The Real Saatchis: Masters of Illusion (1999)

The Corporation

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse

In this highly anticipated sequel to his groundbreaking, ADVERTISING AND THE END OF THE WORLD, media scholar Sut Jhally explores the devastating personal and environmental fallout from advertising, commercial culture, and rampant American consumerism. Ranging from the emergence of the modern advertising industry in the early 20th century to the full-scale commercialization of the culture today, Jhally identifies one consistent message running throughout all of advertising: the idea that corporate brands and consumer goods are the keys to human happiness. He then shows how this powerful narrative, backed by billions of dollars a year and propagated by the best creative minds, has blinded us to the catastrophic costs of ever-accelerating rates of consumption.

Pitch People

Pitch People is a documentary film that focuses on the role the art of the "pitch" has played in society. It was produced in 1999 and includes interviews with many of the pitch industry's greatest salesmen, including Arnold Morris, Sandy Mason, Lester Morris, Wally Nash and Ed McMahon as well as a look at the Popeil family.

DJ Punk: The Photographer Daniel Josefsohn

Nobody captured the atmosphere of 1990s Berlin better than German photographer Daniel Josefsohn, who died in 2016 at the age of 54, leaving his mark in advertising with his irreverent aesthetic and punk sensibility. It was his spontaneous, imperfect images shot for an MTV campaign in 1994 that first made him famous.

Toni Segarra: The Ads Writer

Advertising surrounds us. It is part of our lives, our memory and our culture: it is a pure reflection of our society. However, those who think and create ads are unknown people. Playing with the mechanisms of publicity as a narrative resource, we enter this medium through Spain's best creative director: Toni Segarra.

Helvetica

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Art & Copy

The personal odysseys of some of the most influential advertising visionaries of all time and the stories behind their campaigns.

POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

A documentary about branding, advertising and product placement that is financed and made possible by brands, advertising and product placement.

Mad Women

The story of pioneering women making iconic TV ads that changed the world: from Shake n' Vac and Levi's, to the Flake girl in the bath and the Lynx effect

Generation Sputnik

From 1957 —the year in which the Soviets put the Sputnik 1 satellite into orbit— to 1969 —when American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon—, the beginnings of the space conquest were depicted in popular culture: cinema, television, comics and literature of the time contain numerous references to an imagined future.

The Atomic Cafe

A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.

The Light Bulb Conspiracy

Once upon a time... consumer goods were built to last. Then, in the 1920’s, a group of businessmen realized that the longer their product lasted, the less money they made, thus Planned Obsolescence was born, and manufacturers have been engineering products to fail ever since. Combining investigative research and rare archive footage with analysis by those working on ways to save both the economy and the environment, this documentary charts the creation of ‘engineering to fail’, its rise to prominence and its recent fall from grace.

24×36

A documentary exploring the birth, death and resurrection of illustrated movie poster art. Through interviews with a number of key art personalities from the 70s and 80s, as well as many modern, alternative poster artists, “Twenty-Four by Thirty-Six” aims to answer the question: What happened to the illustrated movie poster? Where did it disappear to, and why? In the mid 2000s, filling the void left behind by Hollywood’s abandonment of illustrated movie posters, independent artists and galleries began selling limited edition, screenprinted posters — a movement that has quickly exploded into a booming industry with prints selling out online in seconds, inspiring Hollywood studios to take notice of illustration in movie posters once more.

Juzo Itami: The Man with 13 Faces

A documentary about the legendary Japanese filmmaker.

Das Plakat - Die Geburt der modernen Werbung

Advertising: Colorful and projected on a large scale. The new era begins at the beginning of the 20th century in Berlin, Munich and Vienna. Lucian Bernhard, Ludwig Hohlwein and Julius Klinger put the products of industrialization in a new light: cars and cigarettes, fashion and cosmetics. The story of the three exceptional graphic artists and how their poster art revolutionized advertising.

Paseo por los letreros de Madrid

A travelogue through the diverse neighborhoods of Madrid, its picturesque streets and its history; and an approach, with a sense of humor, to the lighted signs and advertising slogans of the shops: an unusual portrait of the city and its people.

Rendezvous unterm Nierentisch

Film collage with documentary material from the time of the German economic miracle. The "Golden" 50s run in a serene potpourri of weekly clips, old cinema, and party advertising, demonstrate the attempts of the revived industry to change consumer habits. In between, pictures of the politicians of the first hour. All this in the nostalgia touch of a time when nylons triumphed.

The Real Mad Men and Women of Madison Avenue

Chronicles the growth of the advertising industry from the 1950s through today, looking at the real men and women who created some of the most ground-breaking advertising campaigns and slogans and whose work changed the landscape of the ad industry. Roy Eaton, Jerry Della Femina, Paula Green, George Lois, and other creative giants recount the history of the advertising industry through unforgettable stories and campaigns.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

The fastest man on four wheels, Ricky Bobby is one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history. A big, hairy American winning machine, Ricky has everything a dimwitted daredevil could want, a luxurious mansion, a smokin' hot wife and all the fast food he can eat. But Ricky's turbo-charged lifestyle hits an unexpected speed bump when he's bested by flamboyant Euro-idiot Jean Girard and reduced to a fear-ridden wreck.

Thank You for Smoking

Nick Naylor is a charismatic spin-doctor for Big Tobacco who'll fight to protect America's right to smoke -- even if it kills him -- while still remaining a role model for his 12-year old son. When he incurs the wrath of a senator bent on snuffing out cigarettes, Nick's powers of "filtering the truth" will be put to the test.

Switch

Steve Brooks, a sexist womanizer, is killed by a group of his angry former lovers. In heaven, he makes a bargain with God for redemption and agrees to return to Earth. Once there, he must have a sincere relationship with a female and make her fall in love with him. If not, Steve's soul will become the property of the devil. But the devil hedges his bet, and Steve is reincarnated as a woman named Amanda Brooks.

How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.

Every Home Should Have One

Teddy works for a large advertising company. Given the seemingly impossible task of selling frozen porridge, he decides to produce commercials that make the product seem sexy. This leads him to confrontation with the "Keep Television Clean" movement, of which his wife is a senior member.

It Should Happen to You

Gladys Glover has just lost her modeling job when she meets filmmaker Pete Sheppard shooting a documentary in Central Park. For Pete it's love at first sight, but Gladys has her mind on other things, making a name for herself. Through a fluke of advertising she winds up with her name plastered over 10 billboards throughout city.

Crazy People

A bitter ad executive, who has reached his breaking point, finds himself in a mental institution, where his career actually begins to thrive with the help of the hospital's patients.

Prada Paradoxe

Emma Watson breaks the mould of the muse to be both in front of and behind the lens, writing her own script and narrating her own story of being a living paradox.

The Stuff

Amalgamated Dairies hires David Rutherford, an FBI man turned industrial saboteur, to investigate a popular new product called “the Stuff,” a new dessert product that is blowing ice cream sales out of the water. Nobody knows how it’s made or what’s in it, but people are lining up to buy it. It's got a delicious flavor to die for!

Uppfinnaren

"The Inventor" - About "Arbman Development" an inventory company initiated by PR-guru Leon Nordin. AD produced a total of 173 inventions, including a banknote counter that made confetti out of money.

The Good Night

Gary, a musician, is trapped in an unhappy relationship with his live-in lover, Dora. He becomes enthralled with a beautiful seductress who enters his dreams, and tries to control his dream-state so he can spend more and more time with her. When Gary sees his mystery woman's face on a bus billboard, he discovers she is real, and fate brings him an opportunity to meet her.

North by Northwest

Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.

The Great Madcap

Portrayal of a family’s attempt to change the spending habit of the indulgent and hedonistic patriarch, Alfredo. The family decides to try to fool him into spending less by telling him that his large fortune is gone.

Hook, Line and Sinker

Two fast-talking insurance salesmen meet Mary, who is running away from her wealthy mother, and they agree to help her run a hotel that she owns. When they find out that the hotel is run down and nearly abandoned, they launch a phony PR campaign that presents the hotel as a resort favored by the rich. Their advertising succeeds too well, and many complications soon arise.

Christmas in July

An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize.

Putney Swope

Swope—the only black man on the executive board of an advertising firm—is accidentally put in charge after the death of the chairman.

With Love, Christmas

Advertising execs Melanie Welsh and Donovan Goodwin disagree on a cellphone Christmas commercial they’re pitching. He says his sleek design will win over the client but she knows it lacks holiday spirit.

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Challenges of impending parenthood turn the lives of five couples upside down. Two celebrities are unprepared for the surprise demands of pregnancy; hormones wreak havoc on a baby-crazy author, while her husband tries not to be outdone by his father, who's expecting twins with his young trophy wife; a photographer's husband isn't sure about his wife's adoption plans; a one-time hook-up results in a surprise pregnancy for rival food-truck owners.

The Beauty Inside

Woo-jin, a furniture designer who wakes up in a different body every day, falls for Yi-soo, a woman he meets through his work.

The Soul of Business

A modern couple from a typical advertisement: young, attractive, and brand-conscious. As they use the products on their breakfast table they begin to quote lines from the relevant advertisemnet. Soon their behavior departs from the accepted advertising norm as they zealously defend each other´s products to the death.