CEO
Dorsey Pictures
1) The pause in digital advertising spend and a return to more trust in television delivery was a wake up call to those who jumped on the digital bandwagon too early. We’re hearing from numerous advertisers who want sales conversions and have become disillusioned by the digital sales narrative that’s heavy on reaching a consumer base that has no money to spend. Eventually all the platforms will wake up and realize that the most coveted demographic is 55+ because they control 75 percent of the country’s wealth and dominate purchases in most of the import consumer sectors. The biggest lie in media is that the 25-54 demo is all important. The first significant media company to own the 55+ crowd wins.
2) The American dream continues to be redefined and the world view gap between Millennials and Boomers seems to be ever widening. The housing market is an obvious manifestation of that gap. For instance, we continue to see massive interest from those under 40 in the tiny house movement that has broadened to include a wide variety of evolving structures—ranging from custom modified containers to old buses and abandoned cabins. Hence, our hit Tiny House Big Living series on HGTV spawned Tiny Paradise which gave rise to Containables and Bus Live Ever. Millennials and Gen-Z kids crave freedom and mobility and happily trade it for possessions and debt.
3) Messages with heart that awaken what’s best in us and bring us together stand out in a world where our institutions seem both dysfunctional, self serving, and chaotic. Any advertising that can create a personal relationship between a brand and a consumer always stands out and the Ram Trucks’ Super Bowl ad with Paul Harvey, ‘So God Made a Farmer’ stands out as a classic winner.
4) The massive repositioning of retail is and will continue to have profound ramifications on advertising, the overall economy, and how we live. Digital for digital’s sake will be replaced by lifestyle empowerment, community and inspiration through digital. Brands will continue to build their own media presence, cultivate their own communities, and will rely less and less on others to reach their consumers for them.
5) Validates the old axiom that emotion + information = communication…whether it’s a TV series, ad campaign, or a political campaign.
6) We continually experiment with new video and camera technologies that are helping transform the viewer experience. It’s a dynamic field and requires a corporate devotion to continuous improvement.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More