You can probably expect me to do a write-up of the surprisingly good 'Grosse Point Blank' at some point in the future (I know the anticipation must be overwhelming), but for now I'd just like to let you know, in case you weren't aware, that John Cusack actually used to be pretty hardcore. I guess he's pretty much resigned himself to more subtle, but no less awesome roles, such as 'Grace is Gone' and '1408', but there was a time when John Cusack could get into a fist-fight with an assassin, then kill him with a pen, and people would stand up and cheer.

Figuratively speaking.

"Mr. Broun, we'd just like to thank you once again for coming and meeting with us like this."
"Oh, it's absolutely my pleasure. Any group that takes a stand against the rampant liberalism that is destroying this fine country deserves to have their message heard."
"We feel the exact same way!"
"Now, what exactly is it that you want to get done?"
"Well, Congressman, you know how we're in a war, right?"
"Technically, the war ended four years ago."
"Yes, but... our troops are still engaged in conflict in the middle east, right?"
"'Conflict' is putting it lightly. Every day, our soldiers are faced with the kind of conditions you and I could never imagine. They are subjected to a way of living that takes an unholy toll on their bodies and minds. Thousands of them have died, alone and frightened in a land far, far away from any home they've ever known. And those that do survive have more than likely seen countless friends of theirs die in bloody, horrible ways. They are forever changed. They have gazed into the abyss, and it, in turn, has gazed back at them."
"Yeah... well, we wanna take away their porn."
"Why?"
"It's bad for them."
"Sounds good to me!"

I saw last night that NBC is moving 'Scrubs' back an hour, so that it will now be shown at 8:30 on Thursdays. Additionally, they have moved '30 Rock' to 9:30, basically switching the time slot of each show.

Now, if I remember correctly, moving a show back an entire hour is a sure-fire way to lose a good portion of its audience. I know they did it halfway through the second season of Carnivale, and, well, that also turned out to be the last season. I also think that moving a show up an entire hour is often used as means to boost ratings.

So, this makes me wonder: did NBC move Scrubs up in the line-up because it was doing poorly? It's a popular show that's well into its 7th season, so it's clearly profitable. Maybe it's not doing as well as usual, so they network wants to rectify that by putting it on a little earlier? If so, then they're doing it at the expense of 30 Rock, which has only been running for about a season and a half. It's also critically acclaimed, which probably means it doesn't do so well ratings-wise.

Is that right? Do I have this completely backwards?

I'd like to take a moment now to talk about a commercial I've seen a lot of lately that I actually consider to be fairly impressive. Of course, since the goal of any commercial is to manipulate the audience, some may think that deeming one "impressive" is not exactly a compliment. But please, work with me.

The commercial in question is for 'Tempur-Pedic' mattresses and pillows. Supposedly they're made out of some highly advanced material that was original created for NASA but somehow made its way to Sweden.

You can find some of their commercials here, specifically the videos marked '60 second TV', but unfortunately, they don't have the one I'm discussing. The commercial that actually caught my eye is about twice as long as their normal commercials. Fortunately, they all follow basically the same pattern: a woman with a soothing voice discusses the benefits of sleeping on a Tempur-Pedic mattress, while 'relaxing' footage (featuring such images as a rainforest, a beach, and a woman doing yoga) plays.

Let's talk about all the great stuff in this commercial:

1. The woman's voice. When I hear her talking, I think of those 'relaxation' CDs you can buy. Most of them are made up of gentle sounds of nature, but I know there are at least a few that contain the sound of a person instructing you in the ways of peaceful meditation/nap-taking. This is a key part of the commercial's soothing atmosphere.

2. The images. All the things we are shown (ranging from flower petals on a calm pond to... well, other things taking place in some mystical forest) are very peaceful, natural things. And much like the technique used in The Matrix, all of the scenes demonstrating the qualities of Tempur-Pedic are tinted green, whereas anytime an inferior spring mattress is shown, the scene has more of a blue-ish quality.

3. The music. This is the part that really gets me. Sometimes, in commercials, if a company wants to contrast their product with someone else's, they show two contrasting scenes with different music. Like, say, an advertisement for an amusement park might include shots of people having a good time on roller coasters and whatnot to a blaring rock-and-roll soundtrack, contrasted with footage of similar people spending their time in a boring shopping mall, accompanied by typical low-key mall music. The commercial would shift between the two scenes multiple times, each time bringing a sudden and jarring change in the music.
This commercial, however, avoids that. The entire commercial is backed by what appears to be one continuous musical piece. Whenever a Tempur-Pedic bed is shown, or even discussed, the music is bright and uplifting. When a person is shown suffering due to their non-Tempur-Pedic bed, the music shifts to a more elegiac melody, without all the sudden bursts of passion from earlier scenes. The result is noticeable, but not so much as to be shocking, which would go against the commercial's main theme of peacefulness.

4. The different voice at the end. I don't think any of the commercials on their website have this, but the extended version that I see pretty much every day includes a little something at the end that I think is just great. After the woman is finished speaking, a different voice, belonging to a man, is suddenly heard. His tone is calm like the woman's, but it commands a sense of authority that wasn't present before. He speaks of the bed in less general terms, inviting the audience to visit their website and investigate more into their goal of providing an unbelievably peaceful sleep.
The implication, of course, is that this voice is the owner of Tempur-Pedic, or a scientist that worked on, or someone who is more involved in the whole process than, say, someone who loans their voice to the commercial. This is a common move by other commercials, who also begin with an unknown narrator, and then bring in someone resembling an expert at the end to lend and air of respectability to the whole thing. However, the male narrator in the Tempur-Pedic commercial is never identified as anyone aside from another anonymous actor. In this way, the commercial plays off the expectations we've built up from viewing other commercials. Fantastic.

5. The narration itself focuses on things that most viewers have experienced at some point: stress, discomfort, the need to a get a good night's sleep because of work tomorrow, all that. It's such an obvious tactic that I almost forgot to point it out.

Anyway, if you ever see this commercial, look at it with all this stuff in mind. If you think I'm way off the mark, let me know, but I think it's a fairly intelligent use of typical audience manipulation.