My Life
Let’s be honest, I’ve never been a terrible fan of credit card promotion. Aside from the annoying letters and pre-approved cards I endlessly receive in the mail, my primary annoyance is witty credit card commercials. Ah yes…There have been several attempts by various card companies to make a remarkable credit card commercial. Along that path, over the past few years we have seen notable attempts involving everything from Robert DeNiro to the Patriots.
While these attempts have been steadily better, I’ve never been outright amused by a credit card commercial…and certainly not enticed to sign up.
Maybe this can be traced back to my parents and their employment at American Express. American Express isn’t a bad company. They put food on the table. But I never really took pleasure in the idea that my parents worked for a corporate beast…and that they wanted to see this beast grow. I simply couldn’t wrap my mind around devoting oneself to a corporate institution like that. Not that they were obsessed mind you…simply supportive. I believe that as a result, I cannot stand credit card advertisement.
Over the last couple of months however, American Express has called a truce.
Yes, they reached a loving hand out through a new series of commercials and said, “We’ll meet you halfway Brock”. Not literally…but their latest set of filmmaker focused advertisements couldn’t amuse me more.
It all started with ads featuring name actors like DeNiro and Kate Winslet. As they walked through some urban environment or backlot, voice over would ramp in, narrating for us their “daily life”.
Clever?
I’ll admit.
Amusing?
Nope.
But then, these “My Life” commercials moved into odd territory with an M. Night Shyamalan inspired commercial. The difference herein is that American Express gave free reign to Shyamalan, letting him direct the commercial and, in effect, make a two-minute short. The ad unfolds around Shyamalan sitting (uncomfortably) in a restaurant, taking note of all the strange events happening around him. There’s even a little “familiar” moment when a girl drops some wine glasses, only to have them shatter to the ground below.
It’s not the best cinematic experience since Signs, but it’s strangely funny. I had to give it to American Express; they made a commercial with one of my favorite filmmakers…and, ingeniously, let him direct it.
So, there was a sort of compromise.
But tonight, I saw their latest ad. A commercial for Wes Anderson.
Genius. When a commercial opens with Jason Schwartzman and a Sikh(?) blowing up a car with a ballpoint pen detonator, rest assured that you’ve won me over.
The rest of the commercial unfolds as Anderson walks through a film set, acting very “director-like”, in one of his trademark, ridiculously lengthy tracking shots. “Can you do a .357 with a bayonet?” Anderson asks his prop-master. A shrug. “Yeah, I don’t see why not.” It’s a funny piece that is largely unexpected. I mean, I can understand the Shyamalan commercial; he’s emerged as a filmmaker that Joe Everyman equates with the word “director”. But Wes Anderson? I thought his influence rarely extended beyond film school and New Yorker subscribers.
And yet, I have to kind of applaud American Express for making commercials with quirky, fresh new directors as opposed to picking familiar hats like Spielberg or Lucas. Not only that, but these commercials completely embrace what these directors are about. They’re not just cookie-cutter pieces with Anderson or Shyamalan standing in front of a white backdrop, waxing useless on the importance of owning an Amex card. They are completely in the style of said filmmaker.
Let us mark it: the first time I’ve enjoyed a credit card commercial…ever.
My next wish is that they keep up with the director-centric commercials and make one with a music video giant: Spike Jonze or Michel Gondry.
