Something has bugged me about that Sky+HD Supertelly advert since I first saw it. At first I just thought it was because it's had me doing a Gene Wilder impersonation and singing Pure Imagination at the most inappropriate times. It's a sad song, mainly because, in Willy Wonka's colourful, hallucinogenic environment, if you want to view paradise all you have to do is simply look around and view it. "Anything you want to," sings Willy, "do it. Want to change the world? There's nothing to it." If only, eh?
Things came into some kind of focus last night, when I went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D, and the Sky ad came on while I was trying to concentrate on eating all the food and drinking all the drinks I'd bought before the film started*. I turned to eldest son Scott and suggested to him that there's nothing imaginative about subscribing to a Sky package. Indeed, you don't really need an imagination at all to watch the tellybox, do you, it is a passive medium. And imagination is even less of a requirement in the high definition world, where, as I seem to remember a salesman telling me when I was having a slow day once, every blade of grass can be picked out individually. Why, it's more realistic than life itself (at which point I thought I better shut up, as the "put on your 3D glasses NOW!" notice had appeared on screen).
The advert is set amid a Huxleyan Fordesque assembly line - a factory - which, I imagine, is very much the environment that Murdoch has created within his many Sky-related call centres. As such, the ad itself is a post-modern, unimaginative parody of all of those car adverts featuring robots and also Monsters Inc. The problem being that, for the most part, Sky are at the most unimaginative end of the TV business - they buy their imaginative products and creativity from elsewhere. "Your TV, with a Sky+ box, is Supertelly," we're told. But pure imagination? I don't think. Unless, when you're watching Pineapple Dance Studios or endless repeats of American Gladiators, what is going through your mind is...
There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be
I dunno. Maybe listen to the radio once in a while? Read a book? Experience a live event by actually going to it?
Things came into some kind of focus last night, when I went to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in 3D, and the Sky ad came on while I was trying to concentrate on eating all the food and drinking all the drinks I'd bought before the film started*. I turned to eldest son Scott and suggested to him that there's nothing imaginative about subscribing to a Sky package. Indeed, you don't really need an imagination at all to watch the tellybox, do you, it is a passive medium. And imagination is even less of a requirement in the high definition world, where, as I seem to remember a salesman telling me when I was having a slow day once, every blade of grass can be picked out individually. Why, it's more realistic than life itself (at which point I thought I better shut up, as the "put on your 3D glasses NOW!" notice had appeared on screen).
The advert is set amid a Huxleyan Fordesque assembly line - a factory - which, I imagine, is very much the environment that Murdoch has created within his many Sky-related call centres. As such, the ad itself is a post-modern, unimaginative parody of all of those car adverts featuring robots and also Monsters Inc. The problem being that, for the most part, Sky are at the most unimaginative end of the TV business - they buy their imaginative products and creativity from elsewhere. "Your TV, with a Sky+ box, is Supertelly," we're told. But pure imagination? I don't think. Unless, when you're watching Pineapple Dance Studios or endless repeats of American Gladiators, what is going through your mind is...
There is no
Life I know
To compare with
Pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly
Wish to be
I dunno. Maybe listen to the radio once in a while? Read a book? Experience a live event by actually going to it?
If you must, you can view the Sky+HD Supertelly advert on youtube here
*Slightly hampered by two latecomers knocking son Sam's skateboard flying in the air, which propelled a drink into the row in front.
1 comment:
That ad really gets my goat, too. 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory' (or 'Charlie & the Chocolate Factory' as the original used to be called, I believe, before it was changed) is a classic film; everytime that ad comes on i think it's a trailer for the film.
what's more, i'm sure the music is being used on another ad at the moment, again unrealted to chocolate or Willy Wonka.
Adrian
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