Michael Lebowitz

the things i find and want to remember...

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i'm the founder and ceo of big spaceship, a digital creative agency in brooklyn, ny.

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crispin, content and whopper virgins


 
I'm not always the biggest fan of Crispin Porter & Bogusky's work, but what they've been doing for Burger King is impressive. Great to see a big agency breaking out of the 30 second spot mentality and thinking in terms of content creation.
 

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Posted 1 year ago

8 comments

Dec 10, 2008
Clay Parker Jones said...
Agreed that the work here is beautifully done. It's great to see an innovative use of long-format video; this wouldn't have played on TV, but it works perfectly here. Every little detail has been accounted-for, and there's a sense of humor about it that is nice.

However, it seems ironically and sadly colonial. The dialog, on the surface, is "We're testing our burgers in new environments, and the results were fascinating...and beautiful!" ... but when you look a little deeper, the (unintentional) story seems to be "My, how queer those people are. Can you believe that they've never seen a burger before? How could that possibly have happened?"

It feels to me like it's the result of giving an HD camera and a marketing mission to Cortes and his cohorts.

Dec 10, 2008
Michael Lebowitz said...
clay - i don't disagree with you, though i'm not sure it's so different than laughing at americans in whopper freakout. we like to watch the human condition, laugh at it, etc. i didn't look at it as meanspirited, though i can certainly understand that perception.

i guess i was looking at things from the perspective branded entertainment emerging in the industry. there's nothing new about the ad industry poking fun at people.

Dec 10, 2008
A Domaniite abroad said...
The freakout stuff was amazing, but there is something really depressing and even offensive about the virgin campaign. For me the crude american abroad aspect to it made me sort of lose my appetite. maybe it's me but the colonial Americanism vibe doesn't leave me wanting more.
Dec 10, 2008
Clay Parker Jones said...
Michael - Point taken. The best arguments to be made in favor of my earlier point are those that discuss "the gaze" ... where we look upon the Other with different eyes than we look upon ourselves. Surely, we're laughing about the human condition here, and this may be just a bit too serious a take on Whopper Virgins (after all, it is JUST an ad, not a real piece of documentary despite what they say in the film) but the parallels between this kind of work and the work of those who colonized the Global South are too interesting to pass up.
Dec 10, 2008
Nicolas Elizaga said...
While it's a clever and well-executed idea, the words "tainting" and "corruption" come to mind...
Jan 14, 2009
Maciej Makuszewski said...
First part of the whopper virgins video is so boring. Don't you feel like you've seen it before? You've probably seen it hundrets of times since 1975.
Because it's the Pepsi Challenge idea all over again. Is it out-of-the-box? Not really...

The second part? This is where it gets interesting. It's very Borat-like. Kind of controversial (although I don't believe that Romanians haven't eaten a burger in their lives. If you believe it clearly you've never been to Romania - which is now in the EU:)

Second part - good and fresh. First part - been there, done that.

Mar 06, 2009
Craig Henry said...
Great Post - I thought that it was a super effective spot. I want a Whopper. And a Hug From The King.
Jun 10, 2009
OMAR DreamartistFilms.com said...
It's definitely interesting. Part of me feels these campaign segments are way too long. 3 minutes and I'm done. My team would divide these up into segments.

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