Kazaamukkah

This week is the fourth annual Kazaamukkah. During Kazaamukkah, a friend and I watch the 1996 film Kazaam for eight straight nights in a row. If you're wondering what Kazaam is, it's this movie.

The movie stars Shaq as a rapping genie who lives in a boombox until a young boy named Max awakens him. There are also a subplot where Shaq raps with Salt-n-Pepa and Max's father gets involved in a cassette tape piracy scheme. There is also this scene.

While this is normally the kind of film you see once or twice for laughs, at the time of this posting I have seen the film 28 times and will have seen it 32 times by Monday night. Being that this is the first film I've watched that many of times in that short a span of time, I've started to notice a few things when you watch a film that many times.

1. I don't have the film memorized.

When I first started watching Kazaam I had assumed that by the 16th or so time seeing the movie I would more or less have most of the film memorized. This however is not the case. In fact I'll often forget large portions of the movie. I still don't have the minute long rap "We Genie" memorized and would be unable to give you a complete summary of the movie. I feel like is probably do to the fact that the movie has so little actual content to it. Almost 30 viewings in and both friend and I cannot find any resemblance of a theme or real arc in this film.

2.  An event like Kazaamukkah can't be done with just any film.

I feel like it's the aforementioned lack of any substance that makes Kazaamukah so bearable. The event is only bearable because of how little impact the film actually leaves on you. Kazaam is far from my favorite film, which is exactly why it's perfect for such an event. If I were to do Kazaamukkah with any film I remotely liked, I would end up hating it.

3. Errors, Inconsistencies, and Hidden Gems Galore.

Around the third watchthrough of Kazaam, you've pretty much gotten everything you're going to get out of the movie from its intended purpose. However, this allows you to focus on 

background elements of the movie. When you do that, things start to fall apart. The film is littered with blatant product placements mainly for Pepsi, Mcdonald's, and a candy bar called Mr. Big. the films beings to feel more and more like a 90 minute Pepsi commercial. Along with the soft drink promotions are large amounts of continuity errors both in background, editing, and story progression. There are several scenes including this one which fail to progress any aspect of the plot. Perhaps my favorite part of 

watching the film are the extras. Fun Fact, Efren Ramierez plays the role of a minor school bully in this film. He would gain more fame 

and recognition eight years later when we played Pedro in Napoleon Dynamite. Don't take my word for it, experience the film for yourself. It's on Youtube! While watching, here are a few fun games to play

-Spot the director's son.

-Identify what the father's job title is.

-What does Asia Moon lend to the plot?

An Advertiser's New Approach

With less and less people watching live television, advertisers are straining to reach an audience. As long as Netflix is around, we can expect commercials to have diminishing effects on viewers, simply because more and more people are binge watching this commercial-free medium. DVR is also last fault for letting viewers completely skip over commercial breaks. As an avid television viewer, I love the technological advancements that have let me cheat advertisements, but as a future employee of the television world, I know advertisements will keep my job afloat. Our careers run on the finances of advertisers so we have to acknowledge the problem that less people are watching them. So how to fix this issue....

Concepts like product placement and branded entertainment have not been getting the credit they deserve. While not necessarily the most glorious options, these two concepts have found a way to link entertainment with advertising, sometimes without the viewer even noticing. Product placement puts a company's logo or product seamlessly into a scene with an organic touch. Perhaps there is a Coke can sitting in front of Ted Mosby in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. This is great exposure for the brand, and viewers may subconsciously notice it but it doesn't take away from the scene. This could be done during the filming process or even thrown in during post production. Episodes of Friends have been edited to show a box of Oreos on the table while the characters are sitting around it carrying on conversations. This could be much more beneficial for Coke and Oreos rather than a commercial that may never been seen by the viewer. With the reruns of How I Met Your Mother and Friends on Netflix, those are the products you will still see today versus whatever advertisements were played during the commercial break when they aired.


Branded entertainment is a similar concept except that it has much more control than product placement. In branded entertainment, a company will pay a production studio to create the show they desire and will obviously include their brand in a beneficial way. IKEA created a web series, "Easy to Assemble", that generated a lot of buzz and many guest stars, flag shipping this new way of advertising. The main character was an employee for IKEA, so the brand was included but there was a storyline with the characters that was separate from the furniture store. Branded entertainment can be a subtle way to advertise your company while still allowing a lot of creative control with plots and characters, without being overbearing.

If company's can find a way to integrate advertising without distracting the viewers from the content, it could be a win-win for everyone.