RichardPryor.com Forums

Anditsdeeptoo,

Yeah, that's what I thought!

Wait a minute, taxi hub caps? Now, that's fucked up...

BTW, anyone seen I, Robot? At least 3 brands sold in the first 20 minutes alone...

Joelmusick,
That's how they're doing it these days. Anything to make some money. Shit, they made a whole movie based on two people trying to get to White Castle!

P.S. - It's a midwetern burger joint here in the U.S. that makes burgers that immediately send you to the toilet.

dougdigitalpro,

Oops, I thought they made ice cream - back to my corner...

Joelmusick,

jermainebailey,

This is my first time posting to the site - just signed up tonight. I guess I picked the right area to cruise because I just got through watching Hollywood Shuffle. Never saw it before tonight. Brilliant parody of stereotypes.

There was one moment from the movie I know spoke really true: when the director tells Townsend to "act more black, you know, stick out your butt and go bug-eyed, you know how they act."

Back around 1990 I was working at a large ad agency (heart of the beast?) who had AT&T as a client. They were casting for a spot advertising lower international rates. I was running sound. Part of the casting call was for "Asians." At one point the Writer stops a reading between a Chinese Man and a Japanese woman--actually, they were both Americans--and the writer says, "can you sound more Asian?"

This was the last session before lunch and I ended up riding down in the elevator with the two actors from the session. The guy turns to the woman and says, "Did you hear what that guy said?" The woman replied, "You mean, can you sound more Asian?" The guy says, "Yeah. What the fuck does that mean?"

If I hadn't have bursted out laughing on the spot I would have peed my pants.

One more story for you. This time it was a pitch for Maybeline business. Their account was up for review, so part of Forty and Fabulous. At first I thought, well, that's pretty stupid. Why would a woman over 40 need different makeup than a woman under 40? But then I thought, well, actually the campaign itself might be pretty cool. How often do you see sexy spots (this was for makeup, remember) that show women over 40?

In this case I was editing video. So we're putting together this rip-o-matic (a speculative spot that steals footage from anywhere and everywhere in order to mock up a spot) and we've got Jacqueline Bissett, Aretha Franklin, Lauren Hutton, Patti LaBelle, Tina Turner and about a dozen other "forty and fabulous" women included in the first cut. Then the producer says, "let's take out Patti LaBelle; no one will know who she is." Since the piece was too long I said OK. We watch the spot again and the producer says, "we should take out Tina Turner; she just doesn't really fit our target market." I argued over that one a bit, but lost and had to pull her from the spot.

So now the spot is ending with a scene from Aretha Franklin's "Pink Cadillac" video. She winks at the camera and drives away. I'm sitting there thinking this spot rocks, even without Patti and Tina when the producer, sitting behind me where she can't see my face, suddenly pipes up with, "I don't know...do you think ending with Aretha Franklin makes the spot too black?" This is where I became a variation on that famous Abbott and Costello skit:

Slowly I turned, step by step, and then I looked hard at the producer, paused long enough to be sure she was uncomfortable and said, "Too black? What does too black mean?" The producer lost it completely and started sputtering, "well, uh, I mean, uh, you know, uh, uh, uh, I mean, you know, uh, ending with Aretha...it's the last image we see, and uh, I thought you know, uh, maybe that will be the last thing anyone remembers." So I said, "we took out Patti...we took out Tina...Aretha is the only black person stillin the spot, so how can it be too black?" More sputtering from the producer and then, "uh, well, uh, never mind, I don't think it's a problem." I stared a little longer (I call it the withering stare), and then, as I slowly turned back to the edit controller I said, "Good, I think you made the right choice."

Hope you enjoyed these stories from the trenches.

db,
Great stories, db. Thanks for sharing and welcome aboard!
Advertising is a bitch!

db,

[Font size=4 face=i color=red]"Niaggra Falls!!!!!! Slowly I turn, Step by step"[/font]

That was Moe Howard

dougdigitalpro,
yeah its so sad to think that they had a meeting over this thing....a bunch of guys in suits....with no sense of humor...but sed hey lets expound on this.....an then hire someone with no sense of humor..to do the commercial...I hate the idea that this type of commercial is done an they think the consumer had no brain....I especially hate the one with these people saying that they need someone to do the robot.....an then some guy in a suit is dancing to his right...an doing a sorry version of the robot....for seconds......like five or six....it is senseless...an who ever did this thinks it is funny?.......these commercials are sad

The dairy Queen commercial is bad, but the Smilin'Bob... "This is Bob..." commercials for "natural male enhancment" really creep me out.

Surferchicklet,
You know guys, be careful of what you watch. I'm seeing more and more of these bad commmercials and I think it's a trend. A lot of this shit just boggles the mind in terms of common sense. Sign o' the times sadly.