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Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator
Posted by isecore on December 10th, 2007
This is easily the weirdest news I’ve read in a long time.
First off, to understand how weird this is, you really need to have seen the movie “Idiocracy” directed by Mike Judge. He’s the guy that created Beavis and Butthead as well as directed “Office Space“, the cult movie about frustrated cubicle-dwellers.
Here’s the story. Mike got badly burnt by Fox after directing Office Space for them. They didn’t market the movie and it sank from public view quite quickly. Thankfully it gained cult-recognition in the small screen, and is one of my many favorite movies. Despite being so disrespectfully handled by Fox he agreed to make another movie for them - Idiocracy. This is easily one of the darkest comedies I’ve ever seen, right up there with masterpieces such as Dr Strangelove. Anyone with a brain-stem needs to see it, and hopefully understand why it’s so funny and scary at the same time.
But, fairly unsurprising, Fox abandoned Idiocracy and let it sink without a trace just like they did with Office Space. Which sucks, since it’s a brilliant movie.
And this is where it gets really weird. In the movie there was an energy-drink called Brawndo. It was marketed with the slogan “The Thirst Mutilator” and supposedly contained “electrolytes”. The company behind it was so successful in it’s marketing that it managed to get water banned from usage, and this in turn caused a world-wide famine since the morons of the future were instead using Brawndo to water plants - which of course promptly died since electrolytes is salt.
Fox, in it’s infinite lack of wisdom has now chosen to make this drink a reality and profit from it. It’s pretty much as it was in the movie, the same name, the same slogan and also claiming to contain “electrolytes”. All the while giving Mike the shaft.
If this is not the ultimate bitter irony, then I don’t know what is.
(Via: Slashdot)
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December 10th, 2007 at 20:52
“It’s pretty much as it was in the movie, the same name, the same slogan and also claiming to contain “electrolytes”. All the while giving Mike the shaft.”
So, if it’s officially licensed, that means Mike isn’t getting the shaft at all, because he’s getting royalties from the drink sales. And, the drink is providing additional interest in the movie (right before Xmas, so you know there’s DVD sales involved). How is this a bad/negative thing? If anything, it shows that Mike Judge is more relevant than anyone could have imagined.
December 10th, 2007 at 22:08
That is what I call irony!
December 10th, 2007 at 23:39
Dwayne: I very much doubt Mike is making any money off of this.
Admittedly I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m pretty sure that Fox owns 100% of the marketing and licensing rights to either Idiocracy or Office Space and I doubt that there’s some clause somewhere giving him a cut of any profits. The same probably goes for DVD sales. I might be cynical but I’m pretty sure that whatever money Mike might make from DVD sales is but a fraction of a percent.
Why do I think this?
I doubt that they would do such a move that might potentially profit him considering that they didn’t do any marketing for either of the movies (no previews for critics, no ads on TV), and pulled both from the theaters after only a short while.
Thus, I still maintain that he’s been royally shafted twice, and now gets pissed upon by a corporation he should’ve avoided doing business with after they shafted him the first time.
December 10th, 2007 at 23:42
Also, props on the reference to the movie. Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho is after all the name of the president in it, I should’ve recognized it sooner. Cheers.
December 11th, 2007 at 06:35
“Admittedly I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m pretty sure that Fox owns 100% of the marketing and licensing rights to either Idiocracy or Office Space and I doubt that there’s some clause somewhere giving him a cut of any profits.”
So, rather than enjoy something that is demonstrably doing a lot to promote an under-promoted movie, and potentially benefitting Mike Judge directly through royalties, you’re going to make the most negative assumption you can possibly think of, and treat it as fact.
Cool.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:46
Absolutely. I’m convinced that Fox is doing this only to cash in on it’s cult-status. Had they done this almost two years ago when the movie was released then I would’ve seen it completely different, but I’m certain they’re only doing it as a way to make an extra buck off of the fans.
As far as Mike and his potential earnings, you have as little evidence as I do that he makes anything off of it. Had they originally treated Mike and his movies differently then I would’ve thought differently, but they shafted him on his movies so what’s there to say they’re not doing it again? I’m just following the logics behind such a decision.