Some of the most fun ads I’ve ever seen are on Fuel TV, a network that looks like it must be owned by Mountain Dew or something, since they do all this stuff with extreme skateboarding (I typoed “skatebearding”: now that ought to be a sport!), snowboarding, motocross, surfing, racing, martial arts, etc. If it involves adrenaline, Fuel TV covers it. Spike TV says (or used to say) they’re the “guys’” network, but Fuel TV really is the guys’ network. So why is it buried in the premier sports channels? I don’t get it.
But if you love fun ads, you should watch Fuel TV! They have some really great ones, mostly for their own programming, and I’ve never seen them on another network (!). Maybe other channels are all too scared their audience would leave if they ran Fuel TV’s ads. Anyway, their most fun ads are for their Late Night Kung Fu movies, which are actually on during the day too: go figure. Anyway, they basically take scenes from great Shaw Bros. Kung Fu movies, edit and redub them (slightly) to advertise the show. It’s great, and it couldn’t be better, really!
One of these ads is a scene from the movie Shaolin Intruders: in it, some guys on a stage (of sorts) stand accusing a woman, and one of the accusers shakes a small golden blade at her, at which she says: “That is a very small sword!” Then, they show another guy pull out a ridiculously large sword, and he says: “Is this big enough for you?” And then he leaps forward to fight her, with sword in hand, and everyone starts fighting. The scene in the movie is very similar, and they really just redub some dialog and jump cut a minute or so forward to get rid of some of the jibber-jab before the big sword makes its entrance. The gist of the original scene is that some guy has been murdered, and they found him killed with the little golden blade, which is the woman’s. So they accuse her of the murder by showing her the blade, she denies it and claims they’re trying to frame her, at which time they call her a liar and attack her.
So this ad is great, but there’s another scene in this movie that would make a great companion piece for it, and they wouldn’t even have to change any dialog, either! A little later on in the movie, this guy is trying to win some challenge to win entrance to the Shaolin Temple, and he pulls out a small, stubby weapon to fight with. Then, one of the Shaolin guys says: That’s a very short weapon you’ve got”, and the guy says: “Maybe, but it can get a lot longer!” And then he thrusts it forward, and it elongates into a sword, like those handle-sized metal truncheons that telescope out with a stiff fling forward. This little scene, just like this, and from the same movie, I’d say would make a really fun spot to run with the other one. And because they're from the same movie, they would make people who know the movie, or people watching the movie who know the ads, say: "Hey! That's another scene from this movie!"
There’s also another one with a scene from Clan of the White Lotus, and it’s also great! (Whoever does the ads for Fuel TV must have a lot of fun, and they're really good! But I suppose it's easier to make ads for great stuff, after all.)
Want to see the ads? The one described above is on Fuel TV, but not on the internet that I could find, so watch the channel if you want to see it. Here’s the one from Clan of the White Lotus:
