Ian Fleming Publications Teases Mysterious New Project

CommanderBond.net points out a mysterious teaser that's appeared on Ian Fleming Publications' official website.  All it says is "Project X" with a 007 logo in the middle of the O, and there's a clock counting down the hours and the minutes until Ian Fleming's birthday, May 28.  So, presumably some sort of announcement will be made on that day about a new James Bond project.  Is it another Young Bond announcement?  A new adult James Bond novel?  A short story collection?  A special timepiece?  Speculation abounds (especially on the CBn Forums), but nobody knows for sure, so we'll just have to wait with bated breath until Friday to find out.  However, since IFP controls the literary James Bond copyright, I think it's safe to assume that the project is literary in nature. Personally, I'm crossing my fingers for either that rumored trade edition of Talk of the Devil (the collection of previously unpublished Fleming material currently available only as an extremely pricey luxury edition) or a collection of specially commissioned 007 short stories by varied and respected authors...

Bill Sienkiewicz Draws James Bond

Cult-favorite comic book artist Bill Sienkiewicz, most famous for work on Elektra (but also responsible for an amazing run on The Shadow in the Eighties), has painted a montage of the year's nominated movies to advertise the Critics' Choice Awards, airing this Thursday. The ad runs in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly and serves as the back cover for today's Hollywood Reporter. Sharing space with Indiana Jones, Bruce Wayne, Clint Eastwood and others is James Bond! Since we no longer get painted movie posters, this kind of image (like Francesco Francavilla's retro-style poster) makes me very happy. Sienkiewicz may be best known to spy fans as the penciler of a few really cool, very espionage-heavy Black Widow mini-series a few years back, or for his DVD artwork for The Venture Brothers. He seems to have moved more into commercial art in recent years, and this image has me wishing he'd paint some movie posters! (Then again, I'm always longing for the days of painted posters, especially when it comes to James Bond.) The Daniel Craig pose is clearly based on a widely circulated publicity still, but I prefer Sienkiewicz's version.

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It: Complete Six Levels Of Side-Scrolling Mayhem!

Ad for a 1990 Mission: Impossible Nintendo game based on the '88-'90 revival series. The copy makes it sound as if it had more to do with Duke Nukem-type side-scrollers than any familiar incarnation of the famous TV show. Apparently players contended with villains like Slash Stiletto, Blitz Blizzardski, the Iron Claw and the Sinister Seven with rifles, firebombs and remote control cluster bombs. "Remember," the ad warns, "should you choose to accept this mission and fail, you, your Nintendo, and the world will self-destruct in five seconds."

Sir Sean Connery's New Louis Vuitton Ad

Jack White Scores James Bond Coke Zero Ad
Watch It Online Now!

Wow, this is awesome. I'm not someone who screams, "James Bond sold out" (come on; Bond's been tied to brand names since Ian Fleming!); I'm someone who buys products that tie their advertising into James Bond! If I drank Coke at all, I would switch to Coke Zero today. CBN points the way to an article in The Guardian about the first animated spot from the previously announced James Bond Coke Zero campaign. It's a fantastic ad, done in the style of Danny Kleinman's Casino Royale opening titles (I wonder if Kleinman directed it?) with significant nods to the Vanquish chase in Die Another Day. There's all sorts of fantastic 007 iconography here, as well as our first chance to hear Jack White James Bond music. That's right, the White Stripes frontman (who wrote the title song for Quantum of Solace) did the instrumental scoring this commercial, including his own arrangement of The James Bond Theme! I really, really, really hope Coke makes this music available as a download! You can watch the whole video at The Guardian.

Advertising Agent

This story breaks new territory for the Double O Section… advertising. Not a subject I generally cover, but when a spy features so prominently in a national campaign, it’s definitely of interest.

The San Francisco Business Times runs a front-page story this week on an, ahem, advertising agent. “Powered by a sexy cartoon spy and its online-only focus, auto insurance specialist Esurance Inc. is adding customers and premium revenue like crazy… Much of that growth has been spurred by pink-haired Erin Esurance, a super spy who stars in the company’s suddenly ubiquitous advertising campaign.”

I have to admit, those ads have grabbed my attention too. Female spies in catsuits tend to do that, even if they’re cartoons created to sell car insurance! And I guess I’m not the only one. The Business Times story continues: “The curvaceous cartoon character has grabbed the attention of the 20- and 30-something urban male consumers Esurance is targeting—so much so that Internet ad blogs are full of comments from lonely hearts with crushes on Erin.” Well, I’m not going to go so far as to profess a crush, but I guess I’m now among the bloggers giving Esurance free advertising by running this story. (Note: I don’t have Esurance and don’t endorse it in any way!)

The story claims that Erin’s creator, Kristin Brewe (Esruance’s Director of Brand and Public Relations) gets hundreds of emails asking for autographed 8x10s of Erin, leading the business trade to conclude that, “Getting its target market excited about insurance is a feat in itself.” (Of course, insurance and spying have long been linked...)

“What’s interesting about what they’ve done,” the story quotes Mya Frazier, who covers auto insurance for Advertising Age Magazine, “is they’ve created an image that’s so young in an industry that’s so old… They’ve created a fresh, hip image that’s so appealing.” To comment on a commentator, I find it interesting that Ms. Frazier sees the 40-year old Emma Peel image of a sultry, empowered female agent in a sexy catsuit as “young” and “fresh.” I think that point of view in the business marketplace bodes very well for the immediate future of spies in popular culture, and speaks to the enduring image of the superspy, male or female.

According to the article, the campaign is working. “Premium growth is keeping pace with interest in Erin’s latest televised escapades. [Esurance] expects volume this year to reach more than $900 million,” a fifty percent growth over 2006. So Erin Esurance isn’t going anywhere. Twenty-six segments featuring the character have aired so far, and there are more in the pipeline. “Indications are that Esurance will spend considerably more than $100 million on an expanded national marketing campaign.”

The Business Times also hints at other avenues of media saturation for the pink-haired spy. Tie-ins are planned with the USA TV show Characters Uncovered (no idea what that is) and SciFi Network’s Stan Lee-created Who Wants To Be A Superhero? Rival insurance company GEICO’s cavemen characters recently graduated from commercials to their own network sitcom; I’d say the possibility certainly exists for Erin as well. Cartoons, comics… there are a lot of possibilities. If any of that comes to pass, I’ll cover it here.

Esurance even has a webpage devoted to Erin fan art. Apparently Erin’s fans also create their own scenarios for her and post them on YouTube, adding to Esurance’s free exposure. All this has led to the company being the third most recognized name in car insurance, “after Progressive and GEICO but ahead of major players like State Farm, Allstate and Farmers.”

It’s great to see that spies remain popular enough in the public consciousness nearly half a century after James Bond set off the initial spy craze of the 1960s!