Dumb Marketing Moves: Tell me about Zoos

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small ghost: Jan 30, 2013

Red Bones posted:

Statham got into acting because he spent a lot of time growing up working as a street vendor selling counterfeit goods while he was trying to start a modelling career, and then Guy Richie met him and cast him because he needed someone to play a dodgy street vendor. His entire image is "buff normal guy".

Oh I know, I actually really like Jason Statham. It's great that he's managed to make a career out of being a totally average English guy who punches stuff. Just unexpected.

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:21

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# ? May 10, 2024 15:47

Necrothatcher: Mar 26, 2005

Werong Bustope posted:

Oh I know, I actually really like Jason Statham. It's great that he's managed to make a career out of being a totally average English guy who punches stuff. Just unexpected.

He was also an internationally competing diver:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWrINMm1aCI

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:26

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Yeah Statham rocks but I don't know what world y'all live in where he's anywhere close to average.

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:27

Kojiro: Aug 11, 2003; LET'S GET TO THE TOP!

Jim Sterling in particular confuses me because while he actually makes some pretty strong points that I often agree with, his whole look is completely at odds with his usual message. Yes, you have a good argument about microtransactions but why are you telling me this from a fuckin Nazi podium

Edit: Actually, speaking of Nazis, some movie (Iron Sky, I think?) hired dudes to go around a convention I was at, dressed in Nazi uniforms to promote the movie, heiling and everything. I guess it was a good marketing move in that it immediately told me the movie was not for me?

Kojiro has a new favorite as of 23:31 on Aug 26, 2016

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:29

Double Punctuation: Dec 30, 2009; Ships were made for sinking;
Whiskey made for drinking;
If we were made of cellophane
We'd all get stinking drunk much faster!

Kojiro posted:

Edit: Actually, speaking of Nazis, some movie (Iron Sky, I think?) hired dudes to go around a convention I was at, dressed in Nazi uniforms to promote the movie, heiling and everything. I guess it was a good marketing move in that it immediately told me the movie was not for me?

Did they get beat up? Please tell me they got beat up.

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:33

Kojiro: Aug 11, 2003; LET'S GET TO THE TOP!

dpbjinc posted:

Did they get beat up? Please tell me they got beat up.

Nope, there were a lot of dumb teens posing and heiling along with them though! I was tabling next to a German friend of mine and man, she was livid.

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:35

ravenkult: Feb 3, 2011

Kojiro posted:

Nope, there were a lot of dumb teens posing and heiling along with them though! I was tabling next to a German friend of mine and man, she was livid.

Why, she forgot her uniform?

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:40

Kojiro: Aug 11, 2003; LET'S GET TO THE TOP!

ravenkult posted:

Why, she forgot her uniform?

# ? Aug 26, 2016 23:50

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

Werong Bustope posted:

Oh I know, I actually really like Jason Statham. It's great that he's managed to make a career out of being a totally average English guy who punches stuff. Just unexpected.

I always thought that he got some roles because he could be made to look a bit like Bruce Willis, but not as old.

Or as expensive

Or as difficult to work with.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 00:06

Phanatic: Mar 13, 2007; Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.

I guess maybe not marketing, exactly, but a study set up to make teens less likely to get pregnant by saddling them with digital babies mimicking the demands of a six-week old infant didn't work out quite right:

[url]http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:9FPHnmyYlggJ:https://www.theaustralian.com.au/ne...n&ct=clnk&gl=us[/url]

quote:

Digital baby dolls that wake up crying in the middle of the night and need feeding, rocking and nappy changes are supposed to deter teenagers from falling pregnant.

But in an ironic twist, researchers have found they have the opposite effect.

The findings of a 10-year program and study involving more than 1250 girls and costing more than $1.5 million has found the dolls are actually more likely to encourage motherhood.

The study�s author, Sally Brinkman, from the Telethon Kids Institute, said the program to give babies mimicking the behaviours of a six-week-old to more than 1250 girls aged 14 and 15 had turned popular thinking on its head by proving they encouraged teenagers to fall pregnant.

�The most alarming figure is girls are 1.36 times more likely to have pregnancies if they were exposed to the babies,� Dr Brinkman said.

During the program, 213 of the girls who looked after the babies fell pregnant, or 17 per cent, and 113 had terminations. Of those in the control group, 168 fell pregnant, or 11 per cent, and 101 had abortions.

The decade-long research project involved 1267 girls in 57 schools in Western Australia looking after a baby from a Friday afternoon to a Monday morning.

The $80,000 babies had embedded tracking devices which could monitor how often they were picked up, rocked, fed and soothed when they cried and if they were left alone.

The control group of 1567 girls did not look after any baby dolls. The medical records of the 2834 participants were then tracked to determine how many fell pregnant, had babies or terminations until they were 20.

�There was a team that didn�t like the program and wrapped the baby up in a sleeping bag to keep it quiet, but that was the minority,� Dr Brinkman said.

Whoops!

# ? Aug 27, 2016 00:32

walrusman: Aug 4, 2006

The term "falling pregnant" sets my teeth on edge. Is that the standard phrasing in the rest of the English-speaking world?

# ? Aug 27, 2016 01:40

Waffleman_: Jan 20, 2011; I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna I don't wanna!!!

Normally one would want to avoid falling while pregnant.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 01:43

zedprime: Jun 9, 2007; yospos

What the hell do you need an $80,000 baby robot to do that, my elementary school was doing the same thing with a sack of flour, a shock sticker, and an alarm circuit that "cried" at random intervals and needed to be acknowledged or else it'd count a foul.

Anecdotally and rumor based but by the time my class was supposed to do it they'd discontinued the assignment for similar reasons to the study conclusions, which is the kids sticking their baby in the closet for a weekend and taking the C for not acknowledging the alarm enough were freaking everybody out and more than a few girls went baby crazy for a few months afterwords.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 01:47

Humboldt Squid: Jan 21, 2006

How the hell does duct taping a tamagochi to a cabbage patch kid cost eighty thousand dollars.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 02:16

Hardcordion: Feb 5, 2008; BARK BARK BARK

Humboldt Squid posted:

How the hell does duct taping a tamagochi to a cabbage patch kid cost eighty thousand dollars.

I'm hoping they mean that all 1250 babies cost 80,000, or 64 dollars each.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 03:04

Johnny Aztec: Jan 30, 2005; by Hand Knit

walrusman posted:

The term "falling pregnant" sets my teeth on edge. Is that the standard phrasing in the rest of the English-speaking world?

No, I've never heard it termed like that before.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 03:36

FairyNuff: Jan 22, 2012

Johnny Aztec posted:

No, I've never heard it termed like that before.

Uh, it is really common usage.

So and so fell pregnant, they've fallen pregnant, someone falls pregnant.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 04:02

Strudel Man: May 19, 2003; ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT

It's like falling unconscious, or falling ill.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 04:07

Decrepus: May 21, 2008; In the end, his dominion did not touch a single poster.

How is babby formed? How girl fall to the pragnant?

# ? Aug 27, 2016 04:12

RagnarokAngel: Oct 5, 2006; Black Magic Extraordinaire

Geokinesis posted:

Uh, it is really common usage.

So and so fell pregnant, they've fallen pregnant, someone falls pregnant.

I really never heard it that way. I'm an American and always heard it as "she got pregnant".

# ? Aug 27, 2016 04:13

Mu Zeta: Oct 17, 2002; Me crush ass to dust

Geokinesis posted:

Uh, it is really common usage.

So and so fell pregnant, they've fallen pregnant, someone falls pregnant.

I've never heard that before. Is it some regional thing? Like how Minnesota is the one place in the country where it's called "Duck, Duck, Grey Duck" instead of "Duck, Duck, Goose?"

# ? Aug 27, 2016 04:37

FairyNuff: Jan 22, 2012

I guess a UK thing then.

There is an article written by an utter prick that does go into the origins slightly, but ughh the guy is such a tool:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3626615/How-words-fall-pregnant-with-the-possibility-of-being-twisted.html

# ? Aug 27, 2016 04:39

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

walrusman posted:

The term "falling pregnant" sets my teeth on edge. Is that the standard phrasing in the rest of the English-speaking world?

It's pretty old-fashioned, but not uncommon.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 05:01

duckmaster: Sep 13, 2004; Mr and Mrs Duck go and stay in a nice hotel.

One night they call room service for some condoms as things are heating up.

The guy arrives and says "do you want me to put it on your bill"

Mr Duck says "what kind of pervert do you think I am?!

QUACK QUACK

English is heavily influenced by French. The French word for fall is tomber and the French word for pregnant is enceinte. So tomber enceinte (how the French describe falling/getting pregnant) in English is fall pregnant....

Geokinesis posted:

I guess a UK thing then.

There is an article written by an utter prick that does go into the origins slightly, but ughh the guy is such a tool:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3626615/How-words-fall-pregnant-with-the-possibility-of-being-twisted.html

....oh no, sorry, wait a minute, it's clearly the fault of the loving welfare state. thank god we had the Telegraph* around to clear that one up.

_{* and a so-called journalist who was blaming Hillsborough on drunk Liverpudlians as recently as 2012.}

# ? Aug 27, 2016 06:05

Krispy Wafer: Jul 26, 2002; I shouted out "Free the exposed 67"
But they stood on my hair and told me I was fat; Grimey Drawer

Hardcordion posted:

I'm hoping they mean that all 1250 babies cost 80,000, or 64 dollars each.

1250 total students, but not all at the same time. I think the 'babies' cost about $500 a piece.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 06:23

PenguinKnight: Apr 6, 2009

Humboldt Squid posted:

How the hell does duct taping a tamagochi to a cabbage patch kid cost eighty thousand dollars.

I know right? they could have used those digimon ones, too.

"my baby evolved into a t-rex"

"my baby got into a fight with another baby and got set on fire"

"my baby is a literal poo poo monster"

# ? Aug 27, 2016 08:43

Mierenneuker: Apr 28, 2010; We're all going to experience changes in our life but only the best of us will qualify for front row seats.

Werong Bustope posted:

Oh I know, I actually really like Jason Statham. It's great that he's managed to make a career out of being a totally average English guy who punches stuff. Just unexpected.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFB3q0mMBK8&t=104s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvhgG9ee9Aw&t=26s

Mierenneuker has a new favorite as of 09:41 on Aug 27, 2016

# ? Aug 27, 2016 09:38

Red Bones: Aug 9, 2012; "I think he's a bad enough person to stay ghost through his sheer love of child-killing."

mind the walrus posted:

Yeah Statham rocks but I don't know what world y'all live in where he's anywhere close to average.

Statham is "average" in the sense that he's a lot closer to the majority of the UK population than a lot of successful British actors, especially ones that become internationally successful. A huge portion of successful British actors (people like Hiddleston and Cumberbatch, for example) are from wealthy backgrounds and are privately educated, and Statham isn't. He didn't go to acting school, he has an accent that isn't received pronunciation/standard English, and he didn't come from a rich family and attend a private school. The UK has a class system that's deeply entrenched in all kinds of ways, including the disproportionate amount of upper class people holding well-paid acting roles, and Statham bucks that trend by being much more of an average guy and representing a group of British people that often don't get represented very much in acting, especially outside of the UK.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 09:57

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Ah that makes much much much more sense. My mistake.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 10:01

small ghost: Jan 30, 2013

Red Bones posted:

Statham is "average" in the sense that he's a lot closer to the majority of the UK population than a lot of successful British actors, especially ones that become internationally successful. A huge portion of successful British actors (people like Hiddleston and Cumberbatch, for example) are from wealthy backgrounds and are privately educated, and Statham isn't. He didn't go to acting school, he has an accent that isn't received pronunciation/standard English, and he didn't come from a rich family and attend a private school. The UK has a class system that's deeply entrenched in all kinds of ways, including the disproportionate amount of upper class people holding well-paid acting roles, and Statham bucks that trend by being much more of an average guy and representing a group of British people that often don't get represented very much in acting, especially outside of the UK.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. It's really unusual to see a guy who you could have gone to school with or met down the pub making bank on the international stage as a Hollywood actor, and I love him for it.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 10:19

Cleretic: Feb 3, 2010; Can't post for 6 days!

Red Bones posted:

Statham is "average" in the sense that he's a lot closer to the majority of the UK population than a lot of successful British actors, especially ones that become internationally successful. A huge portion of successful British actors (people like Hiddleston and Cumberbatch, for example) are from wealthy backgrounds and are privately educated, and Statham isn't. He didn't go to acting school, he has an accent that isn't received pronunciation/standard English, and he didn't come from a rich family and attend a private school. The UK has a class system that's deeply entrenched in all kinds of ways, including the disproportionate amount of upper class people holding well-paid acting roles, and Statham bucks that trend by being much more of an average guy and representing a group of British people that often don't get represented very much in acting, especially outside of the UK.

Semi-related, it's been interesting to see that some recent Doctors from the Doctor Who revival have specifically angled for this. The first revival Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, specifically stuck with a Northern accent because the Doctor always struck him as a very brash, working-class figure (especially his) and he thought that needed to be reflected in his speech. Peter Capaldi's the third Scottish actor to play the Doctor, but the first one to play him as Scottish, in part because the Scottish relationship with England lines up with the Doctor's relationship with authority, especially in recent years.

There's been a few really neat little marketing and image choices that have been made and worked in Doctor Who beyond that (David Tennant had his Doctor wear glasses so that kids with glasses could have a role model that wasn't just a nerd), as well as some REALLY bad ones. Their costume designer in the 80s leaned WAY too far into considering Doctor Who a 'children's show', and regardless of whether you think that's true or not I think you can agree that any viewpoint that results in this is a bad one:

# ? Aug 27, 2016 10:36

mind the walrus: Sep 22, 2006

Fun trivia about the poor guy wearing that coat:

* He was cast after some Producer saw him casually entertaining people at a party
* He was actually a good actor despite being given some of the worst material Doctor Who has produced (which if you know anything about the show carries a lot of weight)
* While he was on the show itself was dicked around with mercilessly by a BBC head who hated science fiction, this show, and this guy in particular; schedule changes, low promotion, benching the show for a year at a time, and so on
* That BBC head was also loving this guy's ex-wife.

Want to talk about a stiff upper lip and a proper stage face? Goddamn.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 11:03

Tiggum: Oct 24, 2007; Your life and your quest end here.

mind the walrus posted:

Want to talk about a stiff upper lip and a proper stage face? Goddamn.

Not as impressive as Sylvester McCoy getting set on fire by an explosion and just finishing the scene because he knew they wouldn't be able to redo it.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 11:11

spog: Aug 7, 2004; It's your own bloody fault.

mind the walrus posted:

Fun trivia about the poor guy wearing that coat:

* He was cast after some Producer saw him casually entertaining people at a party
* He was actually a good actor despite being given some of the worst material Doctor Who has produced (which if you know anything about the show carries a lot of weight)
* While he was on the show itself was dicked around with mercilessly by a BBC head who hated science fiction, this show, and this guy in particular; schedule changes, low promotion, benching the show for a year at a time, and so on
* That BBC head was also loving this guy's ex-wife.

Want to talk about a stiff upper lip and a proper stage face? Goddamn.

I hated that guy for his portrayal of the Doctor.

Years later, when I realised that his was just an actor, I felt quite guilty. Not least because the Whovian historians seem to ignore him.

https://vimeo.com/81726249

# ? Aug 27, 2016 12:44

Cleretic: Feb 3, 2010; Can't post for 6 days!

mind the walrus posted:

Fun trivia about the poor guy wearing that coat:

* He was cast after some Producer saw him casually entertaining people at a party
* He was actually a good actor despite being given some of the worst material Doctor Who has produced (which if you know anything about the show carries a lot of weight)
* While he was on the show itself was dicked around with mercilessly by a BBC head who hated science fiction, this show, and this guy in particular; schedule changes, low promotion, benching the show for a year at a time, and so on
* That BBC head was also loving this guy's ex-wife.

Want to talk about a stiff upper lip and a proper stage face? Goddamn.

On the upside for him, he's generally considered the best at the audio drama Who stories they put out. He's got a fantastic handle on what his Doctor should have been like, so he's been able to go through a pretty solid redemption of quality. Similar goes for Paul McGann, who played the Doctor in a mediocre 1996 TV movie that was meant to be a pilot for a revival.

Given what we know about the plans for that revival, some of it would totally count for this thread if it actually got the green light.Their redesign for the Daleks was indistinguishable from a Quake monster.

# ? Aug 27, 2016 14:45

Kojiro: Aug 11, 2003; LET'S GET TO THE TOP!

Tiggum posted:

Not as impressive as Sylvester McCoy getting set on fire by an explosion and just finishing the scene because he knew they wouldn't be able to redo it.