Movie Review: How To Get Ahead in Advertising
How To Get Ahead in Advertising
(Director: Bruce Robinson)
My Rating: 2.5 out of 5 pens.
An advertising executive confronts his darker side in this oddball comedy from 1988.
Dennis Bagley (Richard E. Grant) knows his fellow Englishmen like the back of his hand, or so he thinks. His sneering cynicism, coupled with a legitimate creative talent, has placed him near the top of the advertising game, and he claims he can sell anything to anybody. But when he finally meets his personal Kryptonite, it comes in the form of an ordinary pimple cream. Suddenly, inexplicably, he’s utterly blocked while staring at a looming deadline. He can’t even think about the product without cringing at the thought of gigantic, disfiguring boils….
Guess what happens to him next.
Not only does he develop a boil the size of a baseball on his neck, but the thing seems to be talking to him, whispering evil things even as Bagley experiences a change of heart about his advertising ethics. Bagley wants to tell the truth and nothing but the truth about his clients’ products from now on — but the boil has other ideas. Is Bagley mad, or has his unmitigated greed to sell, sell, sell really developed a mind of its own?
I won’t pretend this a great film; it sort of totters to a conclusion (with one final speech from the boil about how it’s the advertising industry’s job to tell people what they want) instead of resolving properly, and the sheer weirdness of a sentient talking pimple will turn some viewers off. (And yes, the special effects people are extremely, er, helpful in this regard.) Aficionados of cult films or offbeat humor will get some good laughs out of it, and the performances of Grant, Rachel Ward as his long-suffering wife, and the supporting cast are committed and energetic.
The most interesting thing about the film, to me, is the question it asks about the nature of human greed versus the sincere desire to help and inform our fellow beings. Bagley is torn — he wants to reform, to advertise ethically and help customers actually make choices, but his corrupt side still lusts for the power that comes from dictating and swaying human behavior. (At one point the boil actually plots to drum up interest in the pimple cream by making acne a popular craze, with the intention of then swerving public opinion so that the horrified victims will rush to buy pimple cream.)
Personally, I’ve had pretty good luck when it comes to writing ad copy for products and services I can believe in, for clients who sincerely care about what they’re offering. But I know in my bones that someday, sooner or later, that zillion-dollar contract will come to my door, with a moral price tag to match. Will I live up to my own expectations — or will I develop a skin problem? Stay tuned.
