MonKeyArtAwards

From Our Archives

What To Name The Baby

If you’re like us, you know the hardest part of starting a new business is coming up with a name for it. Unless the name comes to you first and the business follows in due course. (Which is how we ended up running a funeral parlor in the Sierras called Mammoth Undertaking.)

So, if you’ve got your heart set on opening up your very own entertainment advertising agency and you’re stumped as to what to call your workers’ paradise, we offer these suggestions:

1. Fanciful, Pickwickian names that speak to a muted ecstasy deep within your soul:

  Graphic Infection

  Dr. Lovefont's Feel Good Designatorium

  Breakfast At Epiphany's

  Pixelophilia

  Unbridled Enthusiasm, Inc.

2. Manly names intended to obscure what is really a silly, fussy occupation:

  The Tool Shed

  The Steal Mill

  Creative Sweat Shop

  Art Butcher

3. Solipsistic names that slyly reference esoteric aspects of this industry:

  The Whinery

  White Slavers of The Westside

  Creative Panderers

  One Sheet To The Wind

Plus these gems submitted by our readers:

Polish Chop Shop

Helvetica Unlimited

Simmerin' Bacon O' Fryin'

B. F. D.

Fart Machine

Pemis

Indignation

Stockholm Syndrome

Small Vox

Ruptured Arterie

Petrol Refinery

Fox Inthechickenhouse

Art Misery

At What Point Do You Give In And Admit You’re In The Porn Business?

Client Fancy: The Magazine For Account Execs

Okay Glass, Now Show Me The Golf Ball Size Tumor You're Growing In My Brain

Here's a preview of Preview, a Google Glass app that allows you to watch a movie trailer instantly by just looking at a movie poster.

Miss Holloway Regrets

Dear Edwina,

 Not sure if you've seen the art for hulu's latest offering, but it's similar to an old piece of key art for House M.D., wouldn't you say?

The thing is, the House ad looks playful, the Deadbeat art makes Tyler Labine look like a pedophile who drives a van with blacked out windows.

Maybe it's just me, but I do NOT want candy from that man.

Hope you're having a good one; I love your blog.

Signed, Joan Holloway

Tune-Out Advertising: The Paleozoic Era

Dear Edwina,

I would have thought this had trickled to you already... apparently, someone with too much time on his hands has scanned and digitized decades of TV Guide ads that appeared in his local Toledo, Ohio edition:

VintageToledoTVGuideAds

If, like me, you cut your teeth and built your golden legacy on Fox, NBC and CBS TV Guide ads (I thought one day my tombstone might be a TV Guide ad), then you will appreciate the joy and horror of this website.

Sincerely, Hugh G. Rection

Not included in Mr. Rection's Toledo treasure trove is the vintage Letterman TV Guide ad below. Judging by the station place-holder, we assume it never had its moment of dot gain glory.

Click on images to enlarge.

Too Bad They Couldn’t Get Bob Peak For Season 6... Or Patrick Nagel For Season 20

Here’s the New York Times piece on Milton Glaser and Mad Men's Season 7 key art.

Error 404 Lost And Not Found

Out of consideration to our comrades in the field we have taken down the “fu” poster until further notice. We have been told that it will go back online at a later date. We certainly hope so because it was/is an excellent piece.

How Can Anything As Dumb As Key Art Be Considered Intellectual Property?

Dear Edwina,

 Here’s an interesting topic sure to cause a poo tornado.

Recently your blog had a lot of chatter about mOcean dissolving departments, along with comments praising Deadline.  Here’s the truth about what Deadline was really about.

Deadline was sold to CMP (now mOcean) for undisclosed $$$. Now a certain someone is leaving mOcean to start a new creative agency using mostly old Deadline portfolio samples (many projects but not all can also be seen on mOcean's online portfolio.)

2 agencies, 1 portfolio (even the same digital files are used!)

First of all, we’re going to downgrade this from a poo tornado to category 2 gust of poo.

We’ve seen this happen several times following an agency split up. It’s always so hard on the children. 

Suppose Glorious Art Director leaves Horribly Rotten Design Group; is it ethical for Horribly Rotten Design Group to continue to include Glorious Art Director's finishes in their portfolio if there is no longer anyone in house capable of producing that quality of work? If Glorious Art Director sets up shop, does he have the right to display work done while he was employed at Horribly Rotten Design Group?

Or, suppose we throw a fabulous party on Saturday and another one the following Tuesday - is it really so terrible if we serve stale leftovers from Saturday’s party to our guests on Tuesday?

Fight Club

If You Can Read This Thank Your Optometrist

Click on image to enlarge.

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?