Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Volkswagen strikes again with another hate america commercial that is shroud in comedy, this one is called "Shoot the Gap".

What is it with Volkswagen? Based on Volkswagen's recent american commercials they really seem to revile americans. First AlexLOGIC took Volkswagen to task over their Punch Dub commercials, now it is their "Shoot the Gap" commercials that need to be punched over.
The "Shoot the Gap" commercial is easily fixable, and is the kind of commercial that somebody from Volkswagen, or the ad agency, should have the common sense to contact AlexLOGIC for amazingly sound advice over how to "fix" this commercial.

In many parts of the United States, I think truckers normally stay in the far two right lanes. I wonder how "realistic" the two trucks shown with an entire lane between them really is.

In my opinion Volkswagen's Shoot the Gap commercial is every bit as misguided as the infamous Taco Bell "Thelma and Louise" commercial that ran for a night or two and was then immediately pulled. I found out about the Thelma and Louise commercial through a friend and was there when that commercial was filmed. I actually commented to the agency people, (when no one else was around), that their commercial would probably get pulled. They disagreed, but what else can be expected when a whole lot of money has already been committed to the creation of a doomed commercial.



If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...

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Monday, July 19, 2010

The Oil Cap and the question I want an answer to from BP.

The BP Oil Cap is apparently "working". Government officials are rightly concerned in the possible build up of oil pressure because of the oil cap that has been put in place.

When the BP oil drill bit originally hit oil, what is the longest span of time that BP went in which that they didn't pump oil to the surface?
Finding out the longest time-span that BP went when they did not pump oil to the surface would be an important starting point as to finding out how long the cap might "safely" cap the underwater oil well.

Any time duration that is longer than BP's own stopping of oil production prior to the accident becomes an unknown and worthy of intense scrutiny.

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
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Friday, July 16, 2010

Old Spice Questions starring Isiah Mustafa another hit commercial.

and probably better than the "I'm on a Horse"
commercial masterpiece
that aired during the 2010 Super Bowl.

These Old Spice commercials starring Isiah Mustafa execute all of their stunts in real time and within the same take with minimal if any digital special effects. They remind of me of why shooting on film can be magical versus shooting digitally and then creating everything afterwards.

The Old Spice "Questions" commercial is like a Fed Ex Delivery delivery of the movie print to the theatre versus having a film transmitted by satellite to a movie theatre digitally. Or, like talking to an actual sales person in an actual store versus Asking Mr. Jeeves.
It's like making a commercial about the auto bots that make automobiles vs showing the actual human workers.

Actually hiring people to work together to create a real time, one take visual masterpiece versus a bunch of computers all locked together creating the uber special effect of all time reminds me of the old film vs digital debate. We need both.

One criticism, and you just know that the makers of the commercial were probably trying to make this happen, I wanted to see Mr. Mustafa actually drive off in the motorcycle, although I could see how difficult that would be since the motorcycle was underwater.

I had to break my rule of commenting only on commercials I have seen on television because I like this commercial so much and just stumbled across it on the internet on the Old Spice channel. I have not yet seen this commercial on television even though it was created June 30, 2010 and it is now July 16, 2010, but it is definitely one commercial I won't ever channel surf whenever it does come on.



If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

BP Gulf Oil Spill Solution, how about rebuilding the oil station platform again?

The delay in capping the Gulf Oil Spill probably is the right decision. What is the point of capping the ocean floor leaking well if pressure builds up and a week later there is a huge explosion and suddenly there are several additional holes leaking oil.

Several more unpluggable holes could result in practically zero visibility, so as bad as it is now, it could actually get worse if capping the oil leak causes pressure build up that leads to new leaks.

So what is the solution?

Build a streamlined Ocean top pumping station and drop down a connecting tube to the leak and begin pumping oil again. Hopefully the new cap that was just installed has the ability to raise and lower the pressure as is necessary.

But here is where it gets more complicated. An Ocean floor level "pod" (preferably made out of glass) large enough to house people, equipment, and a couple of submarines, would need to be located near the location of the Ocean floor spill area so that people can motor over in a submarine to do repairs and improvements as necessary.

I have no idea if this is possible, but if we can land an astronaut on the moon, can't we land on the ocean floor of our own planet to save our oceanic ecosystem?

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Mel Gibson Tapes Faked?


I know very little about the latest Mel Gibson controversy. All I know I heard on the news last night and this morning. There is a "second tape" that was recently released, and it sounds "hokey" to me. I won't divulge my reasons at this time, however, what I heard sounds to me like it was separate moments in time that have been "stitched" together.

The moment separate moments in time are stitched together (aka edited to create a different reality after the fact), the tape becomes inadmissible as evidence. Stay tuned.

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Dan Gilbert's open letter to Cleveland Cavaliers fans is seriously brilliant and Alex Logic Salutes You.


Wow, what Dan Gilbert wrote to Cleveland Cavalier fans about "what's his face" is amazing and AlexLOGIC endorses his letter 100 percent. Click here to read the most amazing letter ever written.


If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
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Saturday, July 3, 2010

Ghana and Uruguay 2010 FIFA World Cup match ends with two wrong calls that almost canceled each other out.

(Edit note: July 3, 2010) There is a fascinating counter argument that on the play prior to the handball play, the Ghana player may have first faked a foul by falling to the ground even though he may not have been touched, and then hit the ball out of bounds with his arm as he fell to the ground from the fake trip. I think it is up to the media to point this out and make it part of the historical record,
in which case I would consider retracting part of my commentary. O
therwise, i stand by my article.)

(Edit not: July 4, 2010) lol, I have retracted part of my article and made it less incendiary. It amazes me how the unfairness of the final handball play was caused by a preceding play that may have been every bit as unfair, but by the other side. However, the handball rules regarding the actual blocking of certain goal need to be rewritten by FIFA.)

I was really surprised by what I saw transpire at the end of overtime in the Uruguay vs Ghana 2010 World Cup game.
I saw a handball called against Uruguay that saved them from certain defeat, but the handball penalties that were imposed against Uruguay were incorrect.

I understand that when a handball is called near the goal area a penalty kick can be called. This makes perfect sense. The handball offender may or may not have stopped a possible goal, and for that an almost certain goal via a penalty kick may be awarded as a way to demonstrate that when people play the game legally, they are rewarded for their efforts against those who, cheat.
But if the handball violation is 100 percent certain to have prevented a goal from scoring, awarding a penalty kick is ridiculous as it does not match the level of the handball infraction. Even assessing an automatic goal is not enough. An auto goal AND an immediate red card should be issued that applies to the rest of the game. If the auto goal had created an overtime tie that would then be decided by a five on five penalty kick scenario, then the handball offender's team should have one of their five overtime penalty kicks waived off, meaning they would only get four penalty kicks to the other teams five. Anything less than these two actions REWARDS the handball offender and their cheating, over those that play the game correctly.
What is so outrageous is that in the Ghana vs Uruguay game, NEITHER OF THE ABOVE WAS DONE! Ghana was still forced to kick a penalty kick to get a goal that was already theirs! In American Football, a penalty in the end zone on the defense results in the football being put at the one yard line. This makes sense as there is no scenario where can one automatically assume that without the interference the receiver would have caught the ball for a touchdown 100% of the time. There might be 99% certainty, but not 100% certainty.

In the Ghana vs Uruguay game, the Uruguay defender was so far inside the goal when he committed the handball infraction and the ball was hit in such a straight forward matter that one can safely say that without the defender having illegally interfered with the soccer ball with his hand, there was a 100% certainty that a goal would have resulted.
So calling anything less than an automatic goal would be a sacrilege to the spirit, rituals, and honor of how soccer is supposed to be played. You don't reward a player for committing an intentional handball that prevents a goal from occurring 100% of the time, yet that is what FIFA has done.
Perhaps what makes the situation all the more strange was the play leading up to the handball. It appears that the Ghana player faked falling to the ground, then hit the ball out of bounds with his arm! Could anybody write a more concocted script than what apparently happened in real life! It is up to the media to link these two events together whenever they talk about the end of the 2010 Ghana, Uruguay game.

However, even if one wants to argue that the two wrongs ended up canceling each other out and in the end the game was decided by penalty kicks, that does not defend how a handball that prevents a 100% certain goal from scoring cannot result in an autogoal. On top of that, because the hand was actually elevated to stop the ball, I would then include a deduction of one of the five kicks should the game go to a final penalty kick round.

The world of sports seems upside down lately. In Los Angeles, thousands riot after the Los Angeles Lakers win a basketball championship. In South Africa, nobody protests when the last remaining African team is denied their rightful victory by a system that instead rewards the cheater. Civilized society requires that people respect well thought out rules and procedures, but when we begin to obey rules that don't make sense, we weaken the delicate balance of truth and honor versus cheating and ruthlessness.
I wish people would realize that obedience to stupid rules does not strengthen them, but rather it weakens them. I wish a peaceful protest could be started demanding that in the future auto goals be reward specifically when it can be shown with 100% authentication that the handball stopped a goal from occurring. A handball violation should never reward the cheater moreso than the victimized team, also known as those who are playing by the rules.
If FIFA cannot accept that they need to immediately correct the most obvious of omissions on their part, I think South Africa should ask FIFA to leave and not come back until they get their rules in order. The 2010 World Cup has been tainted, and until the tainting is corrected, it makes no sense to continue playing the games.

What is saddest of all is this mistake by FIFA had nothing to do with instant replay, it had everything to do with common sense and ineffective rulesmanship.

If you are planning on creating or broadcasting a commercial and want an objective, outsiders point of view about your commercial, contact Alessandro Machi about his consulting services at...
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You can also view more
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