Wes Anderson's AmEx ad

I got excited at what I thought was a commercial for a new Wes Anderson movie that had snuck under my radar, but it turned out it was an American Express "My Card..." advertisement by Wes Anderson. Hell, I'll take it. I've only seen it on American cable channels, not on Canadian TV, so here's the YouTube. Seth Stevenson at Slate breaks down the appeal of this ad and why credit card advertising is so weird: the ads don't talk about interest rates or benefits, it's just about how interesting other people's lives are, and if you have AmEx, maybe you are interesting too. The bit where Wes asks for a .357 pistol with a bayonet and then gets a mock-up just kills me.

Brief digression: I know several of my readers are Wes Anderson fans: which is your favourite movie? I can't decide which is better, Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaums. Both great movies that I reqatch over and over: I love Rushmore for all the life Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray create in their characters, but Tenenbaums has terrific characters too, and a fascinating mise-en-scene with all the set designs (that house is like an I-Spy book come to life). I'll rewatch them both later this week and get more into them in a follow-up. Thoughts?



Wes Anderson's AmEx ad. By Seth Stevenson @ slate.com

Why does it take Wes Anderson so long to make a movie? By Armond White @ slate.com