Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Catching Up With...the Starburst Berries & Cream Lad

This is the first of what we hope will be an ongoing series, which means this one will probably be the last installment. Celebrity is fleeting these days and there's no need to wait, in this era of instant nostalgia, the requisite 10-15 years before a momentary celeb is found collapsed in a pool of vomit, pants unbuttoned, bleeding from his/her buttocks. We can do that now, minus the vomit/buttocks bleeding.

This installment features the much-beloved Starburst Berries & Cream Lad, who enthralled the nation with his merry, bus station-based endorsement of the new Starburst flavor variant in 2007. Here's the little fella:



Guess what? The Starburst Lad has a name, and that name is Jack Ferver. I found an interview with him here. Here are some highlights:

  • On how the commercial could have taken a much darker turn: "At the callback I did it at least 10 totally different ways, including crying."
  • On why the Berries & Cream Lad isn't as outlandish as he may initially seem: "I live in New York, in the hipster part of Brooklyn, so I see grown men in schoolboy outfits on the subway every day."
  • On why the spot took place in a Greyhound Bus station: "Bus stations are time warps. He is not from this time."
I won't ruin the rest for you--read the whole thing. Certainly we can all agree that the Berries and Cream vid was the best ever posted on this site, no?
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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:28 PM

    I have no recollection of this ad campaign. Obviously, my subconscious blocked it out to avoid massive trauma to my psyche.

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  2. Jimbromski4:42 PM

    nevertheless

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  3. Potsy5:33 PM

    you are an ass

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jumbo Slice7:16 PM

    We need to post that commercial more often. BTW, why am I not surprised the guy's name is Jack Ferver?

    I predict the "Catching up with..." series will be as successful as The Review-Preview, The Time Machine, Look At Dat, and our Album Reviews. Now that I think about it, even our concert previews have gone the way of the Thorkelson's.

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