Bridgestone Superbowl 2010 Ad - "FAIL!", says the killer whale

Those poor, poor people at Bridgestone. Last night, I watched in disbelief as their flashy new Superbowl 2010 commercial was aired on cable. The commercial in itself was nothing ground-breaking.... in fact, it was rather fun. Here's the gist:

Three good-looking young guys in a truck speed down the typical 'car ad' winding road, braking, slewing violently. They have stolen a killer-whale, a la 'The Hangover.' 'Great bachelor party', one of them jokes, as they accelerate down a pier towards the ocean. As they reach the end, they brake and slew the car around.... and the whale slides out of the back, crashes through the rail and falls into the ocean. He does a little leap of joy, like flipper. He's free!

A fun, lighthearted commercial that probably cost thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours (full-sized anamatronic whale, anyone?) and would have been highly successful.... had the top news story of the day not been that a killer whale at SeaWorld had killed a trainer in front of a live audience.

Seen in this light, the airing of the commercial on this particular day seems slightly sinister, even revolutionary, maybe - right now the animal's fate is being discussed, and while it is agreed that the creature will not be put down, due to the trainer's strong love of the whales (who she thought of as her children), Bridgestone's commercial has unwittingly served as a 'Youtube-style' video-response from the entire general public to SeaWorld. Free the whale!

Public opinion aside, I could almost hear the sound of foreheads being slapped in the Bridgestone HQ as the commercial aired, and aside from wondering in a queasy kind of way why the commercial wasn't pulled at the last minute, all this got me thinking about meaning in the media, and how quickly a film that cost millions of dollars and was the culmination of someone's life's work could so quickly be rendered meaningless by a dumb twist of fate.

But that's the media for you. And, in case you haven't seen it, here's the Brightstone advert for you:

TVLesson's First Internship Graduates with Flying Colors

TVLesson is proud to announce the graduation of its Fall 2009 Media Internship.

The Internships, which generally last from 1-3 months, provide a way for local filmmakers and film students from nearby schools and universities to interact with TVLesson and gain valuable work experience as a Filmmaker, whilst learning things like Cinematography, Lighting, Sound Design, Directing and video Editing.

Says recent graduate Matt, 'My TVLesson Internship gave me the confidence to try out new ideas and technologies and collaborate with a fantastic group of people who I never would've met otherwise. Our first Intern film was a finalist in the South Bay Film Festival, which I feel was a big achievement and looks great on my resume. Thank you, TVLesson!'

For all you budding writers out there, here's what our interns have to say about the process of writing a short film:



TVLesson is currently accepting applications for our Spring 2010 Internship program, which kicks off in the first week of January. Local Orange-County-based applicants can apply by emailling us at: info (at) TVLesson (dot) com for more details.


Congratulations to our Fall 2009 Graduate Interns!