An Interesting Contest Idea...I think...

[mrbakasan]

Let me say first that I'm sure that the good people of rifftrax aren't in any rush to get back into reading tons of riffs, but I have an idea that could potentially be interesting in the future (maybe even distant future). 

I was watching TV today and was thinking that if Rifftrax had a contest were people riff a TV commerical that was available online it could be an interesting way for them to get some sponsorship by advertisers.  I can't imagine a company not wanting people to watch their commericals over and over again, whether they or making fun of them or not.  Seeing as how big companies like Coca Cola, etc. have been doing this type of advertising lately with AOL Gold Rush, Lost, etc. it could be a bankable endeavor.  Hell, the prize for something like this could be a free rifftrax and everyone would still put as much effort into it, soley because riffing and getting recognition for it is good fun.  I know if I had entered the last one, it would have been for fun, not money. 

Also, commericals are pretty short.  Less riffs to read and 100% less Alex Winter jokes...okay maybe 99%, but I make no promises about spork jokes.

Then again, I know basically nothing about how corporate America works, but I thought it was at least an interesting idea and that I'd just throw it out there.  I hope I articulated this well enough to make some kind of sense.  If ya'll think its a nonsense idea please let me know.

[Tarantulas]

Commercials are WAY to short..  And I'm sure the last thing that huge corporations want is people poking fun at a commercial they just spent a couple of million dollars producing.

How many "Not so fresh feeling jokes" do you think the mods could stand anyway?

[mrbakasan]

Commercials are WAY to short..  And I'm sure the last thing that huge corporations want is people poking fun at a commercial they just spent a couple of million dollars producing.

How many "Not so fresh feeling jokes" do you think the mods could stand anyway?

Thats a good point and I was thinking that might be the case.  On the other hand, I'm willing to bet corporations care more about the fact that you are watching the commericals than anything else.  Although, I make no claims that I know what I'm talking about.

As far as length goes, I think thats why they would work.  Some commericals are 30 seconds to a minute and that is time for two or three good riffs.  And it would also be far less painful to read 500 entires of 2 or 3 riffs a piece than 20.  But obviously the mods are far better judges of that than me.  Like I said, it may be a totally crap idea.

[Justin]

How many "Not so fresh feeling jokes" do you think the mods could stand anyway?

As many as they could of "Apply directly to the forehead."

[mrbakasan]

How many "Not so fresh feeling jokes" do you think the mods could stand anyway?

As many as they could of "Apply directly to the forehead."

Or as many as "There is no spork."  (I apologize in advance to anyone who used a spork riff)

[gammer]

Dont beat yourself up mrbakasan, I like your idea.
Sure some companies might not want to have their commercials riffed, but I bet there are some companies that would do it.
Any advertising *is* advertising.

p.s. This topic might go better in "Feedback".

[mrbakasan]

Dont beat yourself up mrbakasan, I like your idea.
Sure some companies might not want to have their commercials riffed, but I bet there are some companies that would do it.
Any advertising *is* advertising.

p.s. This topic might go better in "Feedback".

I actually meant to put it there...oops.

[gammer]

I actually meant to put it there...oops.

No worries...

[Justin]

Baka

[David]

How many "Not so fresh feeling jokes" do you think the mods could stand anyway?

As many as they could of "Apply directly to the forehead."

Or as many as "There is no spork."  (I apologize in advance to anyone who used a spork riff)

The entire RiffTrax fanbase accepts your apology.

[Tarantulas]

With advertisers bitching about people using their Tivo to fast forward through commercials, I doubt they would be hip on people disparaging their product even as some cross advertising thing. 

Commercials fall into two types, comedic, and dramatic.  The comedic ones riff themselves, and the dramatic ones are still only 30 seconds long.

The idea just falls flat.

[Variety of Cells]

I'll start off with where I agree with you.  Almost all commercials now days use the peripheral route.  Not really subconscious, but you don't have to think about the commercial for it to work.  Just as long as they get the brand name stuck in your head, then it doesn't matter, because you are much more likely to buy something you've heard of than something you haven't.  For example, would you ever pick up a bottle of acetaminophen?  Probably not.  But people buy Tylenol all the time.  They are exactly the same, only one advertises and the other doesn't (acetaminophen is also cheaper).  It doesn't matter if you absolutely hate the advertisement and feel like chopping up the actors and feeding them to the director.  As long as you remember the brand name, you are more likely to buy it than something you've never heard of.

So riffing commercials would be a win win for both the Rifftrax and the product.  But...

It seems like it'd be a lot more work than it's worth.  They still have to sift through all the entries, which I'm sure they would get a ton more of.  It's much easier to write a few riffs then 15.  It's true that they wouldn't take as long to read, but the volume of crap they receive would increase quite a bit. 

The possibility of riff options is also limited.  Running gags would be tough, you'd basically be repeating the same joke.  The pacing in commercials is sped up to squeeze everything in, eliminating the nice pauses to fit in a riff.  No jokes about how the mood of this part is different than the rest of the movie.  It seems to me that the riffs would mostly be about how absurd the situation is (and it's usually intentionally absurd) or look-alike jokes.  Also, directors usually aren't serious about their commercials.  They have as much fun with it as they can, but it's mainly for the money. 

Yes, I'm sure people could come up with some very funny stuff, but I'm not sure how many people it would really attract.  Rifftrax would have to sift through tons of entries and then give away a free Rifftrax.  The people who didn't write riffs for $500 aren't going to write riffs for $2.99.  Sounds like Rifftrax is in the hole.  The ones who really benefit are the commercials themselves.

[Conor]

Could be an interesting idea, in fact we were working on some commercial riffs today that turned out pretty damn well.  Hopefully we'll have them up some time on Friday...

[mrbakasan]

Could be an interesting idea, in fact we were working on some commercial riffs today that turned out pretty damn well.  Hopefully we'll have them up some time on Friday...

Awesome.  I look forward to it.

Commercials fall into two types, comedic, and dramatic.  The comedic ones riff themselves, and the dramatic ones are still only 30 seconds long.

The idea just falls flat.

One way around that Tarantulas would be riffing vintage commercials.  It still gets the product placement (assuming the company has old commercials) and using vintage commericals has sort of been in vogue lately.  Anyway, I'll try not to complicate the original idea more than I already have.

[Variety of Cells]

And all my hard work writing that post is easily thrown away by a two sentence post from a mod.  Ohhhh well.  Hurray for riffing commercials!