How to Get Ahead in Advertising
- How to Get Ahead in Advertising
Infobox_Film
name = How to Get Ahead in Advertising
director = Bruce Robinson
writer = Bruce Robinson
starring = Richard E. Grant
Rachel Ward
producer = David Wimbury
distributor = Warner Bros.
released = flagicon|USA May 5, 1989
runtime = 94 min
language = English
amg_id = 1:23554
imdb_id = 0097531
"How to Get Ahead in Advertising" is a 1989 British film written and directed by Bruce Robinson and starring Richard E. Grant and Rachel Ward. The title is a pun and can be literally taken as "How to Get "a Head" in Advertising".
Plot
The movie is a farce about a mentally unstable advertising executive, Denis Dimbleby Bagley (played by Grant), who suffers a nervous breakdown while making an advert for pimple cream. Ward plays his long-suffering but sympathetic wife. Richard Wilson plays John Bristol, Bagley's boss.
Bagley has a crisis of conscience about the ethics of advertising. He develops a boil on his right shoulder that he imagines comes to life with a face and voice. The voice of the boil, although uncredited, is that of Bruce Robinson. The boil takes a ruthless and unscrupulous view of the advertising profession in contrast to Bagley's new-found ethical concerns. Eventually, Bagley decides to have the boil removed in hospital but moments before he is taken into the operating room, the boil quickly grows into a replica of Bagley's head (only with a moustache) and covers Bagley's original head, asking doctors to remove it. Bagley, now with the boil head, returns home to celebrate his wedding anniversary, with the original head merely resembling a boil on his left shoulder. The 'boil' eventually withers but doesn't die, yet Bagley resumes his advertising career rejuvenated and cynical, although without his wife, who decides to leave his new cruel persona. The end monologue by Bagley is an argument against his withered boil about roads.
External links
*imdb title|id=0097531|title=How to Get Ahead in Advertising
* [http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=120&eid=126§ion=essay Criterion Collection essay by Stanley Kauffmann]
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
get ahead — verb obtain advantages, such as points, etc. (Freq. 4) The home team was gaining ground After defeating the Knicks, the Blazers pulled ahead of the Lakers in the battle for the number one playoff berth in the Western Conference • Syn: ↑gain,… … Useful english dictionary
get — [get] verb got PASTTENSE [gɒt ǁ gɑːt] got PASTPART gotten PASTPART [ˈgɒtn ǁ ˈgɑːtn] getting PRESPART 1 … Financial and business terms
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying — Infobox Musical name = How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying caption = 1995 Revival Logo music = Frank Loesser lyrics = Frank Loesser book = Abe Burrows Jack Weinstock Willie Gilbert basis = How to Succeed Without Really Trying by… … Wikipedia
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom) — The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is the independent self regulatory organisation (SRO) of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However,… … Wikipedia
Bruce Robinson — Infobox Actor name = Bruce Robinson birthdate = birth date and age|1946|5|2 birthplace = Broadstairs, Kent, England spouse = Sophie Windham (m.1984) occupation = actor, screenwriter, director yearsactive = 1968 present baftaawards = Best Adapted… … Wikipedia
Bruce Robinson — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Robinson. Bruce Robinson en 2011 à l avant première de Rhum express à Paris. Bruce Robinson est un acteur, scénariste et réalisateur … Wikipédia en Français
Как преуспеть в рекламе — How to Get Ahead in Advertising Жанр комедия фэнтези Режиссёр Брюс Робинсон Продюсер Девид Уимбли … Википедия
Tobacco advertising — Part of a series on Tobacco … Wikipedia
John Blakeley — (born 19 January 1946 in Blackpool, UK) is a sculptor and special effects artist who has worked in the film industry for over 20 years. Classically trained in London, Carrara and Athens, John Blakeley worked as an illustrator, stone carver and… … Wikipedia
Bruce Robinson — mit Lesley Anne Down (1979) Bruce Robinson (* 1. Mai 1946 in Broadstairs, Grafschaft Kent, England) ist ein britischer Schauspieler, Drehbuchautor und Regisseur … Deutsch Wikipedia
