More 80th Academy Awards Prediction Contests

22 February 2008

For more details on Oscars prediction contests, read the Academy Awards Prediction Contests page. For the most recent Oscars posts, be sure to check out the Oscars/Academy Awards category page. There, you should find contests, predictions, and results.

Here are a handful of contests I have found since my previous post of contests. The Academy Awards Prediction Contests page has been updated accordingly.

  • JoBlo
    Prize: Apple 80 GB iPod classic Silver ($236 ARV)
  • AbsolutePunk
    Prize: Sports Night: The Complete Series DVD ($48 ARV)
  • York Daily Record
    Prize: $30 gift certificate to Regal Cinemas ($30 ARV)
  • Awards Daily
    Prize: Nothing ($0 ARV)

80th Academy Awards Prediction Contests

20 February 2008

Oscar

For more details on Oscars prediction contests, read the Academy Awards Prediction Contests page. For the most recent Oscars posts, be sure to check out the Oscars/Academy Awards category page. There, you should find contests, predictions, and results.

Make sure you know who's in the running for each category! Print the official Oscars printable ballot.

The Contests:

  • Oscars.com — ABC.com membership required
    Prize: One Women’s Right-hand ring from the Kwiat Star Collection, set in 18k white gold with 1.53cts or round brilliant and marquise cut diamonds.; One pair of Men’s Cufflinks from the Kwiat Men’s Solaris Collection, featuring black and white diamonds set in 18k white gold with 1.28cts or round brilliant diamonds. ($11,720 ARV)
  • CNN.com
    Prize: 47" Flat Screen HDTV ($1,500 ARV)
  • eFilmCritic — Unique method of entry for this one, as you can vote for multiple films in each category
    Prize: 50 DVDs (Est. $1,000 ARV)
  • DE Concierge
    Prize: $100 gift certificate to Burke Williams Day Spa in CA, a $100 restaurant gift certificate, and a $100 gift certificate to the Arclight Cinema in LA ($300 ARV)
  • AroundCinci
    Prize: Movie showings from Movies on Demand for an entire year — probably only redeemable by customers of Time Warner Cable in the Cincinatti region ($179.64 ARV)
  • the-numbers.com
    Prize: All five Best Picture Nominees on DVD. (Est. $100 ARV)
  • Kentucky.com
    Prize: $50 in movie tickets and a $50 gift certificate to a Lexington-area restaurant ($100 ARV)
  • Movie City News
    Prize: Stanley Kubrick Box Set of DVDS and an MCN Know It All tee ($87 ARV)
  • PredictTheOscars.com
    Prize: $50 VISA gift card ($50 ARV)
  • Scuba.com
    Prize: $50 scuba.com gift certificate ($50 ARV)
  • Fort Worth Public Library
    Prize: Two AMC movie passes, The Departed DVD, 2-liter bottle of Coca-Cola Classic, and a box of Orville Redenbacher's Microwave Gourmet Popping Corn (Est. $35 ARV)
  • web-goddess
    Prize: One Striking Writer sock monkey (Est. $30 ARV)
  • The Daily Camera and The Video Station
    Prize: Dinner and a movie for two (ARV unknown)
  • The Augusta Chronicle
    Prize: An entertainment prize package (ARV unknown)
  • The News Tribune
    Prize: Unknown
  • Practicalmadness
    Prize: Unknown
  • Box Office Mojo
    Prize: Nothing?
  • Variety
    Prize: Nothing ($0 ARV)
  • Entertainment Weekly
    Prize: "Bragging rights" ($0 ARV)
  • TheEnvelope.com (Los Angeles Times) (Coming soon???)
    Prize: $1,000

Good luck to you, and have fun! (And if you win a prize, please feel free to share it with me!)

Super Bowl Commercial: Cars.com – Plan B: Witch Doctor

3 February 2008

A car salesman congratulates a man on how much he already knew about the car. The man admits that he used cars.com's consumer reviews and dealer locator to help himself instead of using Plan B.

The car salesman asks what Plan B was, and the man explains that he was going to have a witch doctor shrink the salesman's head. He points out into the waiting room, where a witch doctor is sitting next to the other customers.

At that point, another worker, Jorge, comes into the office with a shrunken head and asks to have the rest of the day off because he has a tiny head. Sure enough, the witch doctor has started early. The customer admits that he should probably get the witch doctor out of the dealership.

Watch the video:

Easter egg: The salesman's name tag reads "Jason Karley." Jason Karley is a copywriter for DDB, Chicago, the agency responsible for this commercial.

Super Bowl Commercial: Doritos – Mouse Trap

3 February 2008

Set to Habanera from Bizet's opera Carmen, a man arrives in his apartment, opens a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, and puts a small corner of a Dorito on a mouse trap.

After placing the mousetrap in front of a small mouse hole, he pulls up a chair and waits.

As soon as the man puts his hand in the Doritos bag and pulls out some chips, a huge man-sized mouse breaks through the wall and tackles the man, throwing him backward in his chair. The mouse is clearly a man in a bad mouse suit, but it seems to be intended that we suspend our disbelief and think of him as an actual huge mouse.

After the Doritos logo flashes, we see the mouse straddling the man, punching him in the head.

Watch the video:

This commercial was created by Billy Federighi in Doritos' Snack Strong Productions contest.

Super Bowl Commercial: Planters – Unibrow

3 February 2008

A homely woman with a unibrow, large mole, big teeth, hair clips, and frumpy fashion sense is fawned over by countless men as Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes off of You plays in the background.

A tall, handsome man in an elevator gives her a look. Another admirer walks through a glass door as he ogles her walking out of her building. A coffee shop employee is engulfed in smoke as he is entranced by the woman and forgets what he's doing. Every man on the bus sits as closely to her as they can while a bicyclist pedals alongside the bus until he crashes into the back of a taxi.

Finally, we see the woman freshening up: After she has made herself ready, she opens a can of Planters cashews and rubs a cashew on her neck, wrist, and chest instead of using a perfume.

Planters — the all-natural aphrodisiac.

Watch the video:

Super Bowl Commercial: Toyota – More Refined

3 February 2008

An unsuspecting man is pushed into a car containing sleeping badgers that, "if awakened, they'd gnaw his face off. "

The people who pushed him into the car begin to fire cannons off outside the car, but nothing can be heard inside the car: Lucky for him, that car is the Toyota Corolla, which keeps the interior silent from outside noise.

As the man breathes a sigh of relief, his cell phone goes off, awakening the badger. The badger growls in the man's face, and we then move to the car's exterior.

Watch the video:

Toyota's slogan? "Live the dream for less coin."

Super Bowl Commercial: Tide – My Talking Stain

3 February 2008

A job interviewer asks a candidate to talk about himself. As he begins talking, a second voice speaking gibberish cancels out anything the man says. It's clear that the voice is coming from the stain on the man's dress shirt.

The man talks about his organizational skills, his ability to work well in groups, and his success at the company's competitor, but you'd never know it. The commercial is very well produced so that the stain's voice and look make it nearly impossible to focus on the man's words.

Watch the video:

See more at mytalkingstain.com