect an erratn shopping cart back into it's corral, poke the eyes out of an idiot teenager who flashes the finger or swiftly scoop up a nut hauling squirrel and flick him to the side of the road. Doing it's own kind of Astin-Martin-passive-aggressive schtik. That commercial is original stuff and beautifully done! Next thing we know they'll be taking Warner Brothers cartoons and editing out all the good stuff, oh wait... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hardbopjazz Posted April 29, 2004 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 I'm not sure what you mean with "the commercial never made it to any market." If you read the webpage, it was never ment to be released. In a statement, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide said the unapproved and unofficial video clip was leaked April 1 and transmitted by e-mail around the world. The company said the ad wasn't sanctioned by Ogilvy or Ford. “Both companies find this unofficial advertisement totally unacceptable and reprehensible,” the statement said. “The action in the video clip was totally computer-generated, and we would like to assure you that no animal was harmed in its making.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted April 29, 2004 Report Share Posted April 29, 2004 (edited) Cat footprints on cars are about the same as pigeon poop. Funny, I don't wipe my feet off every time I walk barefoot... Edited April 29, 2004 by JSngry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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