I've been a huge fan of MAD Magazine ever since I was a wee lad. I first started reading in the mid-80s and I loved it, not only for the childish gross humor, but also for the biting political commentary. Most of the information regarding world events that seeped into my young, impressionable mind came from MAD: the Iran/Contra scandal, the Cold War, President Reagan falling asleep during meetings, etc. That's pretty scary, come to think of it. But this week's comic ad is a tribute to MAD Magazine, from Mountain Dew's Spy vs. Spy campaign from 2005.
The ads featured live action renderings of the classic Spy vs. Spy characters. I believe this ad was actually based on a real comic (sans the Mountain Dew, of course). Cool stuff! And you can check out the live action commercial below, courtesy of the awesomeness of MadamLuna and YouTube!
The above comic ad was featured in Space Ghost #1 (DC, Jan. 2005).
5 out of 5 - Simply incredible!
4 out of 5 - Pretty awesome!
3 out of 5 - Cool enough, I suppose.
2 out of 5 - Not quite good enough.
1 out of 5 - Pretty horrific!
0 out of 5 - No redeeming quality at all.
4 comments:
Only now have I finally find out the spies were in ads, I remember when Mad Magazine didn't have ads. Back in the good old days when people cared about things like dignity & quality.
I stopped reading Mad around the mid/late 90's, because I noticed a massive decline in the art and writing (my opinion of course, others may disagree, but they're wrong.).
Wait, what was the topic I was talking about again?
Oh yes, 'Spy VS Spy'...
Even though the plots were always basically the same, I can read and reread Antonio Prohias's 'Spy v.s. Spy' over and over again, without growing bored. But then he retired or died or whatever made him stop doing the strip, and when other people took over I stopped finding it amusing (I really don't know why).
Do you remember the "Spy vs. Spy" Nintendo game? I loved it, although I haven't played it since I was a kid and it may not have been that good.
Yeah, I remember the game, although I don't think I ever played it. If it comes up for download on the Wii, I might give it a try.
I'd argue that while MAD in the 90's changed, it wasn't necessarily in a bad way. Some artists and authors left (for whatever reasons) and new staff came on board. They have a different style than the "classic staff" but they're great in their own right.
Unfortunately, it seems like times aren't good to MAD. They had to scale back the magazine to quarterly and eliminate the special issues because of sluggish sales. I hope it's around for a long time to come, and I'll subscribe to the very end, but it's not looking too optimistic at this point.
My brother went into a MAD Magazine fad in the 90's, and I joined in with Cracked Magazine.
Looking back, there are only a few I thought were funny. Most of it was just kinda lame. I think one of my favorite MAD issues was the big Star Wars issue, and it was basically a collection of all the past Star Wars funnies MAD published.
Never cared for Spy Vs. Spy myself. I actually have the NES game, but don't remember how it was. I think I only played it once, and thought it sucked. Can't remember.
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