Will 'Burger Hut' Return to SXSW?
If you attended SXSW Film Festival in 2002 -- or if the culty word-of-mouth reached you later -- you may have heard about the Burger Hut film-fest house ads that year. You know how film-fest house ads can often be incredibly lame and annoying, especially if you have to watch them before 15 or more movies in a week? Apparently that didn't happen with the goofy Burger Hut ads. I wasn't there in 2002 and I haven't tried to watch the ads 15 times in a week, so I can't vouch for this personally, but word gets around. People are very nostalgic about the Burger Hut.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can actually watch the old Burger Hut ads on YouTube. They were created by Dan Brown, Kent Osborne, and Mike Mitchell.
But if you do remember the Burger Hut ads fondly and wish that the SXSW house ads would return to those salad days, I have good news. Check out this blog entry from Matt Dentler, SXSW Film Festival producer, and guess what the house ads might be for SXSW in Austin this March. (Hint: That's Osborne in the second photo wearing the Burger Hut hat.)
I liked Joe Swanberg's house ads for SXSW 2007 just fine (Osborne was in those as well), and only one grew a bit annoying after awhile (the one with Greta and the mic, which I seemed to keep getting over and over again). So I'm glad to see that this year's house ads are likely to maintain (at least) the same level of interest.