customers served (give or take a few hundred thousand) since September 2004!
Comments and opinions expressed on THE KNIGHT SHIFT are those of Christopher Knight and not necessarily those of subjects discussed in this blog, of advertisers appearing on it or of any reasonable human being. Any correspondence/irate letters/lawsuit threats/Nigerian e-mail scams can be sent to theknightshift@gmail.com.
Whoever came up with this ad deserves an award. This spot is brilliant, tragicomic, heart-tugging, funny, and beautiful. Publix has a long history of having great commercials and this is one of their best.
Growing up I thought that people whose birthdays fell on Christmas must be so lucky, because it meant that they got more toys. Watching poor Isabelle suffer from being a Christmas baby makes me greatly regret having that notion. May all who were born on Christmas have a birthday just as wonderful as this young lady's :-)
Okay, let me say first that I love this little film! Whatever has happened to Star Wars in recent years, there still are and always will be the true fans who thrill to share their love of the saga with others. This spot shows the kind of energy that we used to have at a new Star Wars movie. The costumes, the mock lightsaber fights, screaming lines from the movie out loud...
...it was a whole different and in so many ways better world than it is today. I know, I was there. I didn't just see it with my own eyes, I was part of it. Maybe it will come back someday. Especially for the youngsters. The ones who George Lucas intended Star Wars to be particularly for. The grownups have tried to make Star Wars into something it was never meant to be. So we get bullcrap like The Acolyte and movies with no clear plan in mind (coughcoughsequeltrilogycoughcough).
Actually, I'm coming to like Episodes VII through IX now. The more time that goes by since that trilogy ended, the better those movies seem. And the children seem to like them well enough. I saw lots of young girls dressed as Rey when The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker came out. If they were enjoying that, just as my generation did Star Wars in our own youth, well... what's wrong with that?
Anyway...
Coca-Cola has this new film that celebrates what it means to be a Star Wars fan. Here it is:
Okay, like I said I love that spot! But my memory can be a harsh thing. Because what might be to the chagrin of some, I also remember a time more than a quarter century ago when that was not Coca-Cola in cahoots with Star Wars. And this is why things like YouTube are so handy.
Behold the Pepsi commercial that premiered during the Super Bowl in 1997, days before the Star Wars: Special Edition was released in theaters:
Not kidding: in the space of two months I saw Star Wars movies eleven times altogether. A New Hope four times, The Empire Strikes Back four times anda three for Return of the Jedi. That was my second winter at Elon and I was sort of the stereotypical "Star Wars geek" for our campus. Ahhhh, those were good times.
Okay, I'm feeling my Star Wars mojo coming back, a little. We will always have the original movies at least to bask in.
Not for the
first time, not for the last, I am smacked with the realization that the
rest of my life is going to be dogged by my being the man who ran for
school board by blowing up a little red schoolhouse with the Death
Star...
Yes, it's true: Chris Hardwick used my school board commercial - the one with the Star Wars theme - on his Comedy Central show @Midnight late last night/the wee hours of this morning. The clip came during a segment called "Smeared Campaigns" and was one of three political ads taken from YouTube.
I would have missed it had good friend Aaron not spotted it. I was hopped-up on Dr. Pepper and Swiss cheese, wrestling between sleep and stuff about my book, when I happened to get on Facebook and Aaron was blasting my timeline with the news. Needless to say, I had to check it out. And you can too: here's the link that takes you straight to the episode's stream on the Comedy Central site. It comes on shortly after the first commercial break. And it's pretty hilarious! But I'm still shaking my head in disbelief that more than eight and a half years later, this commercial is still getting all that attention.
But hey, how often do I get to see myself and Chris Hardwick in the same picture? And on Comedy Central? So I guess I shouldn't complain :-P
At this point I've lost count. It's at least the fourth or fifth time that my shenanigans have landed me on popular humor site Cracked.com.
This latest appearance comes courtesy of an article titled "5 Famous Online Copyright Crusaders Who Are Total Hypocrites". With a title like that I just had to scan and tear it down and analyze it to see what I was doing that was so hypocritical... but I honestly can't find anything about my own part in that very strange episode from the fall of 2007. In fact, the entire article is about corporations - as Viacom did in that incident - who cry and crow about copyright laws protecting their assets and then steal and violate the assets of everyone else without giving a damn!!
Anyhoo, my situation, "Viacom Lays Claim to a County Board of Education Campaign Video", made #2 on the list. And if you wanna see the commercial that started it all, from my 2006 campaign for Rockingham County Board of Education, click here to watch "Christopher Knight for School Board TV Commercial #1".
(Personally, I'm still more proud of Commercial #2 and Commercial #3. In fact, Commercial #3 has always been my favorite of that batch of ads.)
Last night's The Walking Dead on AMC brought back the intensity after the past couple of weeks' relative calm (which was needed, after what happened to Lori). This series is consistently demonstrating why many consider it to be the finest show on television right now.
But that's not the point of this post. Instead I have to remark that what you're about to see is either gross negligence or brilliant marketing.
At the end of the next-to-last act of this week's episode "When the Dead Come Knocking" we find Rick and his team trapped in a cabin, nearly surrounded by ravenous walkers. To escape they have to throw a freshly-killed dude out the front door as a distraction. Rick and company flee through the back door while the walkers start munching.
That's the setup. That's all you need to know.
So watch the final few seconds of that act, then look at what AMC did with the commercial break!
Eeeeeewwwwwww...
Too bad KFC isn't using their "Finger Licking Good" slogan anymore, huh?
The accidental(?) scheduling of the ad has gotten lots of attention, including from folks who haven't seen The Walking Dead yet. So I'm wondering if there was method to the madness. If so: well played AMC, well played.
But check out this ad - also inspired by Star Wars - that West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin aired when he successfully ran for re-election two years ago...
Hey, Manchin shot a TIE Fighter out of the sky with a rifle! That's a hella lot better shootin' than the Imperial Stormtroopers ever did.
But John Waite of Spokane, Washington blows away everybody with what he did when he ran for city council. The comic book store owner campaigned while wearing a full set of space marine armor from the StarCraft computer game series! Nevermind Spokane City Council: we should send Waite to Washington D.C.: that whole town is overrun with worse than the Zerg ever were.
That was almost six years ago. I really am never gonna live this down, am I?
Well, it was a lot of fun running for school board. The entire experience, I mean! One that I would never trade for anything. I learned a great deal more about election laws and running for office than I had ever known before. I didn't win a seat but that's okay: it was a great run, I campaigned my own way and kept it positive, upbeat, and I wanted to present my beliefs in an enlightening and entertaining fashion. I wanted just ten people to vote for me, and wound up getting nearly forty-seven hundred.
But I didn't for once believe that this commercial was going to grab any attention beyond Rockingham County... and much less still be going strong more than half a decade later!
This is a "teaser" for Volkswagen's commercial during this year's Super Bowl. Yes, Super Bowl commercials now have teasers for them. And even so this is already the greatest Super Bowl commercial in the history of anything...
Niall Doran, a regular reader of this blog from Down Under, e-mailed to inform me a short while ago that I was seen on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's hit show Gruen Nation last night!
Here's Niall's report...
As a regular browser of your blog, I was surprised to see you make an appearance on Australian television earlier tonight!
A regular part-humorous, part-analytical & highly popular program on our national broadcaster (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC) is normally called the "Gruen Transfer", and unveils and discusses the techniques behind commercial advertising. However, we are in the final throes of a federal election, for which the "Gruen Transfer" has become the "Gruen Nation", with a series of specials focusing on the techniques of political advertising in particular. Tonight they showed your infamous Star Wars ad, although in the comments afterwards they unfortunately didn't raise the copyright issue that you fought and won.
Niall says that it's Gruen Nation Series 1 Episode 4 and that you can watch it here at ABC1's website for the next 14 days. Unfortunately I won't get to see myself on Australian TV 'cuz the site only lets you watch streaming vids if you're in, of all places, Australia! Gonna see if I can find a copy floating around the Internets to download via torrent or whatever.
Thanks for the heads-up Niall. And to all of y'all visiting The Knight Shift from Australia today: welcome! Hope y'all like what you find here :-)
EDIT 4:25 p.m. EST: Good friend Brian Fesperman reports that you can watch the show stateside! Click here to check it out and you won't have to wait long 'cuz it's the very first spot they run. They ran the entire commercial... including all of Melody Hallman Daniel's dramatically awesome voiceover!
And after seeing it at last I am chuckling too much for one's own good. Especially giggling at host Wil Anderson's line about "I really wish his favorite movie had been Boogie Nights!" and saying that Kevin Rudd "would have been more convincing if you'd been holding a lightsaber!" You can also download the whole show in MP4 or WMV format for later viewing.
What more can be said? I'm thoroughly delighted that I got to be a small part of Oz's political landscape this season... and that my ad brought some good-hearted laughter to Down Under from Rockingham County, North Carolina :-)
Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production of The King and I came to a successful conclusion this past Sunday afternoon. We played three shows to a nearly sold-out house each time!
And as much as 'twould be nice to have some respite after the past several weeks of work that went into that, there's always something new afoot for The Knight Shift's eclectic proprietor.
Been busy the past few days with... work, on... stuff. Along with... new ummm, "equipment" that will soon be employed toward, errr... "projects". Got to do some field testing with it this week and so far I'm more than a little pleased with the investment :-)
Might be worth noting here that my blogging may be sparse during the next few weeks as I and others are engaged in numerous endeavors. When I am here though, I'll do my best to make it worth your precious time. And to make up for the last few days' absence I'll share this with you: a video from Japan, advertising something that I haven't a clue what it is...
A short while ago I received the following e-mail from YouTube:
Re: [#561937480] YouTube Support
Copyright Service to me
Hi there,
In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we've completed
processing your counter-notification regarding your video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51FpFrMVWOo
This content has been restored and your account will not be penalized.
Sincerely,
The YouTube Team
So for the third time now (first Viacom, then NBC which quickly acquiesced and retracted their claim against me for posting a clip of The Jay Leno Show that also used my commercial, and now with Comcast) my filing the DMCA counterclaim has been successful. And that's why I'm compelled again to discuss this. Because if an independent content producer like me can take on three multi-billion dollar corporations over DMCA abuse and win each time, then any small-time content producer can do likewise and come out on top.
None of us are without some pretty potent weapons. We just have to know how to use them... and use them properly.
So here it is again: E! Television's The Soup featuring my school board campaign commercial :-)
Glad that this got resolved. And I hope that it never has to happen again!
There is no way that a TV commercial like this would ever be made, much less allowed to broadcast, in 2009. But once upon a time when boys were allowed to play "cops 'n robbers" there were fewer toy weapons as kewl as Mattel's Tommy Burst arsenal. For three bucks you could get the revolver and for seven you got the Detective Set complete with handgun and holster, toy bullets, badge and one neat-o machine gun!
Behold the commercial from about 45 years ago...
And if that adult looks familiar, it should: that's Hal Smith as the thief and the commercial's pitchman. Smith will forever be known as that lovable town drunk Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show.
I remember about two decades ago when every Toys R Us had an aisle devoted to toy guns. Seems like we had a lot less real-life crime then than we do now. Maybe we should let children be children instead of expecting them to be miniature adults, and allow them to live out the "good guy/bad guy" fantasy. That's the kind of thing that has gone on since time immemorial and it's only been in the past number of years that the "child experts" (who never seem to have children of their own, hardly) have done their damndest to change that.
Well, anyway: it's a "swell" commercial, I think. Especially that machine gun!!
I don't know what's scarier: this ad's production values, or that once upon a time children and at least one too many adults found this toy even mildly amusing...
Well, it was just "that Star Wars school board campaign commercial"... but at least I can now honestly brag about having made Jay Leno and a studio audience laugh on national television! :-)
However I don't know how long it'll be up on YouTube, 'cuz as soon as I posted it the system told me that NBC Universal had already flagged it for possible infringement... which I'm thinking is just an automated response to the keywords I attached to the video. But even so, after EVERYTHING that I've gone through in the past few years pertaining to copyright law (yeah I'm looking at you Sumner Redstone) there's no way I would have put this on YouTube had it not met the criteria of Fair Use. So hopefully, this is just something minor that will be resolved quickly. And hey, I'm giving free advertising for Jay Leno's show :-)
EDIT 8:24 p.m. EST: The infamous NBC lawyers must have let up, or something. Here's the embedded video!
I'm getting MULTIPLE reports that my school board campaign commercial from 2006 was featured on The Jay Leno Show on NBC tonight! I didn't get to see it: 'tis been a very busy evening, including auditioning for a community theater production and then grabbing some dinner. When I got back, the e-mail box had lit up like a Christmas tree.
Suffice it to say, I'm very interested in watching this to see how it played out :-)
Thanks to everyone who's been sending in the nice e-mails about it. And if you're just now finding this blog because of Jay Leno running my ad: welcome! Hope you'll like what you find here :-)
The TV commercial for the Ric Flair Scratch-Off from the North Carolina Education Lottery...
I'm sorely tempted to insert a "Space Mountain" joke in here somewhere :-P
EDIT 3:18 a.m. EST 09/23/2009: I am just now discovering that this game is not called "Ric Flair Scratch-Off" as I had originally thought. Instead it is officially known as... Wooooooo!
As if this state didn't have enough people imitating Ric Flair, heh-heh...
That's it. I'm definitely going to buy at least one of these tickets. Not to scratch off, just to keep and hold onto because, well... a Ric Flair-themed state lottery scratch-off game called "Wooooooo!" is just too clever to pass up on owning one.
This will be the hottest-selling scratch-off game since the lottery started up here almost four years ago, I would wager an RC Cola and a Moon Pie on it. Maybe we'll see the entire Four Horsemen appear on a ticket sometime down the line :-)
Just a friendly reminder that if you want to meet the blogger/proprietor of The Knight Shift in person and you're going to be in the Raleigh/Durham today, that you're in luck!
I will be at Artspace, located at 201 East Davie St in Raleigh at 5:45 p.m. this afternoon during the filmSPARK track of SPARKcon: a grassroots-organized four-day festival celebrating individual creativity around the Triangle area and throughout North Carolina. This will be the fourth annual event and this year SPARKcon will be held September 17-20. I'll be speaking about the bizarre "copyright infringement" situation that happened between Yours Truly and Viacom on YouTube two years ago.
The Dude Who Took Down Viacom: One Filmmaker's Story
EVENT LOCATION Artspace
EVENT DESCRIPTION Meet North Carolina filmmaker Chris Knight, a.k.a. "The Dude Who Took Down Viacom". In 2006, Knight made a campaign advertisement to help promote his running for a seat on Rockingham County's Board of Education. Knight did not win a seat on the board, but he did win some internet and media fame as his commercial was featured in The New York Times, on the Fox News Channel, every major newspaper in the state, on National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, by the Heritage Foundation, VH1's show "Web Junk 2.0", and E! Entertainment Television's show "The Soup". The major attraction of Knight's commercial was his creative use of Star Wars as an allegory for his strong commitment to reforming education practice. Life was good for Knight, until he loaded a few clips of his infamous commercial's featurette on "Web Junk 2.0" onto Youtube and was slammed with a copyright infringement claim. Come here the details of Knight's battle tonight as the filmmaker recounts his battle with Youtube and VH1's parent company Viacom firsthand.
Once again, I am compelled to note that I am very thankful to Nene Kalu, Kathy Justice and the rest of the good folks organizing the filmSPARK track for inviting me to take part in SPARKcon. Check out the SPARKcon website for more information.
This is the closest I've ever seen anything to a bona-fide Halo movie. It's not only live-action, but... tonally this is just hitting on all the right cylinders.
Halo 3: ODST continues the legend on September 22nd.
Sheetz opened its first (and hopefully not last) location in Rockingham County this past week, located in Eden at Van Buren Road and Stadium Drive (it's right next door to King's Inn Pizza for those of y'all familiar with local geography). I paid my first visit to the new place today and was delighted to get another of their scrumptious Italian sandwiches. Up 'til now I've had to go to Greensboro or High Point for the nearest Sheetz. Now there's one just 20 minutes away! And like all the other Sheetz stores it's open 24 hours, 365 days a year.
So since this is about Sheetz, like the other two times I've posted on this blog about this company here's that "Feel The Love" commercial that's been running all summer...
And then there's this other commercial from a few years ago for the chain, that shamelessly apes televangelism...
Anyhoo, if you're in the area there's a new place for great food whenever you get the munchies. Check 'em out!
