The most anticipated post of the year!

I haven't been kind to advertising. Much of it is silly and doesn't make much sense to me. The fact that some commercials are made to look like real-life conversations, to me, is silly. I honestly don't think I'll be chatting up with my friend how much SuckUp (TM) Brand Paper Towels are more absorbent than the leading brand.

Advertisers have bent the truth for the longest time, and perhaps the worst offenders are movie studios and television networks.

I was watching TV the other night, and came across an ad for the upcoming musical-turned-movie, Rent. Towards the end of the announcer's rantings, he says that the play "defined a generation." Huh? What? "Defined a generation?" Whose generation, and how exactly does a play define a generation? Does that mean if they did a play about people playing video games all the time, that would define a generation?

Okay, that was a bit of a stretch, I know. These grandiose claims about movies blow my mind. Its the same about TV shows. With every new fall television season, comes "the most anticipated show of the new season," or "the premiere everyone has been waiting for!" Most of the shows, if not all, I've never even heard of. Since when did tv critics (maybe) count as "everyone?" Just because Entertainment Weekly says about the new show Funny Things Happen to Steve, "wow, we sure look forward to seeing this show," doesn't make it the most anticipated show of the season. Funny how they hype these shows. Imagine using that type of logic in an everyday situation. "Just wait till I take you to the dentist, Timmy! It's the most anticipated visit of the year!" To the dentist, maybe, because he'll be paid handsomely.

Of course the biggest overhype or overselling belongs to feature films. A lot of people have seen the standard "review" tv spots for movies, where they show quotes from critics about the movie. You know the kind. "Critics are calling Movie Almost Released Direct to Video laugh out loud funny! I loved it!" then in small print, A. Reviewer, Mudhole Texas Observer. A major film distributor, Sony, I believe, was actually fined for using a fake reviewer in many of their ads. That's right, they made someone up. And there's gotta be some studios out there who try to persuade critics to give them a good quote.

Of course my all-time favorite ads are those for movies released in early January. "The best movie so far this year!" Well, yeah...its the only movie so far this year.

But in the end I'm sure it's all for the best. After all, no one wants to see an ad for a movie that was called "adequate" by the New York Times. "A. Reviewer comments, 'meh. this movie was okay I guess.'"