The Daily Swarm tossed a quick story about a “Mobler,” aka a Lloyd Dobler-themed flash mob that went down in NYC on Tuesday. Apparently Twentieth Century Fox put together a little gimmick to point people in the direction of the 20th Anniversary re-release of Cameron Crowe’s 80s teen rom-com Say Anything…. Mobler members dressed like Dobler, hoisted boomboxes blaring Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” and walked through the city before meeting up in Times Square to hear The Lloyd Dobler Effect perform Gabriel’s song. Apparently, nobody at Fox determined that the corporatization of flash mobs in a sendup of a famous movie scene negates the very spontaneity and emotional catharsis that made the Dobler scene and flashmobs so endearing in the first place. (All told though, the videos of numerous Dobler look alikes holding obsolete audio players above their heads is rather hilarious.)
What struck me about this event wasn’t the event itself or the re-release of Say Anything…. In fact, I had no idea the movie was re-released, so I guess the event did the trick. (Darn you Fox!) It’s my newfound knowledge of the film’s home video (or rather, DVD and Blu-Ray) release date. That being November 3.
What is the significance of that?
Well, it also happened to be the release date of the third full-length from California emo act Say Anything. The album’s title? Say Anything.
Odd right? Seems a bit too coincidental perhaps?
Say Anything frontman Max Bemis did, in fact, name his band after Crowe’s 1989 movie. There’s no coincidence there. It does seem a bit strange that these two entities – an album by a band of the same name inspired by a film of the same name – would all come out on the same day. It sounds like a brilliant marketing strategy that defies the logic of the Mobler: have a relatively-successful, Billboard-charting, critically-beloved band release their sure-fire hit third album the same day as a re-release for a relatively-successful, critically-beloved movie. If Fox and RCA, Say Anything’s record label, weren’t independent companies, I’d sense something fishy going on.
But, I’ll stop there… I fear becoming one of those paranoid, conspiracy theory-spinning music fans trying to listen to a backmasked version of The Beatles. That is, unless Save Ferris launch a reunion tour in time for the re-release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
A brief clip of the Mobler:
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Say Anything… trailer:
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Say Anything – “Crush’d” (acoustic):
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