John Cleese Strikes Again
A news story appeared today that reminded me that all great thoughts have already been thunk and are only recycled. Read the following and keep in mind the 1997 film Fierce Creatures:
Now do you remember one of the advert schemes from the movie? Branding zoo animals with, like the Absolut tiger? More proof that John Cleese, one of the script writers, is not only a genius, but a seer, to boot.Fake agency offers ads on hookers' thighs
Wed Jul 5, 7:59 AM ET
A Dutch design student bored with conventional advertisements has set up a fake online agency offering advertising space for beer, cars and TV stations on prostitutes' thighs and cleavage.
On his website http://www.instoresnow.nl/, Raoul Balai also proposed painting brand names on zoo animals and floating huge billboards off popular beaches to get vacationers' attention. "I was getting sick and tired of advertising everywhere," Balai told reporters. "But I don't want to preach, and I thought satire would work better."
Far from taking his ideas as a joke, an Amsterdam zoo had its lawyer threaten Balai with a defamation suit after his website depicted fish from the zoo bearing the brand name of a frozen fish company.
Prospective customers phoning his fake agency are kept on hold and bombarded with sales pitches until they give up.
Ordinarily I wouldn't believe something this drastic could happen, but now I don't know. Everything is getting branded, and people like it! Some of my co-workers are upset that they can't wear their brand-name T-shirts at work. C'mon! Almost all designer shirts come from the same factory regardless of brand. Why do they want to pay to be a billboard? It's not like they are supporting a cause or something.
The only advertising shirts I have are from my brother's garage and since it is 500 miles away from where I live the message probably isn't reaching the target audience. But it is fashionable and the younger set tells me it is cool. For my part, it was free. I never turn down free clothing.
