This is delightful: a campaign by Pixar for its upcoming film Monsters University that spoofs those wonderfully cheesy college-recruitment ads that air during NCAA sporting events. The spot below, which ran during this week's Rose Bowl telecast, promotes the movie's eponymous institution and imitates the source material perfectly, from the tagline ("Image you at MU") to the awkwardly saccharine student testimonials. The whole spot is nicely paced ahead of the amusing reveal halfway through. (The realism of the animation helps a ton, too, and is its own best marketing for the film.) The website, monstersuniversity.com/edu, is quite brilliantly done as well. The "Student Policies" section is particularly inspired. On the issue of "Basic Monster Respect," it offers this advice: "All monsters are unique—by heritage, number of appendages, or simply number of eyes—and all monsters deserve respect." Pets, it should be noted, are not allowed on campus, "with the exception of seeing-eye snakes."
