"Ghostbusters" was a remake?!?

If this trailer on Youtube is to be believed, "Ghostbusters" actually came out in 1954 -- thirty years before the one we all saw when we were kids.


The New York Times called this Youtube video "incredible."

Other words come to mind: how about "mindblowing", "awesome" , and "jawdropping"?

Ivan Guerrero, formerly of McCann Erickson Philippines (and a friend from the University of Asia and the Pacific), the mindblowingly, awesome guy with jawdropping editing skills (and a cavernous movie archive, it seems) also has a behind-the-scenes, annotated version:



Darn good job, Ivan!

Family comes first

My 6-year old daughter has been taught well to understand that family is more important than anything else -- at least when it comes to choosing priorities, she knows that family activities and concerns come before the more self-centered ones, like computer/internet time or TV-watching time.

Which is all really just a weak way for me to segue to the following family-centred TVCs which struck home.

The first one, for reminding me of the big empty spaces in my own family and in my wife's as well -- huge chasms opened up by the deaths of our fathers, spaces which used to be filled with the sound of their voices, noises, laughter, anecdotes, quirks, foibles, and brilliant things which only daddies could and would do.



And then there's this other commercial that made me
1. scared of even the remotest possibility of going through life without my wife
2. want to give my daughter a big hug later when I get home
3. glad that I was lucky to have had a dad who was in many ways just like the dad in the material.



A tear fell, as they say.

--

Both of these commercials were created by Yasmin Ahmad, ECD of Leo Burnett Malaysia, who died of a stroke over the weekend. She was also behind the Tan Hong Ming video we featured a few posts ago.

Yasmin Ahmad, thank you. May you rest in peace.

How to sell car insurance using a Meerkat

Ever typed something in the URL bar and discovered you were a bit dyslexic in your typing AFTER you clicked "Enter"?

That's apparently pretty common as evidenced in this video for CompareTheMeerkat.com which is just a few misplaced keystrokes away from CompareTheMarket.com, a car insurance comparison site.

It's quite engaging though not connected really to car insurance --- which is fine.

If I'm any indicator of how the rest of the internet population would act, it'd work. I clicked on the insurance site after I did the Meerkat, and I'm not likely to forget the insurance site now. And, worst case scenario , let's say I DID forget the name of the insurance site, I think I'd probably remember the Meerkat one. Any which way, I'd end up where they wanted me to go.

Good job!

Lovestruck: Tan Hong Ming

I don't know if you've all seen this ad for Petronas Malaysia already -- but here it is.

It's heartwarming to know that in this world where people still distrust or even hate each other for being different from themselves, kids can still teach their "betters" a thing or two.

Tan Hong Ming is so endearing, no wonder this ad worked out well for Petronas. I don't know however if it helped his lovelife, now that the whole universe basically knows his 'secret'!

Gay penguins break up after one turns straight

I kid you not.

1. gay penguins exist
2. gay penguins can have kids and raise a family together
3. gay penguins can turn straight
4. gay penguins can live happy lives alone after

The stuff they put on CNN nowadays....

How to make Office exciting

Microsoft Office 2010, that is.

Not bad as a video and in generating interest --- okay, fine, curiosity in the product.

I'm still skeptical though, since it's bound to be bloated and eat up a lot of space like previous versions (and if you need to produce a super-high quality trailer for a faux-movie to promote your new software.... maybe it needs all the help that it can get?)

And if you ever tried the Mac versions, you've probably been frustrated by the clunky interfaces too. That's why I usually work with Apple's iWork instead. Makes my life simpler and I get through work faster -- unless I need to export to something my Windows-using friends will need.

Happy Wednesday from Hoops and Yoyo

This video is dedicated to all you worker bees in your teeny cubicles this fine Wednesday morning.

: )

My Sassy Vampire Killer

Jeon Ji Hun of "My Sassy Girl", "Windstruck" and "ll Mare" fame is back in "Blood: The Last Vampire", an adaptation of an anime film of the same name from 2001. Say what you will about the silly plot and premise - easily seen in the trailer that all but gives everything away - and low production values of this movie --- we still love her!

Aja!

Human Mirror

I had a twin who died a few days after we were born, so I never really had a chance to live the life of a twin.

This explains my fascination with real-life twins I know -- Angelique and Steph, Kathy and Noreen -- who I have peppered with questions on the life of twins: "Do you communicate telepathically?" "Did you ever take a test for your twin? "So did you ever do a buffet but paid for only one person?" "Can you feel when your twin is happy/sad?"

I'm sure it would have been fun once we got past the "you can't wear the same thing I'm wearing today, bro" arguments.

It would have been a hoot!

Emma Watson on David Letterman

Wow. Emma Watson's all grown up now -- of course, right? They're already on Harry Potter movie #6, after all.

It's nice to see that she actually becomes cuter with age, unlike say Dakota Fanning. Here's hoping that she keeps her wits about her as she does, unlike Lindsay Lohan -- who I heard got charged with stealing, among other things, a formula for a tanning spray manufacturer plus an undisclosed amount of jewelry from a fashion shoot.

It would be a waste if she self-destructed.

--

Thanks to Manny Neps for sharing this one.

Michael Jackson, Tinikling-Style

Here's a video from 2004, pre-dating the Cebu Inmates' Thriller extravaganza by several years.

Here's "They Don't Really Care About Us" -- performed by UC San Diego's Kaibigang Pilipino.

No prisoners were harmed in the making of this video. Several performers suffered bruised shins and egos in practice however. (I don't really know. I'm guessing.)

Thanks to Art Silva for sharing this!