Comments on: There’s A Fine Line between Offensive And Clever

By: JES

JES — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:26:46 +0000

P.S. Ha ha, sorry, some of us have a harder time than others applying the fancy-sh*t brakes.

By: JES

JES — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 14:25:32 +0000

I dunno… I forwarded it to a nephew, who loves this sort of stuff. He replied — something he almost never does — with the three words “Is this real?” After researching it I’m not sure.

There’s a whole school of thought which says it’s not even Bruce Lee (the camera keeps a safe distance), but the consensus seems to be: Bruce Lee or not, the guy’s moves were digitally inserted into the Nokia commercial. (It was/is supposedly a limited-edition Bruce Lee model of the phone.)

Here‘s a commercial for a different product along the same lines: Bruce Lee lights matches with his nunchucks.

Regardless, it’s still true that “this performance was intended for posterity.” And as one comment I saw somewhere implied, surely Lee’s estate is being compensated by Nokia.

But I think the original questions still stand. It’s messy. Pop culture seems the perfect demonstration of moral entropy — it all spirals gradually into ever-greater ambiguity.

By: denniscass

denniscass — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:24:52 +0000

@pseudosu: “you get the sense that this performance was intended for posterity”

I was going to say all kinds of fancy sh*t but that pretty much nails it for me. The original footage was made in the spirit of showing off. Bruce would be pleased.

By: bets

bets — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:38:20 +0000

ditto what they said.

By: Sara Aase

Sara Aase — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:26:35 +0000

It’s authentic, not contrived. They’re marrying the coolness of the real video footage with their product in a compelling way. The video has cachet. The phone has cachet. And reminding viewers that they can watch this cool thing on their cool product gives it that little bit of edge.

By: pseudosu

pseudosu — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:07:34 +0000

I’d say it probably works because they left the footage clean– he’s not holding a camera, nothing’s cgi’d in– and you get the sense that this performance was intended for posterity.
When the camera comes in at the end, yeah, you’re being sold to, but it seems ok because it was like they were paying homage.