85 posts tagged “tvc”

I somehow think there are fewer big car stunts tonight on Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei. At 8.15 p.m. on RTL. Looks more like an episode of Water Rats.

Now that I’ve figured out how to watch these on the RTL site, I am very much looking forward to this week’s instalment of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei.

I stumbled across this TVC by accident. It was Norwich Union renaming itself Aviva late last year, and features Bruce Willis, Elle Macpherson, Alice Cooper and Ringo Starr. The idea was that each of these celebrities changed their name before they became famous.
   I am not sure if the first two qualify: the first was born Walter Bruce Willis and from what I can tell, was just known as Bruce. I’ve a few friends in the same boat, where their families called them by their middle names. Elle Macpherson might have been Eleanor Gow, but Elle is a reasonable shortening of Eleanor, and Macpherson was her stepfather’s surname.
   Alice Cooper was indeed Vincent Furnier and Ringo Starr was Richard Starkey.
   I imagine Elton John, Cliff Richard and Michael Caine weren’t available.

A pity that John Hillerman is still putting on his English accent and Magnum, PI Higgins persona in this 1989 TVC. I expected to hear his original Texan drawl.

Carrying on from a post that Jaklumen made on his blog, I went to look for the Lucy Lawless-headed Greenpeace campaign to reduce emissions. This is Lucy Lawless as Lucy Lawless, and her accent has changed a great deal since I saw her in the Shark in the Park episode ‘Double or Quits’. It has Americanized slightly, which is no surprise since she is married to an American and has a home in LA.

This series of Alarm für Cobra 11 seems to have Semir and Ben going undercover more. Last week’s 200th episode took them on to water and off-road, rather than on the Autobahn, while here’s next week’s preview:

As long as I can have my car chases and eye-popping Euro stunts, I really don’t mind …

Darn it, Selma Blair has a heck of a great voice.

Looks like I finally got in to compose on Vox after an hour. I’ve tried proxy servers, and the site is slow through there, too.
   The latest series, starting next week, of Alarm für Cobra 11: die Autobahnpolizei looks really good. First up is a compilation of TV promos on RTL:

Although my most recent flight was Air New Zealand, when flying the Virgin affiliate out this way, Pacific Blue, you get to see some cool things. You are not sheltered with those poncy air bridges that the wimps use. It’s down the stairs and out on the tarmac—where I spotted this sign:

   If you run out of aprons at the airport, you need to activate the alarm. Very important. They take cooking really seriously there, even if airline food sucks.
   Or does it? Air New Zealand has heralded the return of the vegetarian chips! These were last served domestically on Qantas flights in 2003 and when I told that to the crew today, I was given three bags! Go Air New Zealand! (Yes, I was bribed with three bags of chips.)
   The distracting thing was that the safety announcements are now done in the nude on this airline. Before you get excited, it’s a video, the crew members are wearing body paint, and there is nothing revealing. The issue is you are getting the same sort of laugh you would with those gags in, say, the Austin Powers movies, where you wonder how they are going to cover various body parts up. It ties in to a campaign they are running: And in fact, you can see this for yourself (the blonde stewardess served us today, clothed): I warned her that if they ever heard the acronym NIFOC from the cockpit, then they might not want to go in. I said it stood for Naked In Front of the Cockpit, which isn’t exactly true—I learned the expression from a nudist I knew many years ago (the C stands for computer).
   But the point is I paid no attention to what they said, which defeats the purpose of the safety video.
   Finally, here’s a curiosity which I think should go on to Font Police: No, it’s not the use of “dumb quotes” that has me concerned, but why is it in quotes anyway? It’s like Christchurch Airport doesn’t mean it, and that they are merely quoting something someone else has said. Disappointingly, it is in Frutiger, which means instant anonymity as far as airports are concerned. Of airport signage, this is actually stranger than the apron emergency.

I watched an episode of Leverage on a Chinese site, along with some promos, yesterday. It looks OK, but the best way to describe it is Hustle-lite. It’s not bad: apparently, the creators wanted to re-create some of the heist shows of the ’70s (shows? I can only think of Switch) and came up with this idea: an honest man leads a team of four reformed crooks to help innocent people get back what is rightfully theirs. Apart from having a “client”, the show is not unlike Hustle, with a bit of It Takes a Thief thrown in. (Summary, however: Hustle is better.)
   The surprise was seeing Jekyll’s Gina Bellman as the lead actress opposite Timothy Hutton. Bellman is a New Zealand-born actress, and it surprises me that not more mention is made of her—especially when we are so ready to champion other programmes and movies with an even more tenuous connection with this country. (It’s a bit like how Andrew Niccol is treated here.) Here is a promo for the show with Bellman and Hutton, which illustrates that they are quite humorous people away from their acting:

   A good show, from what I could tell, but not a must-watch for me. It is in to its second season in the US.