Christmas is a time to get new stuff. New clothes, new bikes, new gadgets. But this year, the ad industry decided to give us something new and something old. Aw shucks, you shouldn’t have. I’m a firm believer in the saying, "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it" and nothing can be more true in case of Amazon.com’s holiday campaign out of FCB, San Francisco. When I was growing up, we had only had two Christmas albums in our house (yes, it’s sad, I know). The first was Alvin & The Chipmunks and the second was Holiday Sing Along With Mitch. No Christmas was complete without listening to Mitch Miller singing "Frosty The Snowman" in unison with 20 other men. So you can imagine my excitement when Amazon.com rolled out a second year’s worth of sweatered men singing together like well-trained boy scouts. This year the guys are a little spunkier. They dance a bit more, change wardrobe from spot to spot and the sets add extra meaning to the songs. My favorite in the package is "Feel Like A Kid" where the singing troupe, dressed in shorts and knee socks, sing juvenile lyrics such as, "Stop copying me" and "Say it, don’t spray it." On the what’s new front, the Gap played a little trick on us. Did anyone notice? Its ads have a slightly different feel to them this year. That’s because for the first time in a long time the company didn’t conceive its holiday campaign in-house. Modernista!, Boston, did. Pretty sneaky sis. I didn’t think it was possible to beat the Gap holiday ads from years past with all the colorful, kaleidoscopic images and happy sleigh bell sounds. They just made me want to run out and buy a multi-colored sweater and scarf and start dancing around. But Modernista! succeeded in maintaining Gap’s brand identity while giving the ads a sensibility that’s smarter, more mature and in general kick ass. My favorite is "Snowflakes." It features people slowly free-falling backwards (the camera angle is from above, as if perched on a cloud). The look on their faces is bliss as they float down through the air to an undetermined place. The tag is: "No two are alike." People as snowflakes. Brilliant. But Christmas isn’t all about books and clothes. What about those essential office supplies? Yeah, I’m talking about Staples. The thing that I enjoy about Staples’ advertising is that the spots often take place in the store’s environment and show lots of product, yet they’re still interesting and funny. Its latest :30 out of Cliff Freeman and Partners, New York, called "Sno-Bot" debuts a robot who can help customers learn about Staples’ technology products. But the robot nearly short circuits when it falls in love with a printer that someone is trying to buy. Every time the lovesick tin can intones, "You-can’t-take-her-I-love-her," I just crack up. Yup, I love the holidays and working at SHOOT is like celebrating Christmas every day. We get lots of brown paper packages and FedEx envelopes and boxes all filled with reels, reels, reels. Something tasty would be nice.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More