Brilliant Advertising

Recently I found myself helping some classmates by volunteering at the Auto Expo in town.

What amazed me the most was the advertising tactics used by companies to make you want to look at their cars. For example Honda had their car flanked with men marching on a spinning turntable, it was very chick, very French Revolution. Toyota, however, won the battle.

They had a whole television studio re-created in the convention centre. They had TVs, a Green Screen and even an obnoxious, VERY enthusiastic guy who would not stop talking about the "Moving Forward Studio's", all a script Toyota paid him to say.

The premise is that people are told they can do an actual on the spot screen test to be the new Toyota spokesperson. All they have to do is sign a waiver, get in front of the camera and read some cue cards. You even get your own DVD copy, that you can, AND SHOULD, put on Facebook, Youtube and Myspace. Funny...that sounds like free-advertising Toyota, starring people I ACTUALLY KNOW!? What better reason is there to sit through, and pay attention to a commercial? And did they pay me to advertise their product? Nope.

Well as it turns out we made one, Joe, Mia, Julie and I took some liberties and drizzled this performance with a little camp. I of course rushed home and put it on facebook, myspace, youtube and now my blog. Enjoy.



It would seem I am not the only one eager to put this on the tube...

This girl should have picked a shorter commercial... (More time in the glass line...eh?)

and...

This guy is the best I found. He has such passion and is such a great communicator...A back-up camera indeed. (click, click)

Congratulations Toyota, these are some of the most brilliant commercials ever.

My name is BEN.

Start Rant:

I don't know about you, but for the past few years I've come to know IMDB as a reliable, accurate online resource where I can waste time learning things about actors via their online resume's. For example who knew that Lily Tomlin was the voice of Ms. Frizzle on The Magic School Bus? Or that Idina Menzel was on the Beowulf soundtrack. Which I TOTALLY bought...

BUT, my point in all this is that recently I discovered that IMDB has some also less-then-accurate information...

For example it says that Carol Channing was born in Washington in 1921, but we all know that she was actually born on another planet in 1843, making her 165, not 87, that is a big discrepancy folks!

Oh and here is the kicker: I looked myself up, and was pleasantly surprised when I had a listing for Triple Sensation, but upon further investigation I discovered that under "Garth Drabinsky - Himself", I am listed as "Ben Durocher - HERSELF". That's right folks, HERSELF. I mean this would be understandable if my name were more ambiguous like Aaron, or Chris or KD...but BEN? Come now, not acceptable.

End rant.

On another note, my STARmeter is up 764% since last week...I whish I knew what i did...

Hilarious Photo Shoot

So my friend Greg found this crazy spot that features a graveyard of giant, old signs from restaurants. I figured a hilarious photo shoot was necessary, so some of my other friends and I took these wicked shots:



Absolutely, it is art.



I never thought to eat at Arby's before, but apparently it is delicious....and that sign is HUGE.


Never seen this place before, must be an American thing....


John was inspired to work on his tan....



This board matches my skin tone well. Too bad this isn't a real Howard Johnson's, I could go for ice cream right now.




Cheers!

Triple Sensation

As you may know, I was recently on a CBC television show called Triple Sensation, see official site here. This is a montage of some of my "on air" time. Enjoy!
(And please stay tuned for my REAL blogging to start.)