Zombie Orville Redenbacher bids you hello!

YouTube Video

Have you seen this? MAD FUCKING CREEPY.

Quote:

Apparently the people who own the Orville Redenbacher popcorn brand feel they can boost sales if they reintroduce their dead pitchman as a grotesque Uncanny Valley-esque CG character. There's an article in USA TODAY about the new spot along with a short clip. I love this quote from the ad agency guy: "We don't want people to fall over and faint because Orville's back."

One more interesting fact about this spot: it was directed at Digital Domain by none other than David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB, SE7EN), who incidentally started his film career in animation (it's all documented in ANIMATION BLAST 9). The shot at the end where Orville says, "You'll like it better..." has some of the funniest (i.e. hideously awful) acting you'll see in any recent piece of big-budget CG.

A higher-res version of the commercial can be found on the official Redenbacher website. The lip sync is absolutely pathetic. It's hard to believe this spot was produced by Digital Domain.

The response to this spot has been unanimously negative. Here's a random sampling of opinions from around the blogosphere:

Y'know, I thought that cannibalizing old footage of Fred Astaire was kind of a tacky idea 11 years ago. But after this, I'm beginning to like the first idea. (via)

While watching Criminal Minds tonight, I saw the most sick and disturbing thing--yes, the commercials featuring a reanimated Orville Redenbacher. If you haven't seen it, it's not an old films clip or anything--it's basically CGI of a man's corpse dancing around. I'm sorry, but that's just freaking creepy. (via)

Digital Orville Redenbacher freaks me right out. He is dead. Let’s let him be dead. Because Zombie Orville is just wrong, wrong, wrong. (via)

I just saw the scariest shit ever. A commercial for Orville Redenbacher popcorn in which they used the man himself as a spokesperson. Yes, he's been dead for some time. They brought him back anyway. So beyond the questionable wisdom of using a dead man as your spokesman, they decided to go totally digital. So now it actually looks like they dug up the old man's corpse and made it talk and move with marionette strings. The lips don't even sync with the dialogue! (via)

UPDATE: Brew reader Tim Curtis says that he expressed his distaste for this commercial by visiting the ConAgra Foods contact page:

I've heard back from multiple readers who've emailed ConAgra and they're sending out a form letter to everybody. That letter is below:

Your communication concerning the new Orville Redenbacher TV ads was most welcome, and we appreciate your taking the time to contact us.

We understand that using breakthrough technology in this way can raise some eyebrows. However, we have taken the utmost care to replicate Orville's endearing personality and likeness. Our most important goal is to respect and advance the legacy of the brand's founder. The Retro ads which have recently aired received an extremely positive reception from consumers, and with the breakthroughs in technology, we are now able to introduce Orville to a whole new generation!

The Redenbacher family is excited for Orville's return to our advertising and marketing initiatives. Gary Redenbacher, who represents the Redenbacher family, has fully endorsed our direction and he is excited about ConAgra's efforts to advance his grandfather's legacy.

As we design future initiatives, your comments will be carefully considered. We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us and your interest in our products.

Sincerely,

ConAgra Foods Consumer Affairs

I saw this on TV last night during the Scrbs musical and thought it was the creepiest thing ever.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I actually liked the Shatner commercial, but I've never really payed any attention to his face in it either. That Orville Redenbacher commercial is so damn creepy though, especially the end when he's bouncing from side to side. I half expected his head to pop off and start flying around the room while cackling madly. Even if someone saw that without knowing it's a long-since dead man his movements are disturbing enough on their own.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The years have not been kind to Orville, not even from beyond the grave.

Does anybody else think that Orville's face resembles that of an elderly woman? The iPod he's wearing looks like a hearing aid to me, and the hair and glasses look like something a grandmother would don. =/

How ya doing, buddy?

I saw it, and I was really confused (main cause it didn't look like him).

I thought they got some kind of look alike and dressed him up, but CG...not exactly a great job (or great idea) there.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Watched it. Didn't know who the guy was. Wiki'd him. Was shocked.

If I knew the guy straight off then I would have been a little more shocked, and it probably would have taken me a few moments to realise actually what was going on. Pretty good effects, even though the moving of his mouth isn't in synch with his voice, but I'm sure that may just be the quality of the youtube video.

If it was someone (a celebrity) I knew very well then I would be very weirded out before confirmation. You never know, with the crazy technology these days.

"Hey, look: Orville Redenbacher's on the TV..!"
"What the fuck?!"
*throws something at the TV*
"The poltergeists won't be bothering us anymore..."

I was speaking idiomatically.

Moved to Media Centre.

I dunno, it looked mostly parodic to me. Kinda like how the ads would've been back in Orville Redenbacher's time. Such ugly lip sync could only have been intentional.

A commercial's main purpose is to get a bit of attention to the brand anyway. In this case it's probably been met beyond any expectations.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

It creeped me out. His head kept on bobbing left and right. Honestly though.. Wha's the point of bring back their old spoke's person back from the dead this way? It looks creepy and honestly, I still don't see the connection between the damn popcorn and the MP3 player comment he made.

FELIPE NO

My mom actually saw it and said immediately, "That's terrible, he's dead, they shouldn't be doing that, it's disrespectful." Needless to say it is very creepy and disrespectful as she said. It reminds me of when The Gap or some clothing commercial for some type of pants edited clips of Audrey Hepburn dancing in the movie "Funny Face" and so many people online said it was really horrible to use the image of a deceased icon to sell pants.

Most amazing jew boots

I'm sooo glad I wasn't the only one to find that creepy. I had to call up someone and ask if he was still dead. Not that I'm stupid or anything, but I honestly couldn't comprehend the commercial. The commercial just creeped me the fuck out. I don't know if it's because it was just a shitty CGI attempt or what. Ugh.

Back 15 years or so ago. (Maybe it's 20 now?) Diet Coke did commercials like that to CGI dead famous people. I remember the Humphrey Bogart one and Cary Grant as well. (Although Cary Grant may not have been dead then, I dunno) Those were actually done pretty well.

Most amazing jew boots