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Donna Speciale has long been one of the advertising industry’s most powerful executives, but over the years, there have been some things even she couldn’t do.

Nearly two decades ago, Speciale, then a senior media buyer at MediaVest who negotiated prices and terms for commercial time, approached TV networks with an intriguing idea: Why couldn’t her company buy up an entire ad break, then “program” it with spots from clients in a way that would keep people from tuning away or getting up for a snack? Maybe the movie trailer runs before the ad for floor cleaner, so the thinking went. Viewers would stick around — and, presumably, ratings would improve.

TV networks had good reasons to win her favor. At the time, Speciale’s client roster included Procter & Gamble and Walmart, among other big spenders. Even so, no one would let her test the experiment. The...

Michael J. Fox's best-known 80s film may be Back to the Future, but his 1985 comedy film Teen Wolf has had quite the impact itself. Teen Wolf lands on Max this upcoming January.

On January 1st, Fox’s coming-of-age comedy, Teen Wolf, will be available to stream on Max. The film was initially released on August 23rd, 1985, shortly after Back to the Future was released just a month prior, on July 3rd. Directed by Rob Daniel, the original Teen Wolf saw Fox as the titular teen wolf, Scott Howard. In a twist of the typical coming-of-age story, Scott’s life is changed by his newly discovered werewolf form.

Related Teen Wolf: How the 1985 Michael J. Fox Comedy Spawned a Drama Franchise

A look at how a goofy little satire of 1980s high school movies called Teen Wolf starring Michael J. Fox spawned Paramount+'s Teen Wolf: The Movie.

The original Teen Wolf,...

In our Member Lens series, we’re spotlighting a cross-section of current Film Independent Members to see how they got where they are now, what they hope to do next and what being a part of Film Independent means to them. This profile of Carla Renata originally ran in December 2021.

May is for Members! This week only: 10% off General Membership. This month, we’re celebrating our Membership experience for filmmakers and film lovers all over the globe. All month-long you can enjoy an array of special discounts on Membership. This week, you can join and save 10% on all levels of General Membership. Join or renew today!

Whether by necessity, restlessness or curious exuberance, it’s a fact that 99% of people carving out a living in the entertainment industry are doing so as a multi-hyphenate—a little acting here, a little hosting there, some writing and producing at varying levels of focus and intensity.

The King of Beers is stepping away from one of its most prominent thrones.

Beverage giant Anheuser-Busch InBev is benching Super Bowl commercials from Budweiser, perhaps its best-known product — the first time in nearly four decades that the brand won’t have a place on the Big Game ad roster. The move follows decisions by both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo to sideline Super Bowl ads for their flagship products, and suggests CBS’ broadcast of Super Bowl Lv will lack some of the event’s most familiar trappings as the world continues to grapple with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Budweiser will give the money it might have spent on running a Super Bowl commercial to the Ad Council, an industry coalition that produces and places public-service announcements, to help raise awareness of the benefits of getting the coronavirus vaccine. “We know the resources that go behind investment in a game-day unit are significant,...

TV commercials have long been the surest bet on Madison Avenue. Suddenly, they’re looking more like a risky gambit.

One ad recently making the rounds in these uncertain days of coronavirus was a spot from Mint Mobile, a wireless carrier that aims for young customers and is partially owned by actor Ryan Reynolds. The commercial, viewed on CNN last week, showed people at a party eating from a bowl of dip with their bare hands, and then feeding it to each other the same way. At a time when officials are calling for social distancing, that hardly seems like the kind of behavior to show on television.

“We understand the sensitivities and already asked all networks to pull [the spot] from their logs,” the company said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the traffic instructions weren’t executed as quickly as normal, given so many people now working from home.” A person familiar...

Fox Networks Group hopes to make its commercial breaks as dramatic as the action in some of its best-known series, like “9-1-1,” “American Horror Story” or “Lethal Weapon.”

Starting this fall, Fox outlets like Fox Broadcasting, FX, Nat Geo and their digital counterparts will begin running inspirational videos that tell stories about people who have overcome adversity. These tales won’t take part over the course of 22 episodes, but will instead show up during advertising time, and Fox hopes to get marketers to sponsor them. Pharamaceutical companies, sports advertisers, insurance marketers and wellness firms are viewed as potential candidates that might consider attaching their names to vignettes of various lengths about people triumphing over cancer, the loss of a limb, or even blindness.

Column Commercial Break A continuing series about branded entertainment Read More

To help get the job done, Fox has enlisted the help of Tbwa \ Worldwide, the...

Taco Bell has long been one of TV’s most ubiquitous advertisers. But it’s conquering that screen with something straight out of the movies.

The fast-food chain best known for items like the Cheesy Gordita Crunch and Cinnamon Twists recently sparked attention for its newest menu item – Nacho Fries – with a TV commercial that looks just like a sneak preview a viewer might see at the local bijou. The nonexistent film depicted in the spot is called “Web of Fries,” and stars actor Josh Duhamel as a man consumed with bringing fries seasoned with Mexican spices and dipped in warm nacho cheese to greater renown – only to find “the burger people” will do anything they can to block him. Taco Bell sold 53 million orders of the new offering in the first five weeks of the campaign.

Now the Yum Brands chain is considering a sequel, says Tracee Larocca, Taco...