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Best print ads of 2012

Plus, "Croods."

December 7, 2012 at 6:36PM

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Snow en route, they say. Messy stuff that will make for a sloppy commute, cause 50 acidents, then melt. This is not "snow" as we need it. I want three feet of the stuff. Now.

ADVERTISING Buzzfeed has the 12 best print ads of 2012. This one actually took me a while.

(The Minnesota Star Tribune)

MEDIA Well, this is horrible.

At least people on the radio were entertained by someone else's discomfort for a few minutes. This is one of the reasons I hate those prank-call routines: they rely on the victim going along with the gag out of good will. They're just doing their job.

MOVIES New "Croods" trailer. If you get the "Tim's Sub" commercial, it appears that the White House's press secretary has a side job in ads.

The poster frame realy makes you want to buy your ticket in advance, doesn't it?

I've enjoyed Dreamworks animated movies - "Megamind" in particular - but this one just leaves me cold. Big dumb lummox dad-figure + scowling / sassy daughter who just exudes Adventure and Courage is cheap, easy, and lazy. (And I liked "Wreck-It Ralph," another entry in that canon.) No one seems to have learned from "The Incredibles," which felt like an actual family with real characters.

One of the Cartoon Brew comments:

As for the dumb-dad thing: I was listening to a radio play the other day, and the husband was complaining to his wife that fathers no longer had any authorities these days - why, in the TV shows and movies they were bumbling boobs who couldn't do anything correctly without his wife's assistance.

The show aired in 1958.

It was also written by a woman, Peg Lynch; she got her start in St. Cloud radio, and went on to script the long-running daily show "Ethel and Albert," later reinvented as "The Couple Next Door." The husband was a bit of a blustering boob on occasion, and the wife had her moments where she was somewhat addlepated, but they were both believable and amusing people. It's all in the writing - but movies aren't made for writers. I almost said "anymore," but you've seen "Barton Fink," right? Right.