Bring Out Your Dead: Crispin Resurrects Orville Redenbacher

Speaking as one of the perpetrators of the first dead-celebrity spots (Diet Coke), I can only say, "what were they thinking?!".
Leaving aside moral/queasiness/ethical/taste issues -- as we expect people to do these days -- the question anyone should ask before doing one of these spots is not "how?" but "why?".

This is just a crappy ad -- it would be just as crappy if that were Orville himself. Does anyone at CP+B believe for a minute that the "news value" or "shock value" (as if!) of the spot will help sell popcorn? If so, they need to get their heads out of wherever they keep them and back into the real world that doesn't care about how "cutting-edge" spot production technology has become.

Jeez, what a waste.

Anyone who touched this ad should be fired.

It is hard to say how this slop could have seemed smart even in the dark of night with a deadline.

This ad freaks me out and compels me to ask anyone i am sitting with when i see it if this is not the worst ad they have ever seen. It is interruptive in all the wrong ways.

Why do i want to buy this popcorn?

Measuredup.com

barf...

Oh come on, it's not so bad. Why, the state of this art could allow us to resurrect some B movie actors: you know the really stiff ones. Imagine Ronald Regan playing the lead in Total Recall II, or let's cast Cagney in the Sapranos. Come to think of it, this technology could breath new life into the movie careers of some living actors who are too old to resurrect former characters... Can Bill Shatner win an Emmy for Star Trek II too?

Im just so relieved to read that I wasn't the only one who saw this commercial and was ashamed of my own industry. What a horrible tribute! It is shocking. And not remotely funny. I honestly thought it was some kind of parody and was waiting for the punch line - then it never came. Horrible. Simply horrible. Sometimes shock value is just shocking and not cool.

AdAge:
Being an admirer of CP&B for many years, I'm really surprised at the weak concept and execution of this spot. They're apparently trying to use the same formula that worked with resurrecting the King for BK. But this blast from the past doesn't hit the mark. Ken's article is dead on.
Jim Caputo
Celebration, FL

I saw the commercial last night on American Idol and my girlfriend and I actually argued if it was a guy in a mask or computer generated. It looked so fake and out of place. The commercial is also weird considering the recent "reruns" of old commercials.

Is it me or do ad agencies just want to "out do" each other on the "creative" front rather than do what they are supposed to do - sell products.

This ad is awful. Redenbacher would have been better off saving the money and re-running their original 1970s ads. This ad comes close to making fun of the popcorn rather than selling it.--Chicago,IL

Stupid ad. But then again...stupid sells, doesn't it?

I'm just old enough that I remember the original Orville Redenbacher ads--quite vividly, even though I was a child, so they must have been quite effective at the time. This ad just creeps me out. It does look like they resurrected Orville from the crypt, and I was waiting for him to zip someone's face off, zombie-style.

I couldn't figure out if this was someone like that amusement park guy who dances in a mask, or if it was computer-generated, but it does not want to make me buy popcorn. In fact, it makes me vaguely sick because Orville looks so creepy.

It's just too strange - maybe it's because I'm just old enough to remember the original ads - I think that the spot done last year was more effective because it melded the original spot with new product...

Euewwwwwww...

Truly creepy. As a 30-something who remembers the original spots, I find this a disturbing attempt at hipness. I was glad to see the original spots (slightly revised) return to the airwaves, but this is too far.

The spot features the worst of post-death puppetry. Who approved that the spokesperson distracts from the product while adding nothing memorable, except for a distaste for the popcorn? As bizzare (and effective) as the original commercials were (and remain), this one is just tasteless.

Incredibly weak concept and poor execution. With the technology available today there's no reason to produce this awful You Tube looking reject.

Mike Feher...St. Louis

If only the concept wasn't orville wearing an MP3 player. If only their was a concept.

I really have no idea what they were selling - I can only assume it was popcorn - because I didn't hear a word. My brain was too busy dealing with the revulsion and nausea I was feeling to process sounds. Please make it go away.

It's creepy. But Crispin has never played things safe. We're talking about it and it will soon make it to mainstream. Love it or hate it, it will get talked about.

Here's what I would have done, a young man goes to bed with a sexy girl...only to wake up next to Orville! Yes, and then Orville hands him a bowl of light popcorn. The toubled young man looks at Orville and they both crack up laughing. Wake up with Orville?

The client hired this particular agency, approved the spot, paid for the time, and ran it. So...

There is more than one party to this effort here that may have failed to understand the O.R. brand and quality production.

I didn't think anything could be creepier than waking up to find a plastic headed Burger King in bed with me, but congratulations, guys, you've succeeded. In fact, this is beyond creepy: it's tasteless--unlike the product you're selling, fortunately for you.

Perhaps you could resurrect Julia Child for Cuisinart next, and have her bleed all over a kitchen set. On second thought, please just hire Dan Ackroyd. He might actually make that work.

This spot is seriously creepy and tasteless as well as completely ineffective. I can't believe the client approved this. Unreal.

Let the overdue backlash against BusinessWeek's "craziest ad guys in America" begin.

CPBers: Bad creative is bad creative.

I've had a fun blogversation with a bunch of their anonymous posters ... http://topazpartners.blogspot.com/2006/05/crispin-porter-bogusky-cover-article.html

Adam Zand, Topaz Partners, Woburn, MA

CP+B soaring ahead as usual - and none of the commenters understood that what makes it funny is how unreal the character looks.

If he looked realistic, there would be no point. The gag is that he's clearly a parody of advertising that was never good to begin with.

Does anyone under the age of 40 even know who this dude is?

And I have to assume 50% of popcorn is eaten by those under 40.

At the end of the day, brand relevance, even for popcorn, is everything. And making a spot that no one under 40 even understands, is how to make a brand irrelevant.

That's my take. - Andrew Baker, Orange Man in Space, Los Angeles

As a college student, I do know who Orville Redenbacher is - only because they have been replaying the old ads lately.
Maybe they didn't miss their target market entirely, but they certainly scared me.

As a 21 year old Advertising student from SCAD, this honestly scares me as well. I would have preferred him to do "corny" cool stuff than just have an Ipod with some low rap tune playing.

I hope they either kill this or brainwash us to the point that we quit caring about how freaky this ad is.

Seriously, did someone just sneeze this out of their ass?

To Jason K of New York:

Tell me you are kidding. Please.

You cannot honestly believe that Crispin spent God only knows how much time and money to make their necrophiliac homage to Orville seem deliberately "unreal" -- to say nothing of unnerving.

Are you that much in the tank for Crispin? Are you so blinded by all the buzz surrounding them that you have surrendered your critical faculties?

I went back and read a couple of articles about the commercial in Adweek (sorry, Ad Age) and USA Today. Nowhere did anyone say that their goal was to make Orville look utterly unconvincing.

They even quoted the guy's grandson. Do you think he or other family members would intentionally allow the agency to make Orville look so ridiculous?

But even if you take the technology out of the equation, the fact remains is that it is a lousy commercial. The concept, the writing, the acting, the directing (by David Fincher, no less) would make even Ed Wood cringe.

If Crispin's so-bad-it's-good, so-lame-it's-hip approach is "soaring" over our heads, looks like we're not alone. Here, courtesy of Cartoon Brew, are just a few of the "raves" popping up on blogs:

"Y'know, I thought that cannibalizing old footage of Fred Astaire was kind of a tacky idea 11 years ago. But after this, I'm beginning to like the first idea."

"While watching Criminal Minds tonight, I saw the most sick and disturbing thing--yes, the commercials featuring a reanimated Orville Redenbacher. If you haven't seen it, it's not an old films clip or anything--it's basically CGI of a man's corpse dancing around. I'm sorry, but that's just freaking creepy."

"Digital Orville Redenbacher freaks me right out. He is dead. Let's let him be dead. Because Zombie Orville is just wrong, wrong, wrong."

"I just saw the scariest shit ever. A commercial for Orville Redenbacher popcorn in which they used the man himself as a spokesperson. Yes, he's been dead for some time. They brought him back anyway. So beyond the questionable wisdom of using a dead man as your spokesman, they decided to go totally digital. So now it actually looks like they dug up the old man's corpse and made it talk and move with marionette strings. The lips don't even sync with the dialogue!"

(As a side note to Mark Hayden, yes, people talking about a commercial is good. But people talking about how disturbed and disgusted by a commercial -- so much so that it turns them off from buying the product being advertised -- well, that's not so good. If negative buzz is a good thing, then that inane Head On commercial would win the Grand Prix at Cannes.)

The bottom line is, there's nothing hip or edgy or daring or innovative about this commercial. It sucks. Period.

Tell the truth, Jason: If the same commercial had been vomited forth from the bowels of, say, Grey or JWT, would you still be praising it?

To Ken Wheaton:

I take issue with your characterization of people who criticize Crispin's work as "haters" who are merely "jealous" that they don't have the opportunity "to do work like that."

There is no denying Crispin does some wonderful stuff (Truth, Mini, Virgin Atlantic, much of their work for BK and VW) and they deserve much of the acclaim that is tossed their way.

The problem is, you people in the press go overboard in kissing up to them. You -- and apologists like the aforementioned Jason K -- accept almost everything they say and do unthinkingly and uncritically.

They are great, no question. But they are not perfect. Consider Coke Zero. Or Earthlink. Or Haggar. Or Sprite. Or Miller Lite. And now this fiasco.

What you would dismiss as sour grapes others see as a necessary corrective to the incessant ass kissing on the part of Ad Age, Creativity and the rest of the trade press.

Sorry for such a long post. But hey, it's snowing and I'm stuck home with nothing better to do.

Yikes! I think Resident Evil just added a new level boss...

Three words:
One.
Trick.
Pony.

Sorry, but I haven't seen anything truly fresh, creative, and EFFECTIVE come out of that shop since the days of MINI Cooper, and that was what, five years ago? Just about everything since has been an increasingly retarded (and embarrassingly similar) variation on the same infantile, cartoonish crap.

The emperor needs new clothes.

And Bogusky/Benjamin/that whole Miami crew needs to be sent to Time Out.

Another unfortunate example of creative taking precedence over product. I recently saw the original Orville commercials and last night I saw what I thought was a spoof. Is this zombie Orville supposed to be an effective pitchman for popcorn? In my humble opinion – No. And what's up with the Ipod? I guess they think that is going to make this commercial resonant with younger consumers. Truly one of the most disturbing examples of our craft I've seen in quite a while. Portiansky, Marketing Strategist, MWE, NYC

Now that Orville has been resurrected. What about putting words into the mouth of the living, like Osama Bin Laden. Let Digital Domain create a life like Osama who repents for his wickedness and sends the message to his people to 'Stop The Bombing Madness'.

My husband and I both found it very disturbing...

Diana Komjati, Chippewa Lake, OH

This is a new low in Advertising. It just goes to show what an account rep telling a client what they need, will allow them to create.

This so freaky and a bad idea on so many levels, I can't help but love it.

Touche!

Bkeffer www.latinnewswire.net

OK, quick... name a microwave butter popcorn???

Please, Everyone. You're talking about it. You're reacting to it. The feeling you have about this 30-second TV spot is so compelling, like it or not, you're pouring your heart and soul out. Haters. Hate. ERs. No matter how hard you try to bash CP+B's work, their message is clear: That old bastard cares so much about popcorn, he'd rise from the dead to make sure substandard corn and lackluster taste aren't the norm for his company. Where's Dave Thomas? Where's The Colonel?

Those guys are loafers. Orville's the kind of guy I want running my company. Redenbacher first, Bogusky second, then Porter. RB+P.

One more question... give me a line, a message, a USP of any Orville competitor? Quick.

Thought so. The only one that I came up with was Jiffy Pop and those stovetop aluminum mushroom cloud trays of 20 years ago. People, just watch in awe and let those guys lead the way. Again.

Ronn Pearson, Miami, FL

Um, I am a young Marketer "per-say" but I think the old-young-guy is very overplayed and hits my jaded-spam category in my commercial archives. Didn't I see this same type of advertising for Six Flags? Old-young-guy is overated both in Adam Sandler movies, Parody shows, comics, and commercials. I feel it would be more effective to use a historical/reminicent approach for something as simple as popcorn. Dont try so hard, guys. Keep it simple, the MP3 player is highly irrelevant unless the product offers free downloads. Sorry--Target Market Viewer--Mandy

I am a marketer. I don't want to pile on but...OMG! What the heck do we study consumer behavior for if all we do let the tech rule our creative...Just because you CAN, doesn't mean you should. Scary stuff. WOW but not in a Tom Peter's kind of way. Can anyone strip out what is playing on the ipod? If they'd bring back zombie Orville, what's to keep them from sending us all subliminal messages...Oddly, I do seem to have a taste for...brains...popcorn flavored.
Mark C. Cols. Ohio
mark@engageinteractivemedia.com

I just saw a new Orville commercial that was stylized exactly like an ad from the 50's. I saw the old one, it's not as good because it doesnt look like it was plucked out of another time period. This new one does that.

Why are you guys so weirded out by this? I think it hits on an emotion that is not being used by any marketer out there.

Say what you want, but CPB definatly knows how to make people talk. If you want a hard sell, talk about infomercials, and P&G ads. I dont think its fair to say it sucks because it doesnt want to make you buy popcorn. CPB looks more to impliment brands into culture, and they are extremely good at it.