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065 Super Bowl Wrap-Up, Logan Paul Ads Removed & Quentin Tarentino
Average Nobodies Podcast
for February 9, 2018.
On today’s show we’re chatting about Super Bowl 52, Quentin Tarantino, we have another Logan Paul update and we wrap up with some trailer reviews. You can chat with us on Twitter, toss us a like on Facebook and heart all our pictures on Instagram. Don’t forget, this podcast is available on iTunes, Stitcher Radio and YouTube.
In What Might Be The Smartest Marketing Campaign Of All Time, Budweiser Is Re-Branding It’s Beer ‘America’ This Summer
IN – Budweiser is renaming its beer “America” for the summer. The special cans and bottles will be available May 23 through the presidential election in November, owner Anheuser-Busch said Monday.
The Atlantic notes that’s just in time for peak beer season: “Summer is the best-selling season for beer — about one-third of all U.S. sales are between Memorial Day and Labor Day.”
The cans, in addition to the usual patriotic flare, will have phrases from the Pledge of Allegiance and lyrics from “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful,” the company said.
If anything ever deserved the Citizen Kane slow clap, it’s this decision by Budweiser. What a beautiful, brilliant move. I can honestly say that I’ve never been swayed one way or the other by advertising campaigns except when it comes to beer. My usual plan is ‘buy whatever is cheapest’ and while that has turned out to be a horrifically flawed plan, I’m sticking to it. But when it comes to beer, advertising and bottle/can design means a lot to me. Budweiser’s American flag cans usually get the job done, and that’s why I’ll drink them all summer. Now that they’re upping their game and actually adding the word ‘America’ to their cans, it’s a no brainer. People who say Budweiser and Bud Light taste like piss and aren’t real beers can enjoy their $9 10% craft brews and wake up with a headache that would kill an elephant the next morning. I’ll enjoy my 15 Budweiser’s and wake up ready to fly a plane. My only other desire is for them to do the same with Budweiser tap handles. I want to be able to order a nice cold draft of America whenever I go out to eat. Let me have that this summer, Mr. Budweiser.
-Ryan
2 Guns Was Exactly What I Expected, And That’s A Good Thing
Movies are bound to let you down. They’re billion dollar a year businesses, with most of that money coming from advertising. With those billions of dollars, movie companies are able to hire the most talented and creative people for their projects. As fans, we’re subjected to months of trailers, talk show interviews and behind the scenes featurette’s that hype each individual movie as “the next big thing”. Pessimists almost automatically disqualify the movie as a failure. Optimists, such as myself, get sucked up in the hype, and no matter how many bad reviews they read, will spend money to see that movie in the theater.
For 2 guns, the action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington and (gasp) Bill Paxton, I tried a different approach: dissect the movie and the hype surrounding it with a realistic attitude. So many really good movies have been ruined because of an out of this world trailer. For example, the trailer for Superman: Man of Steel was one of the best trailer’s I’ve ever had the privilege of watching. The movie was good, but after watching the trailer 40 times, you unfairly expect a cinematic masterpiece, thus clipping it’s wings before it ever got a chance to fly.
Back to 2 Guns. When the trailer’s were first released and I heard who the 3 top billed stars were, it was almost impossible not to get sucked up in the hype. Marky Mark and Denzel as a good guy tag team against an evil Bill Paxton?! I felt like I died and went to movie heaven. Then I thought of Superman. And I remembered how a great trailer and massive hype ruined a movie I really wanted to enjoy. As I entered the theatre for 2 Guns, I was ready to watch a good/really good movie. Not a bomb, not a masterpiece. 2 hours of witty one-liners, impressive explosions and the guaranteed shot of a sexy Spanish woman’s boobs that are in every Denzel Washington movie (see Training Day, Flight, 2 Guns). That’s exactly what I got. Leaving the theater, I was glad I had realistic expectations for the film, but it still felt bittersweet. The Golden Age of Cinema is so far gone that you couldn’t see it with a telescope in your rear view mirror, but at least now I see modern movies for what they really are.
The bigger theme here, at least in my opinion, is how the once great praise we had for movies are now shifting to TV. Go anywhere in the country and you can converse with someone who feels the same way you do about Mad Men, or Breaking Bad, or Sons Of Anarchy. I doubt the same can be said about 2 Guns.
– Ryan
