Not SOO Scarey Movies

Soo, I went to see that new movie "The Crazies" on Friday with a friend.  I really wish I went and saw "Shutter Island" instead, I heard it was really good.  But anyways, I normally do not go to the movies too often, but when it is a scarey movie that I would like to see, I would definitely rather see it in theathers, for the big screen, and sorround sound effect, it makes it scarier!

I have to say though that yet again I am dissapointed in another not that scarey movie.  Ok, so since I was in the theater to see it, it did make me jump, but thats only because it was loud and I felt like I was in the movie with them, but this is not my idea of a scarey movie! I really am just sick of production companies overloading us with all of there trailers for all these scarey movies, making them look so good, and make you think... Oh yea this is finally going to be a good, scarey one this time! And over and over I am just dissapointed.

(If you plan on seeing "The Crazies", I don't want to ruin it for you, so just skip the next two paragraphs and go to bottom). I am just really over going to see a scarey movie, and it basically all has the same damn plot! It's always, some sort of disease or something that breaks out and makes people act all loopy, diseased, or a zombie.  This movie was yet again just like the rest of them.  People in the town were drinking the water from their main source, and only source of water supply, which was obtained from the town's big river.  Aparently some government experiment with crazy or biologically messed up people, crashed into this river, and their DNA or whatever got into the water supply, and then in return made all the people in this town become sick, which also made them crazy killers.  Of coarse the Sherrif, main character, and  his house with his wife, was at the end of town, so they were never affected by the disease, because he just happened to find out what was going on right in the knick of time!  And then one by one the town was infected, and eventually the gov't stepped into quarentine those that were affected, (but really ended up killing everyone in fear that there was a chance they were infected, and blowing up the entire town.) So to make a long story short, they escaped from the quarantine the goverment set out, and tried to flea to the next town, with obviously many difficult obsticles along the way to make it almost impossible for them to get anywhere. In the end of coarse, the movie shows them arriving to the next city, their final destiniation, and then the last 30 secs of the movie there is that UH OH cliffhanger that it ends, and you think that they never made it (in this case, it shows the goverment sattelite trigger in on them, and see they are trying to go to the city, so obviously they killed them before they got there.)

SO what I am saying is, WHYYYYY is every scarey movie lately like this? Lets see, there was Dawn of the Dead movies, Resident Evil, 28 Days Later, I Am Legend was like this also.  At least I Am Legend had a similar plot like the rest of these, but chose not to try and make it a scarey movie and more of an action movie, which in the end benefitted them becuase it was in my opinion, the best plot compared to the rest of these movies.  That brings me to add, so many of these scarey movies dont even seem believeable.  Like when they escape out of these situations, youre kind of thinking, "really?" becuase you know if they are taking this disease approach, then they want you to be under the impression that Oh My God, what if this happens in real life? But the plots are always so bad, and they get out of situations that just seem so fake, that from now on I cant take any of these movies seriously anymore.

I want to see a really scarey movie, like something that is going to make me afraid to go outside by myself.  I want to get scared the same way I did when I saw "The Ring" or "The Shining" when I was a little kid.  Whatever happened to those movies? With all these crazy people working in Hollwood, you would think someone would be creative enough to make a movie thats actually scarey, and not gross.  I think that the "Saw" movies are all good, but those are a different genre of horror to me.  Those are the suspense, but goary movies.  I am not going to go home and have a nightmare of the saw guy comming to attack me.  Two other movies that I have seen that have probably been the best scarey ones  I have seen in a while would probably have to be "The Orphan", or "Paranormal Activity".  These two movies are good in case no one has seen them, but I am still not too amazed, I am waiting for that really scarey one to come out.  If anyone has any suggestions for me then let me know!

Columbus imPRessions

First of all, I would like to mention that the Shoestring corporation listed on this page that they have created. This seems like a very promising company, and not to mention a good idea.  I like the fact that it's major purpose is to work with non-profit organizations becuase its becomming creative for a good cause.

Ok so with the Nestle Crunch Bar, I called that number and got a busy tone a few times, but I will keep trying while I write this blog entry.  I am just wondering though, who would really have found out about the hotline enough to call that number? I mean yea obviously that person who wrote all of this was easy enough to fall for this pitch, but who is to say the rest of the world will? Just because someone had a status update on Facebook, was this somebody's Facebook or was this Nestle's account? Because I do not know too many people that are going to be Nestles friend on Facebook, and just happen to check their status update in time for them to call this hotline, and even if I did see their status, I dont know if I would take it to the next level as far as actually calling the number.  Not only did they call the number, but they waited for 15 min to get ahold of something that they didnt even know what it was at first.  It doesnt seem likely that too many people are going to go about this either, unless the hotline has reached another media outlet besides Facebook.  I mean, I am writing about this and I cant even stand being put on hold, or not getting through for some sort of candy bar hotline. 

I agree that having some sort of creative funny way of representing your brand is very good for business, and it seems like this recording did an excellent job doing just that.  However, there are many other, maybe more popularly noticed ways, of establishing an image, or repuatation for your brand or client. I definitely appreciate a company with good humor, or a good vibe about them. I have noticed that companies that do more promotions, or use more attention grabbing advertising that is maybe a little on the excentric side, usually wins my vote when I decide to choose one of their products over another leading brand.

And I tried calling that number over 5 times and I never got through, so I guess ill never find out what a "nuggie" or "cootie" option was that they mentioned.... "sigh"

Bad Pitch Blog Is a BAD Blog

I really am not sure if I am too much of a fan for this site.  I feel like the information they have on here is too brief and written poorly.  I do not even understand the point they are trying to get across with some of these topics.  Although some of the topics they bring up, are interesting, they definitely could have written more about them, or at least wrote enough so the point they are trying to make, makes sense! Maybe it is just me thats not getting it, but I would say this blog is a thumbs down!

Southwest Airlines and Kevin Smith

I think that Southwest airlines handled this situation very poorly. When someone is too large to fit into a seat there could definietly be a different, and more accomidating way to approach someone in this type of ordeal.  Although Mr. Smith did claim to have bought two seats just because they were cheap and be comfortable, this means that he knew earlier he might be required to in order to fly.  In the incident where he was pushed to the next available flight, the airline was at fault because they should have been responsible enough to recognize Mr. Smith's situation, and therefore should have never recommended him to take the standby, which had just one seat available.  Mr. Smith had seen to be very happy with Southwest before the inncident, and it could have been very good business for them considering he had bought somewhere near like 10 tickets for his friends in the past week.  Southwest aparently has not appoligized to Kevin, so he says as of Monday, so this is definitely this the first step they need to take in order to change this mess.  The next thing they should do is definitely start teaching their employees most customer service training, and enable a new policy with the wieght restictions.  Possibly make it mandatory to state your weight before you can buy a ticket, so then you are informed ahead of time that double seats may be required if you are large.  Once these rules and training has gone into effect it is important to let the media know about the progress.  Kevin Smith should be given some free tickets definitelty too.  People are going to be listening to how the airline will apologize to him before the really start to make judgements about buying from them anymore.

More Publicity Stunts

There has definitelty been some crazy publicity stunts in the past, both successful and disastrous.  Hollywood uses a lot of these techniques to get publicity for a movie, or even a particular actor will portray their specific personality traits into the media somehow.  Britney Spears did the worst when she decided to shave her head.  Since she was already in the media fending off horrible rumors and accusations about herself, she did the worst by shaving her head because it just made her look super crazy, and it made more people believe that the alligations of how she was a horrible mother and that she needs to go to rehab even seem true now.  Although Britney did make the papers again and turned heads, there are better ways off getting your name out into the Hollywood scence.  Steven Colbert had a NASA space shuttle station named afterhim, The Colbert.  I am not sure who that was origionally intened to benefit, but I think the Colbert and NASA both gained attention from opposite audiences, and in a positive manor.

So besides Hollywood related stunts, because we all know they have the money and the facilites to produce some absoulte craziness, I think one really good publicity stunt that I just remembered is one that I saw first hand.  It was on a billboard out on Interstate 95 right on the outskirt of Philadelphia.  This whole strip that goes along the battleships, past the sports arenas, and is on a major highway next to a very populated city, is occupied with so much crazy advertisements.  There was even a truck, like huge 18 wheeler, hanging off the side of one of the billboards, that obviously got some attention, but the one that stuck in my head the longest was my favorite.  It was just a plain black billboard but then it had bright, bold, and angry styled font, but all in white.  The sign read,  "I HATE STEVEN SINGER", and then in small print in the corner of the billboard had ihatestevensinger.com.  There was a few times I have driven past this billboard, and each time it was with a totally different kind of group of people, and every time we drove by it somebody had to make a comment, "What is that?" or "What does that mean?" "Who is Steven Singer?".  Finally it made me so anxoius I just wanted to figure out what it meant, I mean it really could have been anything.  Instead of seeing like Steven Singer, or a comedy show or something along those lines, I looked on the website and it was nothing else but a Jewlery store! That was the last thing I expected, but the ad was very good because I am sure there are alot of people who were in the same boat as me.  I think the billboard is still out there til this day, so obviously this jewlery company is making good earnings, maybe from the billboard!

Publicity Stunts!

It is amazing, crazy, and not to mention impressive, how creative companies will get in order to promote their brands. It takes a lot of skills to come up with some of the ideas that the companies did that were successful.  I feel that the most important aspect to keep in mind when trying to pull a publicity stunt is to definitely remember the theme of the brand you are trying to promote.  The character of your business is best highlighted by the type of publicity stunt attributed to your advertising campaign.

 First of all, I had no idea that these tactics have been used in this industry for so long.  The Tour de France has been one of the most prestigious events coordinated for so long, and it is just very amusing to know that it started off as a publicity stunt.  I think that the stunts that I liked the best were the Taco Bell's April Fools' Day joke because it was very original and funny.  People were very upset about what was happening, as well as it fit the persona of Taco Bells brands.  I feel that when Burger King tried to pull off the same effect it was very cheap because the April Fool's act has already been used by a fast food place, and it was not as successful, nor did it really fit into the company's humor at the time. Plus the fact that I could not believe people really went to Burger King and got upset about not being able to order the left handed burger.  I mean, really? How stupid could you possibly be to believe this advertisement was true? I think also that the Golden Palace stunt was very creative, and it also fit into their persona as well.  An online poker company I'm sure has a lot of humor incorporated into what they represent, which is fun and entertainment and games.  I also cannot believe that Oregon really changed one of their town's names to Halfway, Oregon.  The fact that they tried to be badmouthing the company after they made a good amount of their promises to them is silly, and the town should be grateful that their town was even recognized now.  I mean it's Oregon, who else would even know that town existed if Half.com didn't come in and step up their game!?

Secondly, for the publicity stunts that were not so successful, it seemed that their failure was just a result of poor planning.  The Snapple idea was very creative and would have gotten a lot of attention, but did they really think the popsicle wouldn't melt in an 80 degree New York climate? They should have just made a plastic popsicle and handed out some free samples, because what would have even been the outcome of a real popsicle if they knew it was going to eventually melt all over the place.  No one would benefit from this, nor be happy about getting scummed on by a giant popsicle in the middle of the summer... hello bees?!? They should have learned better from the chocolate stunt failure mentioned in the beginning of this article.  Lastly, I just wanted to comment on the Pontiac incident.  The company came up with a great idea for promoting their cars, but it was a very half-way planned mistake.  Everybody knows that Oprah's show is always going to entail her giving away something great for free. It is about her, the show for sake is called Oprah! So why would Pontiac try and establish credibility for this act on this show? They should have chosen another show that was not directed so much toward one person.  Also, the only part of their stunt were they could have claimed some dominance for their brand, they messed it up because the cars weren't even on the market yet.  This could have been a great idea if it was done differently.

I Hate the Winter

I am sure that since the holidays are all over that we are all starting to get a little sick and tired or warming up our cars every time we want to get in them, shoveling snow, black ice, and every other last bit of the freezing, bitter months of winter.  Well keep on your jackets because bad news has just arrived. Our buddy Phil out in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania, yea thats right the groundhog, has just seen his shadow! This means that there will be another six weeks of winter!  Let me just add that I had no idea until this morning that I remembered it was Groundhog's Day, that I learned something new about this special little event.  It is actually a Chrisitian holiday called Candlemas, becuase this is when Mary brought Jesus unto the holy place, when he was only six weeks old for all to see.  Hence the six weeks similarities, ( I never knew that and I at least think that is really cool).  This is probably the only thing I was happy about was that I learned something new, but besides that, I really hate winter and I am very bitter about having to deal with an extra six weeks of it.  Just when you think it is gettting darker out a little bit later than normal, and the few more weeks of the freezing cold just arent as bad anymore, news like this strikes out and you have to suffer again.  I cant wait for the end of March when things become a little more pleasant.  On top of it all, I feel that Montclair State is so much colder than any other place in New Jersey, or at least ten degrees colder and windier than anywhere else, so all of us who go to school here are going to have to deal with the negative degrees below zero wind tunnel for a couple more months now.  I might consider hibernating ore moving to an island for those extra six weeks, but maybe one day in a perfect world it will happen!