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Five Of Our Favorite Kevin Butler Ads
Kevin Butler, Sony's VP of whatever title suits him best for the purpose of the ad he is appearing in, is currently in the middle of a lawsuit. Technically, it's actually Jerry Lambert, the actor who portrays Butler, who is going through the lawsuit, but we all know that we will never be able to look at Lambert's face without having the sudden desire to use a Sony product. Butler/Lambert appeared in a series of Bridgestone commercials recently that were highlighting a promotion involving the Nintendo Wii. Sony saw this as a misuse of the Butler brand it had invested so much effort into, and made some phone calls to some lawyers to sue some people.
With Kevin Butler on our minds, we took this as an opportunity to reflect on what is possibly Sony's best advertising campaign to date. Here are our favorite Kevin Butler ads.
The Montage - The wig is funny. The guitar is funny. The eye shadow is funny. But the thing that stands out to me is the confetti exploding from his desk.
Gran Turismo - It's the laugh as he steals the car. The rest of the ad could be thrown out.
The Future of Move - Despite its debatable inaccuracies, there are still a lot of good jokes in here. Also, it's always fun to see game companies directly attack one another. This is the closest we've gotten to "Sega does what Nintendon't" in years.
God of War III - I'm not sure why Butler seems to have an obsession with girlfriends. He spoke either to or about at least three different girlfriends during the course of his advertisement run. This is my favorite one. Also, I like to think this is probably as accurate as these commercials get when it comes to interacting with Sony customer service.
Killzone - Something about Kevin Butler knocking things over with his back turned just gets me every time.
Honorable mention: The Marcus interview - The Marcus character was kind of a flop, but I still have an appreciation for Bobb'e J. Thompson, the actor who portrayed him, exclusively because of his appearance in this Human Giant sketch. The ad as a whole doesn't inspire a lot of laughter, until Butler asks Marcus about his favorite snack at around the one minute mark. It makes me chuckle every time.
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