Movies with Advertising, Marketing or PR Themes

Please note: most of the following blurbs were written for movie databases such as www.imdb.com, and are not original to me. Where possible I will gradually add citations & attributions, but if you plan to make use of this site you can do the same by performing a Web search on a phrase and locating the source; the most likely suspect will generally be imdb.com, with amazon.com another good bet. I regret I was working too quickly to capture sources as I collected this information. Films are listed in chronological order. I would greatly appreciate suggestions for other films that belong on this list: email me at altonmiller@mail.com.

HISTORICAL FILMS TO RESEARCH:

Cohen's Advertising Scheme (1904)
Advertising for Mamma (1911)
Does Advertising Pay? (1913)
Advertising Did It (1915)
How to Please the Public (1928)

THE EASIEST WAY (1931)

Poor hardworking Laura Murdock, is discovered by Brockton
Advertising agency, while in a department store. Now a model for
Brockton, she is able to support her family. Everything isn't as
rosey as it seems. Laura is forced to become Mr. Brockton's
mistress. Laura's family disowns her. She soon meets the man of
her dreams rich, John Madison. But he leaves to Argentina. Laura
alone returns to Brockton - Brockton wants nothing to do with her.
Laura is left in loneliness.

BOMBSHELL (1933)

Lola Burns (Jean Harlow) is at the top of the pile in Hollywood. But life ain't easy, what with her father and brother always hanging around for handouts, and devious studio publicity honcho Space Hanlon cooking up endless lurid newspaper stories. Makes a girl want to give up pictures. From a user comment on imdb.com: "Hilarious! This is one of those quick-witted pre-code comedies with juicy dialogue that hold up to this day. The depression era was, well, depressing enough. Why did censorship have to rob the audience of one of their few joys? Jean Harlow's performance is a pure delight. This may even be her best performance."

EX-LADY (1933)

Commercial artist Helen Bauer believes marriage kills romance. She
lives with advertising writer Don Peterson. He convinces her to
marry him. He later carries on with client Peggy Smith; Helen
takes up with Don's competitor Nick Malvyn. In the end, the couple
agree to give marriage another chance.

THE TRAVELING SALESLADY (1935)

Rufus K. Twitchell is an old-school industrial magnate who doesn't
believe he needs to advertise to sell his product, the market leader
in toothpaste. He arrogantly refuses to meet with an inventor who
wants to market "cocktail toothpaste" -- flavored like scotch, or
rum punch, or a martini. His plucky daughter (Joan Blondell) sees an
opportunity to show her father she has a business sense as good as any man's.

MR DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936)

The heir of wealthy, deceased Martin Semple proves surprisingly to
be one Longfellow Deeds of Mandrake Falls, Vermont. The bemused
lawyers in the land of taciturn Yankees find Deeds a simple-
hearted greeting card poet, his favorite pastime playing the tuba.
Will he be any match for city slickers, embezzlers, moochers,
fundraisers, and phonies? Enter brash reporter Babe Bennett, who
(for a story) gains Deeds' friendship and seems to be on his side.
With friends like these...

NO OTHER ONE (1936)

Hal Kemp and his orchestra play the title tune with singer Skinnay
Ennis and a Bouncing Ball. Animated sequence: Two billboard
hangers put up a series of signs parodying advertising styles of
the time.

THE FOOTLOOSE HEIRESS (1937)

A spoiled rich girl (Ann Sheridan) tries to elope with a ne'er-do-
well, but they are stopped by a charming hobo (Craig Reynolds),
who thwarts the mismatch. The girl's father, an embattled ad
executive, rewards the hobo with temporary room and board. It
turns out the stranger is no hobo after all, but an educated young
man who then comes to his host's rescue by composing a hit
advertising slogan. The girl resents the stranger at first, but
eventually she realizes she has fallen in love with him.

MEN ARE SUCH FOOLS (1938)

Linda Lawrence rises from secretary to account executive in an
advertising agency. She falls in love with ex-football star Jimmy
Hall and marries him. Radio man Harry Galleon will push her career
further if she will just be "nice" to him and, when Jimmy gets
jealous, she quits in favor of life as a suburban housewife. But
her career still calls to her.

AFFAIRS OF JIMMY VALENTINE, THE (1942)

Mike Jason (Dennis O'Keefe), idea man for the Bullard Advertising
Agency, and Cleo Arden (Gloria Dickson), director of the Jimmy
Valentine radio program, based on the exploits of the old-time
safe cracker, fear their jobs are in jeopardy when the sponsor
decides to switch his show to another agency. Mike suggests that a
$10,000 prize be offered to anyone who can locate the real Jimmy
Valentine. Mike and Mousey (George E. Stone), a little chiseler
who has attached himself to Mike, follow a clue to a small town.
Unknown to Mike, Mousey is out for revenge and kills two innocent
men before they learn the identity of the real Jimmy Valentine
(Roman Bohnen). Mousey tries to kill Valentine but he himself is
killed in the scuffle. Mike refuses to identify Valentine,
claiming that one of the murdered men was the real Jimmy
Valentine.

TAKE A LETTER, DARLING (1942)

Tom Verney is dubious about his new duties as "secretary" to
advertiser A.M. 'Mac' MacGregor, which include escorting her
socially to confound amorous clients and jealous wives. After an
abortive pass, Tom is almost convinced that Mac means (only)
business. But attitudes change when Tom is pursued by pretty Ethel
Caldwell and Mac by her rich brother Jonathan.

THE HUCKSTERS (1947)

Victor Norman (Clark Gable) is just out of the Service and is
looking for a job in advertizing. By playing hard to get, he
figures that he can get a good job and a large salary. The first
thing he has to do is get a war widow to endorse Beautee Soap - a
client of the Kimberly Agency. He meets with Kay Dorrance (Deborah
Kerr) and gets the endorsement and Mr. Evans (Sydney Greenstreet),
the head of Beautee Soap is temporarily happy. Victor's job is now
to work with Mr. Evans, a man who is a strict and demanding
client. Everything should be rosy, but Victor, a bachelor, finds
himself more attracted to Kay, a widow, than young single Jean
Ogilvie (Ava Gardner).

DAISY KENYON (1947)

Commercial artist Daisy Kenyon is involved with married lawyer Dan
O'Mara, and hopes someday to marry him, if he ever divorces his
wife Lucille. She meets returning veteran Peter, a decent and
caring man, whom she does not love, but who offers her love and a
more hopeful relationship. She marries him... just as Dan gets a
divorce. imdb.com user gregcouture comments: "This one may seem
quite turgid to a modern audience's sensibilities but, for its time,
it was fairly strong stuff, with solid performances by its three leads,
Crawford, Fonda and Andrews, under Otto Preminger's brisk direction.
Dana, who never really achieved the recognition he deserved for the
subtlety of his work, in an extremely difficult role, gives it all the
shadings one could wish for. Nice production values and one of the
talented David Raksin's best scores enhance a very watchable story with
an outcome that isn't as predictable as it seems, come the final clinch."

WHEN A GIRL'S BEAUTIFUL (1947)

An advertising man has to come with "the perfect woman" for an ad
campaign. He puts together a picture of a woman from a composite
of several photos, to get an idea of the kind of woman he should
look for. His boss sees it, thinks that it is an actual woman, and
orders him to find her and use her in the campaign.

AN INNOCENT AFFAIR (1948)

Paula Doane (Madeleine Carroll) believes her husband, Vincent
(Fred MacMurray), is having an affair but instead he is only trying
to land an account for the advertising agency which he works for.
Yet, Vincent is hiding something from Paula-his client is actually
his former girlfriend, but, he believes that if Paula knew this,
she'd misinterpret everything. In the meantime, Paula thinks the
only way to rekindle their romance is to make Vincent jealous. She
goes to the Burke Agency to hire an actor to flirt with her while
she and Vincent dine at a nightclub restaurant. However, Mr. Burke
"tips off" Vincent about his wife's plan. He now thinks he "holds
all the cards", and will play along with the joke. Yet, the joke
is actually on Vincent, when the seating arrangements for the
actor are switched, and in his place is seated Claude Kimball, the
tycoon tabacco owner. Now the fun truly begins.

LET'S LIVE A LITTLE (1948)

A harried, overworked advertising executive is being pursued
romantically by one of his clients, a successful perfume magnate
... and his former fianc‚e. The latest client of the agency is a
psychiatrist and author of a new book. When the executive goes
over to discuss the ad campaign, the psychiatrist turns out to be
a woman. But what does he really need? Romance? Or analysis?

CALLAWAY WENT THATAWAY (1951)

Two smart marketing people resurrect some old films starring
cowboy Smoky Callaway and put them on television. The films are a
big hit and the star is in demand. Unfortunately no one can find
him. When a lookalike sends in a photo, the marketing team hires
him to impersonate Callaway. Things get sticky when the real
Callaway eventually shows up.

"I LED THREE LIVES" (1953)

Philbrick is a Boston advertising executive used by the U.S.
government to spy on the Communist Party USA. It was all blatant
anti-left propaganda. The scripts were actually reviewed by J.
Edgar Hoover's FBI and played on the paranoia of the McCarthy era.

IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1954)

Gladys Glover (Judy Holliday) has just lost her modelling job when
she meets filmmaker Pete Sheppard (Jack Lemon) shooting a
documentary in Central Park. For Pete it's love at first sight,
but Gladys has her mind on other things -- like making a name for
herself. Through a fluke of advertising she winds up with her name
plastered over 10 billboards throughout city. Suddenly all of New
York is clamoring for Gladys Glover without knowing why and
playboy Evan Adams III is making a play for Gladys that even Pete
knows will be hard to beat.

THE TOY TIGER (1956)

Advertising executive Gwen Taylor sends her art director Rick Todd
on a mission to bring an artist back to the commercial fold.
Meanwhile, Gwen's fatherless son Timmie, at a remote boys' school,
is riding for a fall by manufacturing evidence of his "explorer
father." By an amazing coincidence, Rick steps off the bus at just
the right moment for Timmie to recruit him as "father" without his
knowledge. With no intention of collaborating, the befuddled Rick
is carried along by the sweep of events. Who can predict the
outcome?

FUNNY FACE (1957)

Jo Stockton can only get to Paris to meet with the beatnik founder
of "empathicalism" (a rejection of all material things) if she
agrees to model a line of ultra-chic fashions for photographer
Dick Avery. Paris provides the backdrop for this wonderful blend
of Gershwin music and Givenchy fashions.

WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER? (1957)

In this spoof of the TV advertising industry, Rockwell Hunter
(Tony Randall) is the low man on the totem pole at the advertising
company where he works. That is, until he finds the perfect
spokesmodel for Stay-Put lipstick, the famous actress with the oh-
so-kissable lips, Rita Marlowe (Jayne Mansfield). Unfortunately,
in exchange, Rock has to act publicly as Rita's "Loverboy", and
Rock's fianc‚e Jenny isn't too happy about it either.

SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957)

A classic of the late 1950s, this film looks at the string-pulling
behind-the-scenes action between a desperate press agent and the ultimate
power broker in show-biz Manhattan, the gossip columnist (based on the
brutal and power-mad Walter Winchell). Shooting on location mostly at
night, the filmmakers capture this New York demimonde in silky black
and white, in which neon and shadows share a scarily symbiotic
relationship--a near-match for the poisonous give-and-take between
the edgy Tony Curtis and the dismissive Burt Lancaster.

KYOJIN TO GANGU (1958)

Nishi is an advertising executive for a caramel company that is
planning to launch a new product, in fierce competition with two
other companies. His boss builds up Kyoko, a vivacious girl with
bad teeth, as their mascot. Kyoko is smitten with Nishi when he is
assigned to look after her. Meanwhile Nishi is trying to extract
information about his competitors advertising campaigns, from his
girlfriend, who works for one rival, and his old college friend,
who works for the other rival company.

THE BEST OF EVERYTHING (1959)

Three young women who work in the steno pool at Fabian Publishing
Company move in together to save money. Caroline has her sites set
on becoming an editor, but Miss Farrow stands in her way. Gregg
wants to be an actress but can't seem to get a part. April just
wants to find a good man. All three have bad encounters with men,
encounters that will either strengthen or ruin them.

LOVER COME BACK (1961)

Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson) and Carol Templeton (Doris Day) are
both in the advertising business, but for different agencies.
Annoyed by Jerry's methods of using alcohol and women to ensure
contracts for his agency, Carol tries to get him thrown out of his
profession. To avoid this Jerry bribes the girl who'd testify
against him, by starring her in a TV commercial for a product
named VIP that he's just made up. By accident these commercials
are broadcasted and to keep his job, Jerry has to come up with VIP
for which he enlists the help of Doctor Linus Tyler. Carol goes to
see the Doctor to try and get the VIP account, but because she and
Jerry have never met, she mistakes Jerry for the Doctor. Jerry
then takes advantage of this situation to win her.

ONE, TWO, THREE (1961)

MacNamara is a managing director for Coca Cola in West Berlin in
1961, just before the Wall is put up. When Scarlett, the daughter
of his boss, comes to West Berlin, MacNamara has to look after
her, but this turns out to be a difficult task. After MacNamara
has found out that Scarlett is seeing an East German communist
named Otto, he goes to extreme lengths trying to conceal this from
the girl's father in order to save his job.

MADISON AVENUE (1962)

Dana Andrews is ad-man Clint Lorimer in this uneven drama, the
last feature film by director Bruce Humberstone, released several
years after it was completed. Clint is fired from his job working
for a big ad agency, and he is determined to prove himself better
than his former bosses. He has two romantic liaisons, one with
Peggy Shannon (Jeanne Crain) and another with Anne Temaine
(Eleanor Parker). Anne works as the advertising agent for a milk
company run by a weirdo exec (Eddie Albert) who plays with toy
airplanes in his office, but as time passes he becomes
Machiavellian and ego-maniacal. Anne herself changes from a frump
to a tough and glossy businesswoman, perhaps making Clint's choice
of a future bride easier. (BB)

HAVING A WILD WEEKEND (1965)

Dinah is a model whose face appears in an ad campaign for meat.
While shooting a TV commercial, she and Steve, one of the stunt
men, run off together. The advertising executives use their
disappearance to generate more publicity for... meat.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (1967)

J. Pierpont Finch, a young but bright window-cleaner buys a book -
"How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying." and following
it's advice joins the multi-national but poorly-connected "World-
Wide Wicket Company". Starting from the mail-room he rises to
Vice-President in Charge Of Advertising using sneaky and dubious
ways so that the person above him gets either fired or moved to
another section of the company. He also starts slowly falling in
love with secretary Rosemary Pilkington. Meanwhile, the president
of the WWWC, J.B. Biggley, tries to have an affair with drop-dead
gorgeous bubble-head Hedy LaRue, but she becomes a weapon used
both by Finch and Bud Frump, Biggley's brattish and annoying
nephew who believe that he should get all the breaks and not
Finch. Can Finch rise to the top or will it all go down in
flames...

I'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT'S 'IS NAME (1967)

Advertising golden boy Andrew Quint is fed up with his fabulously
successful life. In very dramatic fashion, he quits his job to
return to writing for a small literary magazine. He wants to leave
his former life behind, going as far as saying good-bye to his
wife and mistresses. He finds, however, that it's not so easy to
escape the past.

PUTNEY SWOPE (1969)

Dark satire in which the token black man on the executive board of
an advertising firm is accidentally put in charge. Renaming the
business "Truth and Soul, Inc.", he replaces the tight regime of
monied white ad men with his militant brothers. Soon afterwards,
however, the power that comes with its position takes its toll on
Putney...

EVERY HOME SHOULD HAVE ONE (1970)

Teddy (Marty Feldman) works for a large advertising company. Given
the seemingly impossible task of selling frozen porridge, he
decides to produce commercials which make the product seem sexy.
This leads him into confrontation with the "Keep Television Clean"
movement, of which his wife is a senior member. Further problems
ensue when the family take on Swedish nanny Inga Giltenburg (Julie
Ege).

NETWORK (1976)

Paddy Chayefsky's scathing satire about the uses and abuses of
network television. A veteran network anchorman (played by Peter Finch)
hasbeen fired because of low ratings. So he announces he'll kill
himself on live TV two weeks hence – which sends the ratings
skyrocketing. The anchorman's descent into insanity includes what
becomes his trademark now-famous cry of rage: "I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" Faye Dunaway plays the frigid,
ratings-obsessed producer who pursues success with cold-blooded zeal

EUROPE AFTER THE RAIN (1978)

Dada came out of the craziness of World War One. "The birth of
Dada was not the beginning of art but of disgust." Surrealism
tried to systematize Dada's anarchy into an artistic blend of
Freudian psychoanalysis and Marxist provocation. In the interests
of conquering the irrational, Salvador Dali opened exhibitions
dressed in a diving suit, Marcel Duchamp turned himself into
woman, Benjamin Peret assaulted priests, and Yves Tanguy ate
spiders. Andre Breton, nicknamed "the Pope of Surrealism", led an
inspired gang of artists, lunatics and writers. By the 1950s they
were denouncing each other for betraying the movement, but their
ideas had infected Hollywood, advertising agencies and were
turning up as TV humor and album covers.

FM (1978)

Q-SKY is the #1 radio station in Los Angeles mainly because of the
music they play, and running the station the way they want to. It
has led them to a ratings success. The interesting radio
personalities include: Jeff Dugan, rebellious head of the radio
station; Mother, who is burned out from being a DJ; Eric Swan, a
self centered romantic who wants more than just being a DJ; The
Prince of Darkness, the hip night DJ; and Laura Coe, the easy-
going type. The movie focuses on the battle between Jeff and his
corporate bosses, who want more advertising and less music.

THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN (1979)

Sonny Steele used to be a rodeo star, but his next appearance is
to be on a Las Vegas stage, wearing a suit covered in lights,
advertising a breakfast cereal. When he finds out they are going
drug the horse in case its too frisky, he rides off into the
desert...

C.O.D. (1981)

Albert Zack is a struggling, bumbling, advertising salesman hired
to save the Beaver Bra Company from impending doom. He is charged
with signing five specific, world-famous, busty woman as endorsers
for the bra line. Silly antics and situations occur as he tries,
mostly in various costumes, to get close enough to these women to
make his pitch for their signature. Working against him are two
board members who stand to gain if the company fails. As he
circles the globe in search of these signatures, he is faced with
a variety of challenges, one of which is a relationship with his
own secretary.

BEER (1985)

An advertising firm, desperate to keep an account from a
financially-ailing brewery, concocts a macho ad campaign centering
on three losers who inadvertently prevent a robbery at a bar.

BLISS (1985)

An advertising executive dies and goes to hell... except nothing
changes. Well, his daughter is buying drugs with sexual favours
from her brother, and the number of cancer-causing products is on
the increase. But the notes he writes to himself to prove he
hasn't gone insane are getting more disjointed, and he runs off
with an ex-prostitute called Honey Barbera.

HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING (1989)

Dennis Dimbleby Bagley (Richard E. Grant) is a brilliant young
advertising executive who can't come up with a slogan to sell a
revolutionary new pimple cream. His obsessive worrying affects not
only his relationship with his wife, his friends and his boss, but
also his own body - graphically demonstrated when he grows a large
stress-related boil on his shoulder. But when the boil grows eyes
and a mouth and starts talking, Bagley really begins to think he's
lost his mind. But has he?

CRAZY PEOPLE (1990)

Emory (Dudley Moore) works in advertising, and is beginning to
crack up. His latest idea is honesty, e.g. "Volvos, Yes they are
boxy, but they're safe". This doesn't go down too well with the
boss, so Emory is sent to a psychiatric hospital to 'recover'.
Meanwhile, back at the office, Emory's work is accidentally sent
to the printers. His ads are a huge success. But now Emory has
fallen for Kathy (another patient) and so doesn't want to leave.

A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM (1990)

Graham Marshall (Michael Caine) already celebrates his anxiously
awaited promotion in an advertising company, when he learns that
Roger Banham (Peter Riegert), one of his subordinates, will be
promoted instead of him. Frustrated that his hated life will never
change, he starts a cunning ploy to take bloody revenge on
everyone who humiliated him - starting with his unnerving wife
(Swoosie Kurtz).

BOB ROBERTS (1992)

Mock documentary about an upstart candidate for the U.S. Senate,
is smart, funny, and scarily prescient in its foreshadowing of the
Republican revolution of 1994. Bob Roberts is a folksinger whose songs
of protest target welfare chiselers, liberal whining, and the like.
The film gives needle-sharp insight into the way candidates manipulate
the media, and captures the chilly insincerity of right-wing populism
and airhead TV news anchors. --from Marshall Fine's comments on
Amazon.com

BOOMERANG (1992)

Marcus (Eddie Murphy) is a successful advertising executive who
woos and beds women almost at will. After a company merger he
finds that his new boss, the ravishing Jacqueline, is treating him
in exactly the same way. Completely traumatised by this, his work
goes badly downhill. But then Jacqueline's more quietly attractive
assistant Angela, who has been dating Marcus' best friend, shows
herself more than a little concerned by his parlous state.

EL LADO OSCURO DEL CORAZON (1992)

Oliveiro is a young poet living in Buenos Aires where sometimes he
has to sale his ideas to an advertising agency to make a living
or exchange his poems for a steak. In Montevideo, he met a
prostitute, Ana, with whom he fell in love. Back in Buenos Aires,
he accepts a contract with a publicity agency to get the money for
three days of love with her. Will he get what he's searching for
when his ideal of love's pleasure is literally going in levitation
while making love?

WAYNE'S WORLD (1992)

Wayne is still living at home. He has a world class collection of
name tags from jobs he's tried, but he does have his own public
access TV show. A local station decides to hire him and his
sidekick, Garth, to do their show professionally and Wayne & Garth
find that it is no longer the same. Wayne falls for a bass
guitarist and uses his and Garth's Video contacts to help her
career along, knowing that Ben Oliver, the sleazy advertising guy
who is ruining their show will probably take her away from him if
they fail.

EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES (1993)

Sissy Hankshaw is born with enormous thumbs that help her
hitchhiking through the US from a young age. She becomes a model
in advertising and her NY agent 'the Countess' sends her to his
ranch in CA to shoot a commercial, set against the background of
mating whooping cranes. There, she befriends Bonanza Jellybean,
one of the cowgirls at the beauty-ranch. The cowgirls take
command of the ranch from the Countess and 'drug' the cranes with
'peyote'. The police besiege the ranch.

PUBLIC ACCESS (1993)

Brewster seems to be an almost too perfect example of idyllic
small-town America, with everyone living in peace and harmony. So
when newcomer Whiley Pritcher (Ron Marquette) starts up his own
local cable TV show with the question "what's wrong with
Brewster?", there surely can't be any deep dark secrets in the
town that are just waiting to come to the surface - or can there?
And when the question becomes "who's wrong with Brewster?" things
start getting seriously nasty.

DROP SQUAD (1994)

Political satire about an underground militant group that kidnaps
African-Americans who have sold out their race. The story follows
as the group led Curtis-Hall and Rhames kidnaps an advertising
executive (La Salle) who has been providing advertising programs
that belittles blacks and women. One advertisement features Spike
Lee endorsing Gospelpak Fried Chicken which comes in a bucket with
the Confederate flag draped all over it.

HUDSUCKER PROXY (1994)

When Waring Hudsucker, head of hugely successful Hudsucker
Industries, commits suicide, his board of directors, led by Sidney
Mussberger, comes up with a brilliant plan to make a lot of money:
appoint a moron to run the company. When the stock falls low
enough, Sidney and friends can buy it up for pennies on the
dollar, take over the company, and restore its fortunes. They
choose idealistic Norville Barnes, who just started in the mail
room. Norville is whacky enough to drive any company to ruin, but
soon, tough reporter Amy Archer smells a rat and begins an
undercover investigation of Hudsucker Industries.

RENAISSANCE MAN (1994)

Danny DeVito plays an advertising man who is slowly sliding
downhill. When he is fired from his job in Detroit, he signs up
for unemployment. One day they find him a job; Teaching thinking
skills to Army recruits. He arrives on base to find that there is
no structure set up for the class. He begins by having them write
and summarize books and magazines they are reading. When one of
them asks him to describe what he is reading, he gives a National
Enquirer's view of _Hamlet_, (Incest, murder, intrigue.) They ask
to read it with him and the structure of the class is born; They
will read _Hamlet_ and critically analize it.

SLIDING DOORS (1998)

Young Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) is fired from her job at a PR
company, and when the sliding doors of the tube car close on her,
we start to see what would have happened if she'd made the train,
and if she hadn't.

SUITS (1999)

A deodorant company with a product called "Smell No Mo" pits two
rival ad agencies in a race to come up with a campaign for a new-
fangled sanitary napkin called Vorcan. The advertising satire
follows the New York firm of Cranston & Co. as they fight rival
Hoffman & Partners. Cranston (Robert Klein) fires his creative
director (Tony Hendra) which puts a young copywriter (Randy
Pearlstein) with a literature degree on the front line, even
though he doesn't want to be. The contest comes down to a
schmaltzy campaign by Hoffman with music by Air Supply that uses
the tagline "Vorcan: your own personal air supply." or a more down
to earth campaign from Cranston of "The pad ain't bad!"

BAMBOOZLED (2000)

Dark, biting satire of the television industry, focusing on
an Ivy-League educated black writer at a major network. Frustrated
that his ideas for a "Cosby Show"-esque take on the black family
has been rejected by network brass, he devises an outlandish scheme:
reviving the minstrel show. The hook: instead of white actors in
black face, the show stars black actors in even blacker face.
The show becomes an instant smash, but with the success also
comes repercussions for all involved.

WHAT WOMEN WANT (2000)

Nick Marshall, Playboy and Hot Shot in advertising, thinks he's
God's gift to women. After a little accident, he discovers that he
is suddenly able to hear what women really think. First, Nick is
pretty disappointed when he discovers that his beloved macho
behaviour does not exactly contribute to being desired. Then, his
upcoming dream position in the company is being given to a new
team member: Darcy, not only a woman, but a man-eating one, also
is a very talented ad expert. So, Nick decides to sabotage his new
boss by reading her thoughts and selling her ideas as his own.
Unfortunately, love gets in his way.

AD AND THE EGO (1997)

Intercutting thousands of contemporary and classic television
commercials with insights by Stuart Ewen, Jean Kilbourne, Sut
JhalIy and others, this film scrutinizes late 20th century
American society and its prime inhabitant, Consumer Man. You will
never look at an ad the same way again after viewing what critics
are calling "the first comprehensive documentary on the cultural
impact of advertising in America".

BEWITCHED (1964) (TV series)

Samantha, a powerful member of the society of witches that has
lived apart from (and disdained) humanity for many centuries,
falls in love with a mortal, Darrin Stephens. Much to the disgust
of most of her family, she vows to give up witchcraft and become
an ordinary suburban housewife, raising a family (bearing Tabitha
and Adam). Never able to give up her heritage completely, the
friction between the matriarchal, moneyless society of her birth
and the patriarchal, capitalist society of modern advertising
drives the comedy over eight seasons and 256 episodes, from 1964
to 1971.

BOSOM BUDDIES (1980) (TV series)

Henry (Peter Scolari) and Kip (Tom Hanks) are two advertising
designers who had a real problem with finding a place to live. At
the beginning, the sole place they could afford was condemned, but
they only found out when the wrecking ball was smashing up the
place while they were sleeping. A female friend suggested they
stay at her building, but the snag is that the place is for women
only. In desperation, they assume the identities of the women
Hildegard and Buffy in order to rent a room. Now as they pursue
their dream of success in the ad business, they also struggle to
keep their deception at the apartment building so they won't be
evicted, but the beautiful neighbours they have are a constant
temptation.

CAMPAIGN (1988) (mini-series)

A six-part drama series set in an advertising agency. It focuses
on Sarah Copeland, a rising copywriter who is pitching for a
prestigious account. This series is one of a number documenting
the unique social and economic conditions in south-east England
during the 1980s economic boom.

THE DON RICKLES SHOW (1972) (TV series)

Acerbic Don Robinson (Don Rickles) was an advertising executive
with the New York firm of Kingston, Cohen & Vanderpool, where he
became constantly frustrated with the red tape, delays and
problems associated with a fast-track society. He sometimes took
out his frustrations on his wife Barbara, young daughter Janie or
his neighbors, the Benedicts.

ON OUR OWN (1977) (TV series)

Maria Bonino and Julia Peters are two secretaries in a high-
powered New York advertising agency. They are promoted to art
director and copywriter and begin their new careers with
enthusiasm. Other people in the agency are J.M. Bedford, chairman
of the board; Toni McBain, the President; April Baxter, a
copywriter; Eddie Barnes, a TV commercial producer, and Craig
Boatwright, a salesman.