Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
At one point, I became so obsessed with movie ads that I began taping them in places that I couldn’t even see. I put them on the interior of closets, on dressers, and on my bedside table. I think I attempted to place them outside my room and in the surrounding hallway, but that was met with a resounding “no.”
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
If a studio indulged me with several full-page color ads, I often devoted an entire door to a certain movie. I remember having “Shrek 2” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” doors in the summer of 2004. The “Shrek” door was even complete with a themed 12-month calendar that was thrown in the Houston Chronicle on New Year’s Day.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
My favorite day of the year, in regards to movie ads, was the day of the Holiday Preview Edition. On this day, the studios run page after page after page of full-page, color ads for their best movies of the holiday season. I knew the general time frame of this edition, but I never knew for sure. When I slipped the New York Times out of its blue bag on the right Sunday morning, it was like hitting the jackpot.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
At one point, I got so into the movie ads that I started writing my own slogans, even going so far as to send them to one of my uncle’s friends, in charge of running movie ads in his local newspaper. I was completely convinced that my slogans would get run. As you can imagine, they didn’t.
Random tangent: this is random factoid #1-1-1. Pretty cool, at least I think. Possibly even epic.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
The first ad I remember cutting out was in the summer of 1997 for “Batman & Robin.” I thought it looked so cool … sad that it didn’t live up to my expectations.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
My favorite time of year to look at movie ads was always around the holidays. I loved how the movies, particularly those aimed at children, altered their ads to fit the holiday season. My personal favorite was for “Monsters, Inc.” with the one-eyed Mike Wazowski standing next to a snowman with instructions to construct one of your own.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I stuck the ads to my wall using rolls of tape. But whenever I took the ads off, the tape didn’t come all the way off. Whenever we repainted my room, my mom told me that I was no longer allowed to tape anything to the wall because the painters had to pull the tape off before they could paint.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I said in Random Factoid #102 that I was not allowed to cut out ads of rated R movies, but that wasn’t entirely true. The rule was that when I turned 13, I would be allowed to do it. But by the time I turned 13, the phase of cutting out movie ads had passed.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
Often times whenever there were back-to-back ads in the Houston Chronicle, I went and took the movie section from my neighbor’s recycling bin and cut it up. Don’t worry, they knew I did it.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I was invited to fill part of a time capsule in December 2000. What did I put in my bag? You guessed it … tiny little ads for “Cast Away” and other movies that I can’t remember. There were only other things because my mom was able to persuade me to include them.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
Obviously, I didn’t leave the ads up forever. They had to come down to make way for newer movies, right? But my attachment to them didn’t end when they left the wall. I kept the ads inside my desk at first, but when they became too numerous, I moved them to a container than could fit a body underneath my bed. I still had ads from 2000 until the middle of July this summer when I underwent a massive purge. I saved only one ad. Any guesses as to what movie it is? Check back tomorrow if you are hungering for more information on my infatuation.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I had a grid layout for the ads in my room. Above my bed, I had to work around a lamp that was attached to the wall, so I had three ads on the top row and two on the bottom row. On the three other doors in my room, I usually had a 2 by 2 setup. Usually, I kept to these four places, but whenever I felt especially in a decorating spirit, I would put ads on the other walls in my room.
Today’s factoid will again be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
I was not allowed to cut out the ads of R-rated movies. It was my mom’s rule, something that I don’t quite understand to this day. So many Oscar nominees could have graced my walls.
Today’s factoid will be building off the revelation of my former days of cutting the movie ads out of the newspaper and plastering them across my wall.
Often times, the New York Times would frustratingly layer two ads that I really wanted on my wall on the same page (that is, one on the front and one on the back). Don’t worry, I almost always got both of them. Usually my parents were kind enough to go buy a second paper just so I could get the ads that I wanted.
Marshall and the Movies 
Recent Comments