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[vilakins]

It's December and it's said to be summer (it's still pretty cold out in that wind though) so it must be time for the B7 Advent Calendar. It's different this year; they're showing distorted pictures each day with the original a day later (is today's Egrorian?) There's also a Doctor Who Advent Calendar (thanks to mraltariel for the link) - sound warning.

After some nostalgia about the Shipping Forecast and the Goodnight Kiwi (the closedown sequence for TV2 which I adored and always watched till the end) on trixeleitz's LJ, here are some of my favourite commercials. Five of them are for Instant Kiwi, a scratchie, which was known for doing funny ads with expressive actors. I am extremely saddened that I can't find my favourite though: the truckie who drives a whole house over the widening gap in a lifting bridge: the editing and facial expressions are just superb.

Instant Kiwi: bungy fishing - the first one in the series, I think
Instant Kiwi: skeet shooting - I used to rewind and watch this one again
Instant Kiwi: romantic bike ride - not good quality video, but I hope you can see the expressions on the guy's face: so cute
Instant Kiwi: rubbish collection - silly and now illegal (they don't take garden waste) but once again it's the expressions
Instant Kiwi: exam room - the most recent one, and the only one which actually uses the product!
World Famous in NZ since ages ago - this one's still on TV: a blast from the fashion -disaster past of the 70s. L&P stands for Lemon and Paeroa, a soft drink, and their slogan is deliberately contradictory.

Comments

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

I thought today's picture is Jenna.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yesterday's is Jenna (silly round planet). Check out day 2. :-)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Oh! I forgot you need to click on them. Ok, day 2 I think is ...umm... going out on a limb. I'll guess it's Avon.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Because of the silver? I don't remember an outfit like that. Hmm, what about old Star-Killer Samor?

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

I think you're right and it's Samor. Avon did have a silver jumpsuit in Gold, but the nose is too pointy for him, even distorted. If I had a sheet of silver mylar I could roll it into a tube and un-distort the pic to be sure.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The next day, if you click on the small pic, you can see the proper one. The Jenna one is lovely.

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks for the tip. I clicked on the little garbled one for the 2nd also, and in the blow up it's easier to see. I do think it's Samor. I wonder if they know the page says it's the 2005 Advent Calendar?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I noticed that yesterday, but I can't see it now. Did you refresh?

They have a forum for guessing too.

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

Yes, I refreshed. It's 2006 everywhere *except* for the page name that's on the top of my browser. They didn't change the page name (maybe deliberately, because if they changed it, they'd also have to change all the links to it. )

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah, the title. That doesn't show on my browser tab. I'll tell them; the title doesn't affect linking anyway; that only uses the URL.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I was right! It's Samor! The one for day 3 is hard: I'll guess Jarriere.

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing Servalan for day 3. There's not a lot to judge by.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should have a daily guessing post. :-P

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

*grin* Could put it on B7 Friday each week with a link to the calendar? I hunted and eventually found the forum guessing thread, but it's awfully slow for me, and I'd have to register to guess.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I used to belong but they cancelled my rego when I hadn't posted for ages. It's easy enough to sign up; I should do that.

[trixieleitz]

Hee! I remember when the skeet shooting one came out; teenagers were writing in to various TV-related publications to demonstrate how much they were missing the point by protesting that, "actually, those bands are really good!"

Shame you can't find the house one - I don't remember it, maybe it was airing while I was in the UK. I'll keep an eye open for it, it sounds fun.

Hadn't seen the exam room one before, either, and those accents sound Australian to me. But it's obviously a New Zealand product.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I hadn't seen it before either, but when searching for the house one, I found it on French and German sites. Mind you, since we got the TiVos in 2000, I hardly see any ads.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

I think my favorite is the first ad, although the exam ad is also wonderful

The commentary following the the World Famous ad is amazingly hostile. I can't believe people got so foul-mouthed furious over claiming country of origin of a brand of shorts!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I never read the comments and I won't now. Bloody hell, the ad's supposed to be funny, and it's advertising the drink, not the stubbies.

[kerr-avon.livejournal.com]

Yep, I'd run across similar things a few times on U-tube. Someone puts up something funny, and someone else gets all bent out of shape and toilet-mouthed because of some perceived insult that they pull out of nowhere.

[communicator.livejournal.com]

Hee, those ads are cute as anything

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They're fun, aren't they? The less than 10% that aren't rubbish.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Hee! Oh, these are great, thanks for posting them. I love funny ads. I'm trying to think of my favourite ones now...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It's a pity they're low-quality vids, but they're so well done. If only I could find the one with the house going over the bridge. So cool.

I'd love to see some UK ones. I enjoy those "world's best ads" clipshows; although I usually despise advertising, cleverness and wit will get me every time.

[mraltariel.livejournal.com]

I love L&P, and now I love it even more, having seen that ad.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

You get L&P over there? Cool!

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

One question, what is "Instant Kiwiw" advertising?
Love the adverts!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

A scratchie (one of those lotteries where you scratch the surface off the ticket to expose the results). Have you see My Name is Earl? He wins big on one. You can see the student using Instant Kiwi scratchie in the exam room clip.

Hee; these ads were shown round the world as examples of brilliant ones, but they had no idea what they were for either. One European channel thought they promoted national pride. Every here knows what the product is (part of the culture) so I suppose they just didn't bother to show it.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

so kinda like a lottery scratchcard? - win money?
I had seen the exam one before but not the others - It made Tarrant on TV.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

so kinda like a lottery scratchcard? - win money?

Yep, exactly! :-D

Tarrant on TV? You mean as opposed to B7? ;-) Quite a few of the Instant Kiwi ads made it onto those international 'best ads' clipshows, though a couple of them thought the ads were promoting national pride.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Lol Chris Tarrant - its a clip show showing the funniest ads etc from around the world.

Had a mental image of a Blake's 7 version!
Can you imagine Vila advertising Adrenaline and Soma, Avon the latest in Tarial cells

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Ah. I've probably seen it then. I like those shows.

I actually did some B7 ads (http://www.farsight.net.nz/fiction/ads.htm) a while back.