How to Get Ahead in Advertising, 1989.
Written and Directed by Bruce Robinson.
Starring Richard E.Grant, Rachel Ward, Richard Wilson, John Shrapnel and Tony Slattery.
SYNOPSIS:
A young advertising executive is overcome with stress when attempting to develop a new campaign for a brand of pimple cream. His extreme anxiety eventually leads to a boil growth on his shoulder that begins to talk and act…
A unique selling point (USP) is, as those in the know will constantly tell you, essential in the world of marketing and advertising. Occasionally this dread inducing marketing speak can be applied to cinema and filmmaking as well. In the case of Bruce Robinson and Richard E Grant’s follow up to the redoubtable Withnail & I, the USP (released here in a restored DVD/Blu-ray dual format edition) here is the continued strident and frenetic form of darkly tinctured slapstick that has more than a few f-yous to modern society.
The effervescently fizzy (advertorial speak #1) Grant plays Dennis Bagley, an advertising exec living an affluent London life full of privilege and upper middle class delights, albeit at the cost of long hours and underappreciated drudgery. Tasked with producing a winning campaign for a brand of pimple cream, he becomes more than a little stressed out. As is sometimes the case, this stress and anxiety culminates in a boil. As is not often the case, this boils begins to talk. And grow a face. And steadily take over his entire misbegotten life…
Great support from Ward as Bagley’s long suffering wife Julia and Richard Wilson as his diabolical boss give plenty of room to Grant to perform his verbal and physical acrobatics. The closing clarion call to a modern Britain is both joyfully funny and wonderfully horrifying at the same time.
How to Get Ahead in Advertising is always worth a re-watch. Somewhat overshadowed in cult status and affection by Withnail (as practically all British films are), this archly sinister satire is nevertheless just as relevant today as it was in the late 1980’s. Perhaps even more so. Advertising today is even more pervasive and persuasive than it was 25 years ago- most of the time now we don’t even know when we’re being sold essential products that we simply can’t do without and ever more stuff to fulfil those needs that we didn’t know we had…
Far from simply being a student union style rant against consumerism, though, this Kafkaesque piece of fairy tale storytelling is a lyrically entertaining warning against what can happen if society fails to read its own internal messages – in effect, you release something truly monstrous. Full of vim and vigour (advertorial speak #2), this stark paean to the fragility of modern life to has, like a fine rose vintage (advert…ok, I’ll stop now) worn rather well with age.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert W Monk is a freelance journalist and film writer.
Originally published October 27, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
