the Man is keepin us down.

[TheMacB]

So we just finished this new spot for a sporting goods store called Mills & Greer. We love it. The client loves it. Its our favorite spot we've ever made. And Comcast won't air it. Bummer, huh?

Here it is:
www.elmatadorfilms.com/millsandgreer.mov
www.elmatadorfilms.com/millsandgreer.wmv

[THoff]

That's too bad, the commercial is funny as heck! Start a viral campaign.

[Smettli]

Really fun and quality spot, let's hope "The Man" won't be a bi*** next time :)

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Comcast won't air it? How do they get to censor?

[Robbie Comeau]

maybe they wont air it cuz hes neked lol

[Barry_S]

I'm not surprised they declined to air your spot, because the shot where he falls to the ice looks pretty iffy and you can hardly tell anything is pixelated. I'm sure you could re-edit and increase the pixellated area (make it much larger) and get them to air it. As log as you know he's naked, the gag will still work.

[THoff]

make it much largerMake what much larger?

Hah, I crack myself up sometimes!

[iDV8]

Well done commercial but I'm surprised that you don't see whey they won't put it on TV (I assume Comcast is cable TV?) If he were standing there is some boxers with hearts all over them or something equally ridiculous I bet they'd air it and it wouldn't loose any of it's effect, in fact it would be more universally accepted.

[TheMacB]

yeah, i can understand why they won't air it. but its still disappointing. i try to see who could be hurt by airing a spot like this and i don't think anybody could. i don't think it is in any way detremental to kids. which i assume is the main concern. of course it will offend those people who are looking for something to complain about. And I guess avoiding that is important to Comcast. It just bugs me.

when they didn't go for it, we suggested using a black box instead of pixellation. they said No. the rule is NO IMPLIED NUDITY. So we suggested boxer shorts (which means a reshoot). They said NO. They said we would have to use real shorts- nothing that could be considered "underwear".

Then we showed them this spot:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5PeyGh2Ciw

This aired on Comcast stations and is pretty much targeted at kids. We're hoping they'll see this and then at least comprimise on boxer shorts. (although i don't understand why they won't just go for the dang black box so we could avoid reshooting)

anyway, we're getting great responses from people who do see it, and like THoff suggested, we'll be spreading it around by email.

[THoff]

Instead of doing a reshoot, shoot new commercials for other sports (provided the client isn't selling just ice hockey gear) -- you can use the same concept for football, socker, baseball, luge, whatever. Keep the new commercials toned down to make it palatable to Comcast, and use the existing ice hockey commercial viraly.

[TheMacB]

Comcast has approved Boxer Shorts! so we're reshooting tomorrow.

THoff, that's a good idea. but in order to fix this spot it will only take 4 shots and 2 actors. it would be considerably more expensive for the client if we were to produce a whole new spot. and more importantly, it would be a while longer before anything got on the air (we'd have to secure locations and cast and edit) and this was supposed to be on the air yesterday.

so it looks like everything will turn out fine in the end (just a little late). I'm still very disappointed in Comcast. I understand that they're just following a policy but I honestly don't see what harm a spot like this would do. Especially if we were to put a big black box over his mid-section or make the blurred area bigger like Barry S suggested. Unfortunately, we don't have a choice. If Mills & Greer wants a spot on cable its Comcast's way or the highway. I guess we're even lucky that they approved boxer shorts. Oh well. Live and learn, right?

[Matty_g]

Man that sponge bob no pants ad made me feel weird. Also, that used to play allll the time. I mean, the dude's kids are right there!

[TheMacB]

that's what i'm saying!

[Matty_g]

The first time i saw that i looked to my girlfriend and we both had that shocked "is this real" look on our faces.
Anyway, at least yours will finally make it on t.v.
Maybe if you were burger king they'd let the original slide ;)

[TheMacB]

good news, somebody's got some sense: WVNY, the local ABC affiliate has agreed to air the spot as is. Woo-hoo! We'll still have to do the boxer shorts version for Comcast because cable represents a huge portion of the client's demo. But at least some people will get to see it the way we intended.