December 17, 2008
Talking 'bout bad, bad girls
Here's a poster I see every day as I'm exiting my subway station, promoting what looks to be an awful reality show of some sort:
I have a few thoughts about this poster -- well, mostly about the tag line, "Bad just got good."
I think I might be done with tag lines. Just done with them. Does everything in the world need a hacky, punny subtitle? Because obviously we've reached the bottom of the barrel with this. "THING just got OPPOSITE OF THING." I can just see an ad writer somewhere typing that up and leaning back with their arms folded, thinking, "Damn, Gender-Inspecific-Name-Such-As-Avery-Or-Sandy, you are good! No one's going to see that coming."
(Also, I'm pretty sure most heterosexual guys throughout history have always, always considered "bad" to be an appealing adjective when applied to women.)
The tag line did get me thinking about other ways to use the same lame construction, however. I'm envisioning a reality show where a bunch of handymen (and -women) have to drill holes in many different types of wood, and they're judged on how straight they drill, how quickly, and (most importantly) for style. Obviously the name of the show would be "Drill, Baby, Drill" -- but what would the tag line be? (Get ready.)
"Boring just got exciting."
Damn, I am good. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments, which I reserve the right to steal and pitch to weaselly cable executives.
Posted by Francis at 10:09 PM"A just got B" is the new "C is the new D".
Viagra: "Hard just got easy."
A biopic detailing Red Skelton's battle with depression: "Red just got blue."
A character from Catch-22 reverse-ages and becomes a child: "Major just got minor."
A crime drama about murder and treachery in the competitive world of adorable baby photos (ala Anne Geddes): "Cute just got ugly."
Martin Short stars in the nine-hour stage version of "The Mahabharata". Tagline: Short just got long. (Alternately, Nia Long stars in a remake of Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, exercise left for the reader.)
Posted by: Francis at December 18, 2008 08:58 AMThat Viagra one is actually pretty good.
Posted by: Rubrick at December 18, 2008 06:19 PMHigh praise for something you didn't write yourself, Rubrick.
Posted by: Francis at December 18, 2008 06:32 PMI had a similar slumping reaction a few weeks ago when I was confronted with a Twilight movie poster.
Tagline for multimillion dollar movie and cultural phenomenon: "Nothing will be the same."
I think that's about the weakest tagline I've ever seen. The lack of effort in that poster was sucking the creativity out of other nearby objects.
Posted by: Richard at December 19, 2008 08:31 PMI think the basic principle of the Twilight phenomenon is to find as many different ways to suck as possible, and then claim that the sucking is intended as a metaphor for vampires. For God's sake, the stars of the movie toured Hot Topics nationwide.
Posted by: Scott at December 19, 2008 09:50 PMIt's funny, this poster keeps tormenting me also, but I want it to say "Bad just got BETTER." I guess the problem here is that it might seem like bad has been mitigated to be therefore less bad. But I don't think that's the first place the mind goes.
I mean, it would still be hacky and dumb, but.
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