How to Get Ahead in Advertising
1989
Action / Comedy / Fantasy

How to Get Ahead in Advertising
1989
Action / Comedy / Fantasy
Plot summary
Pressure from his boss and a skin-cream client produces a talking boil on a British adman's neck.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Not exactly satire, not exactly farce
Advertising exec gets a conscious...leading to challenges on the job.
This brilliant attack on commodification and the misuse of language to cajole consumerism is a must see. I don't like to give anything away so suffice to say that Grant is excellent as the near-schizophrenic hero (anti-hero) who's copy writer's block leads to his confronting the hegemony he operates within. The film mocks the abuse of semiotics in the media; one particularly hilarious scene has Grant battling his fellow-commuters over a newspaper story designed, per Grant's character, Bagley, to lead readers to directed conclusions. In the exchange about a heroin arrest reported in the paper, police allege that a bag containing heroin "may" have also contained marijuana. Bagley burst out with, "It may have contained a f***ing pork pie!" Hilarity ensues, but not devoid of a moral lesson...you may find the rendering of William Blake's "Jerusalem" at the film's conclusion particularly ironically amusing.