MonKeyArtAwards

If You Can Read This Thank Your Optometrist

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Oh, And Can You Also Please Stop Making Overly Long Trailers That Are Essentially A Compressed Version Of The Entire Movie?

Dear Edwina,

Maybe I missed it, but it seems as though your vendor map is missing Kaleidoscope Film, one of Hollywood's original Trailer Houses founded by Andrew J. Kuehn who moved Kaleidoscope Films to Hollywood in 1968. 

Here is a Variety article about the beginning of the Fiber era between Kaleidoscope and Paramount in 1994 that includes quotes from then Kaleidoscope President, Steve Panama.

MonKeyArtAwards has always pursued a niche strategy (as marketing weenies like to say) focusing narrowly on print & outdoor advertising.

Our vendor map currently features a number of agencies that handle trailers in addition to print; however, if we were to include all trailer houses as well, it would add over 50 new locations to our already crowded landscape. More importantly, it would be a total pain in the ass to make those additions.

And while we’re at it, we are still miffed at how you trailer people muscled in on the Key Art Awards many years ago. They are awards for key art, for chrissake! You don’t see any of us CMYK-stained wretches sniffing around the Golden Trailer Awards now do you?

Shelfies

Take Your Silly Title Art To Billing Block Contractual Constraints And Shove Them Up Your Teaser

One of far-flung correspondents has unearthed this key art sub-species: images inside of grea, big, fat title treatments. 

It's Possible There Is Something That Screams ACTION MOVIE! Better Than A Guy With A Gun, But Whatever It Is, We're Pretty Sure The Client Doesn’t Want To See It

This guy John Burgerman is staging “interventions” in front of subway 2-sheets as a commentary on the blasted amount of violence in outdoor advertising.

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Additionally, we found this item at Ban Billboard Blight about guns on L.A. billboards:

"As the national debate over guns goes on, L.A. billboard companies and advertisers continue to saturate the visual environment with ads for movies and TV shows that feature actors firing and brandishing guns.

Mark Wahlberg, a star in 2 Guns, was quoted in an Australian newspaper in 2007 as saying he would be happy if all guns were taken away."

The article includes a link to this Deadline Hollywood clip posted shortly after Newton: 

We Might Ask Ourselves, “Who Gives A Shit?”

Of all the mail that came in during our hiatus, this one, which we received last November, is by far the most entertaining:

Dear Edwina, You might have to come outta retirement on this topic.

For year's now within our industry, IMPawards has become a staple to post and reference finished art campaigns from mainstream theatrical work, to indie festival and not to leave out cable networks. Throughout the growth of the website's popularity, there have been many-a-comments praising or bashing artwork. As most of us assumed, the majority of these anonymous comments were from the industry shops along with their employees, as well as competitors. As the comments grew out of control, IMP enforced, sort of, an accountability way to comment, in the sense that IF you were to write something, you had to log into your personal FB, Hotmail, etc. where you would verbally praise or abuse the artwork thus showing your cards. When this began to take shape there was a massive silence amongst ourselves. Until one day a certain partner from a major ad firm (hereafter referred to Agency X) decided to form fictitious people on Facebook. The first of them were pretty weak - all of them were called out by fellow peers. So as they became more savvy, “he” went to greater lengths to add photos, random friends, and info to these “fake fans of the entertainment industry”. 

We did some investigating on the latest and hottest movie fan “Jessika”. What's great about this "person" is that she's hot, young and is Agency X’s biggest fan! She seems to have a wealth of knowledge from famed artists and can call out a direct rip off of a misc.1970's poster that a competitor just finished, whilst only being 21 years old. We did a little digging and sure enough, “Jessika” is in fact another person on Facebook and Twitter.  What's further proof of these antics is that the partner over at Agency X is friends with her on FB!!! 

You might ask yourselves…who gives a shit? Well over the years, "he" has been directing people to artwork links to show how much the BUZZ their amazing art is getting! I say to you, you're not fooling anyone.

Following A Landmark Supreme Court Ruling, In Sync Marries Bemis Balkind And Lives Happily Ever After!

Throwing down the headline “In Sync And Bemis Balkind Merge To Create Formidable Ad Agency” the Finkeless Deadline Hollywood seems hell-bent on striking fear in the hearts of competitors with horrific visions of an out of control juggernaut with Smitty as CEO and Peter Bemins and Aubry Balkind serving as co-presidents.

When The Poo Hits Your Eye Like A Big Pizza Pie

Notwithstanding our promise of poo will be flung, it is never our intention to malign any individual, but rather to hold the entire field of entertainment advertising up to ridicule.

With that in mind, we wish to highlight the refudiation made by Rob McFarlane in the comments section of our February 6 post “Monkey See, Monkey Steal” in which we mave implied that Mr. McFarlane is a thieving monkey: We apologize and we stand corrected.*

Dear Edwina,

I almost didn't post at all because (at the risk of sounding like Woody Allen) the whole issue seems so absurd.  As anyone who's ever worked with me can attest, I'm perfectly capable of coming up with my own mediocre concepts without having to steal them from Anne Kingston's brother.  With all due respect to Mr. Kingston, if I'm going to rip-off another designer I'll stick with the likes of Stephen Frankfurt, Saul Bass, and Milton Glaser.  In any event, I appreciate the chance to share my side of the story with the four or five people who are likely to care.  

Sincerely, Rob McFarlane

Here is a repost of Mr. McFarlane's comment:

As the guy who wrote the copy line and came up with concept for the Ant Farm “Family Stone” poster I fully admit to stealing the idea. I stole it from an unused concept sketch I did for “The Third Wife’s Club” back in 1995 (I’ve found that if you keep submitting the same idea over and over there’s a chance it’ll eventually stick). Suffice to say I’d never laid eyes on the Anne Kingston book cover prior to the point at which Fox contacted the Ant Farm.

More to the point, Fox’s lawyers were able to produce at least one other example of the same basic concept having been produced prior to Ms. Kingston’s book cover (a European album cover, if memory serves). What’s amusing is to me is that Ms. Kingston regards the ring/ finger concept as being so original and unique that only her brother could have conceived it.

My only regret is that Rupert Murdoch never asked me to join forces with him in an evil plot to steal an obscure, and not terribly inventive, dust jacket concept. Because that would have been awesome!

…In an earlier post I’d made mention of an album cover, but I'm pretty sure I was thinking of this Kurt Cobain photo. Point being (for the three or four of you who still care) if anyone got ripped-off it was probably Cobain and his photographer.

*Not to be confused with standing with Art Corrector/Art Korrector, a known provocateur and lanceur de poo here on MonKeyArtAwards.

If You Can't Join 'Em, Lick 'Em.

Dear Edwina,

It's different, you see, because they flipped the image. And one has a dog. And one has circa-late-90's retouching.

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Getting A Head Start In The Race To The Bottom

One of our far-flung correspondents sent us this from HuffPo: This Guy Stopped Charging Clients And He Has Zero Regrets about Adrian Hoppel, a Philadelphia web designer who uses the "gift economy” rather than charging clients an agreed upon amount.

Hoppel says, “Most clients gifted me with payment, and the payment is more than I ever received in the traditional model, which was based on negotiation and the lowest bid wins, instead of the gift model which is based on mutual respect and fairness.

Working in the gift [model] does not mean that I work for free, or that I give my work away without care. It means that people trust me to build them a website, and I trust them to support my work as they believe fair.”

 Uh huh. Uh huh. We’ve got a pretty good idea why a bloodsucker like Arianna Huffington is promoting this paradigm as the Third Metric: the idea that life should be guided not by the pursuit of money, but by those qualities that make us better people, like wisdom, empathy and personal well-being. 

So stop hounding your employer for a raise or whining to your clients about their paltry budgets and embrace your better self as you slide into the abyss.

Strictly speaking, if you are an artist, whether you be a fine one or a graphic one, you are not a professional, but a tradesperson. 

Monkey See. Monkey Steal.

Dear Edwina,

On the left, a poster created by The Ant Farm in 2005. On the right, a poster created by mOcean in 2013. I see a few similarities here. I'm glad you're posting again!

Well, neither augurs well for the state of matrimony, but the one on the right is merely an example of Monkey See, Monkey Do Something Different, while the one on the left clearly says, “Fuck you, Robert Kingston!” 

Anne Kingston’s The Meaning of Wife was published in 2004. The concept for the book cover came from the author's brother, Robert Kingston, who works as a creative director in advertising in Toronto. When The Family Stone poster came out, Anne's lawyers contacted Fox requesting that it change the key art. 

"It's a total uphill battle," she said. "We're dealing with Rupert Murdoch, right? But it's just infuriating."

Update: One of our readers, a Mr. Phillip Bates, has pointed out the one sheet for Committed (2000) which predates the book jacket design.

It’s The Remix To Ignition Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce Bounce

We recently came across this comment posted by Welcome Back Edwina!: "Time to move Ignition to their new combo digs. They're one big happy family now!"

Thank you for the update. At first glance at The Google's map we thought they had re-located to the hardware aisle of the Marina Del Rey Home Depot, but we see now that they are just across the street.

Welcome to Playa Vista, Ignition: Future home of DreamWorks SKG Studios!!! lol. jk.