Video: Ferris Bueller Super Bowl ad not actually about Ferris Bueller

posted at 6:01 pm on January 30, 2012 by Allahpundit

I blogged the teaser so I guess I’m obliged to blog this. Question for intellectual property lawyers: Why did they go out of their way here to make sure the viewer knows it’s Matthew Broderick the actor rather than Ferris Bueller the character? If it’s a simple matter of them not being able to license the “Ferris” trademark from Paramount (or not being willing to spend the money), wouldn’t they have been on safe-ish ground if they omitted any references to names altogether? I.e. Matthew/Ferris calls into work, tells his generic boss-in-a-suit that he’s sick, and then the ad takes off from there without any name being uttered. Everyone knows who this is supposed to be, after all. If they can go this far with a commercial parody without paying any licensing fee, why not go an inch further and leave the identity of the main character ambiguous?

I’m not crazy about the spot. Lots of references to the movie, yeah, but it’s rote and joyless. No surprise that the guy responsible for “The Hangover” was in charge of it. And what’s with Broderick’s clothes? If they thought dressing him in Ferris’s hallmark jacket and vest was too much, at least put him in something with flair befitting the character. He looks even shlubbier here than he did as Mr. McAllister in “Election.” Exit question: No Alan Ruck cameo? How much extra could that have cost, a hundred bucks?

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Irie Mon 201.

Bmore on February 1, 2013 at 5:43 PM

It’s an outrageously, outrageous outrage! /

TarheelBen on February 1, 2013 at 6:05 PM

I don’t know if anyone else pointed out the historically interlaced vibe of VWs to the drug scene of the 60s, and the ganja ding of the Jamaaican man.

That aside, people are too hung up on being insulted.

RalphyBoy on February 1, 2013 at 7:23 PM

“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.” – Theodore Dalrymple

Django on February 1, 2013 at 3:33 PM

That was kinda interesting. Thanks for posting that.

Axe on February 1, 2013 at 9:22 PM

Rascism is in the eye of the beholder.

fenryys on February 1, 2013 at 10:36 PM

And racism.

fenryys on February 1, 2013 at 10:39 PM

ras clot!!!

driguana on February 1, 2013 at 11:06 PM

This PC crap is the result of too many Sociology degrees and not enough real jobs.

gator70 on February 2, 2013 at 8:25 AM

Maybe someone already pointed this out but has anyone noticed that the three quoted offendees are female? Why are women so damned uptight?

princetrumpet on February 2, 2013 at 8:30 AM

If I made a list of the 500 most offensive or insulting ads on TV today, this would not be among them. It wouldn’t make me buy a VW, but it wouldn’t make me wish never to buy one, either. A great many TV ads are so stupid and intelligence-insulting that I simply decide their product is not one I could agree to support.

Freelancer on February 3, 2013 at 11:04 AM

Comment pages: 1 2 3