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BRITISH ADVERTISING FILMS OF 2001

"There’s always a trick," boasts one car ad in British Advertising Films of 2001, and indeed, that’s what we’ve come to expect from commercials nowadays: conniving (if clever) attempts by corporations to coerce us into buying what we don’t need. But it’s not just the accent that makes British TV ads seem, next to their American counterparts, infinitely more droll. Not that some of these spots don’t indulge in cliché. Most of the ads that kick off the collection urge us to submit to our darker, consumerist side, sometimes paring the formula down to a Zen-like simplicity, or making fun of their own questionable tactics (e.g., Heineken ads that threaten to keep running until more beer is sold). But the later ads serve up moments of genuine ingenuity and suspense, not to mention the funniest personification of sperm on screen since Woody Allen in Everything You Wanted To Know About Sex . . . Some might be a bit much (can even British consumers be stimulated by a fatal car crash in slo-mo?), but at their best, these ads not only promote the product but suggest new ways to view life and filmmaking. (100 minutes)

BY RACHAEL INNERARITY

Issue Date: October 24 - October 31, 2002
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