Drug company ads: drop dead, please!

I have three children (two daughters). And on the rare occasions that we watch something on TV i am appalled and embarrassed at the crassness and stupidity and sheer number of drug ads for various ailments that afflict aging baby boomers – guys who can’t urinate, guys who urinate too much, guys who can’t get it up, guys who can get it up but want more to get up etc. what if all this brainpower was turned on curing something useful, like cancer?

here’s the effect this pharma-bombing is having on my tv viewing: it has completely stopped. why on earth would anyone want to endure that crap? it used to be that the tv advertising environment was only mildly poisoned by idea-free dumbness for clothes detergents. now it has become completely toxic. if the TV networks had a shred of concern for their viewing audience they would tell these advertisers to jump in the lake. or at least take in a dunk in one of the two (what?) Cialis bath tubs that overlook the lake. the money they make is more than offset by the viewers lost.

now if i like a show i buy the dvd, watch it online or video-on-demand. life is simply too short.

Grow up P.E.T.A.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has produced yet another embarrassingly stupid ad. This time they’ve decided that, in 2009, it’s OK to objectify women to produce a “controversial” ad that, shock horror, was refused placement on the Super Bowl. Wow. Like that idea hasn’t been tiresomely done year after year by Godaddy.com and other clueless and unimaginative marketers.

Let me be clear. I love animals. I have a dog, a rabbit (and i’m allergic to rabbits), a guinea pig and a parakeet. I am PETA’s natural constituency. Who doesn’t love animals? Yet PETA continues to produce ads that are amateurish, tone-deaf, insensitive, and alienating. And now we can add puerile and sexist to that list. And what if NBC actually had allowed their stupid ad to run? Oh, that’s right, my young daughters and I would have been embarrassed while watching the game. Nice one guys.

Listen up PETA. Your attempts at self-promotion are just woeful. Please stop wasting money and embarrassing yourself and animal lovers everywhere. It’s having the opposite effect to what you think.

I can help you PETA. I am an experienced ad professional. I have done famous work that people liked. I could make America love you in a matter of months. Call me on my cell. (630) 606-0567.

I am an experienced expert. Do not try this at home!

That’s me (Vinny Warren) rubbing the head of a mountain lion. It was early morning and i was on a Budweiser shoot in California and slightly hung over. Still a bit giggly from the previous night, i noticed that the animal wrangler on the shoot (the spot featured a dog) had brought along three mountain lions which he’d chained up in the back yard of the rather luxurious house we were shooting at in the mountains outside LA. To my still slightly inebriated eyes, they looked very cute and placid.

I assumed, incorrectly, that these mountain lions were the nice, cuddly and domesticated variety of mountain lion. You know, THE TYPE THAT DOESN’T EXIST! So i foolishly got on the ground next to them and cuddled with them, putting my arms around their necks and generally treating them like huge puddy tats! Only then did i suddenly notice how HUGE their paws and jaws were. And i became a bit concerned. So i asked the animal wrangler why he’d brought them. his response soon sobered me up. “Oh, i just bought them and i thought bringing them here would help them get used to being around people!”. In other words, I was the first human these man-eating felines had  contact with.  Ever!  The blood drained from my face as I slooooowly got up and walked out of paw’s reach.

I should note that this is only one of a series of photos i had taken that day. this was the smallest of the three mountain lions i cavorted with that day.   i will try and find the others.