How To Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) Hey what's up guys. Today I'll show you a
comedy film: "How to Get Ahead in Advertising"! Spoiler ahead, watch out and take care!
The movie begins with an advertising executive named Denis, who is making a product presentation.
He argues that the company needs to sell products to people, who are conscious of health, fitness,
and fashion. To do that, he stresses that the company should be targeting housewives. One of
the people Denis is presenting to, expresses that the market research shows that housewives are not
ideal, but Denis argues that he is familiar with them, and storms out of the meeting room.
Denis' coworker follows him out of the room, and chases him down. He tells Denis that the
company partners want a date to be established for the pimple cream that he's supposed to be
advertising. He asks Denis if he could take a look, but he dismisses the idea,
telling him that he doesn't show things that are still a work in progress. Denis tells his
boss that the partners aren't worried about a late product, only a bad one. He shuts the door
on his coworker, and continues his work. Later that day, Denis tries to come up with
a catchy advertisement for the pimple cream, but finds it hard. He finally figures out what to say,
but loses his cool midway. His secretary comes in, and tells him that a gentleman
wants to see him. He instructs her to tell the man that he is out of the office,
but the secretary mentions that the man knows that he's lying, and that he insists on a time to see
Denis. He tells her to schedule a meeting for this afternoon. Denis calls his wife, and tells
her that he will be home late. He asks if they could meet for lunch to celebrate his breakthrough
in the pimple cream advertisement. At lunch, his wife asks him if he has
been chain-smoking recently. He tells her that the recent rush in the pimple cream
advertisement deadline is stressing him out, and causing him to start smoking again. Denis
tells her that he can sell any product if it's related to any other part of the human body;
but the recent pimple cream has got him in a neutral area, where he cannot think of anything
else. She tells him that the answer will come eventually, and reminds him that they have to
attend dinner with his boss sometime soon, because Denis kept canceling. She tells him to stop being
paranoid about the pimple cream. but Denis gets angry, telling her that all the products he had
to sell were easy, compared to the cream. His wife drives him back to his office to see
his boss. In the elevator, he notices a woman with a pimple on her nose. He
observes her face for a long time, which creeps the hormones out of the woman.
He enters his boss' office, and his boss asks why he was harsh on his juniors during
a previous sales training. Denis tells him that the juniors don't understand,
and will never understand the philosophies of advertising. His boss asks him another question,
this time about the pimple cream. He tells him everything is going fine, and he will be done
with it by the weekend. His boss tells him to do it faster, because the partners are threatening
to pull funding. He asks Denis if he can take another advertisement, on top of the pimple cream.
Denis asks what product he would be advertising. the boss tells him it is a boil-in-a-hat. Denis
freaks out that it's another face product, and hurriedly accepts to get out of the situation.
On a train ride, Denis tries not to think about pimples or boils, to relieve him temporarily of
his stress at work. but he ends up thinking about boils, which leads him to start freaking out on
the train. The men sitting next to him ignore his freak-out, and divert the topic to a police
lightning raid in Paddington. One of the men read aloud that a bag has been found during the raid
that may contain heroin. Denis overhears this, and tells the men that anything else could have been
found inside the bag, whether it is drugs or not the men disagree with him, which starts a verbal
altercation between Denis and the men. The men end up leaving the train because of Denis.
During the dinner party Denis' wife is hosting, Denis refuses to join the guests at the dining
table; but his wife manages to convince him despite his annoyance to the guests. He sits
down at the table, and joins a conversation on whether or not women should be taking birth
control pills. Denis gets into another verbal altercation with one of the guests, and ends up
humiliating her. His wife tells him to apologize, but he refuses. His wife and other guests tell
him that he is being irrational; but he continues to berate the guest, and forces her to leave the
dinner party in shame. He then tells the rest of the guests that he has finally made a breakthrough
with the pimple cream, and rushes upstairs. The next morning, Denis' wife wakes up to find
him in the kitchen half naked, wearing only an apron. He tells her that he's disposing
of any and all products with advertisements on them. the wife asks him if he has gone insane.
She tells him that he has gone out of control because of the stress. He tells her that he's
better than ever, and that he finally sees things more rationally. Denis heads up to the bathroom,
where he soaks the tv and the vacuum cleaner in the bathtub, and proceeds to thaw the frozen
chicken inside too. She tells him that he needs to rest, and that all the stress from
the pimple and boil advertisement has given him his own boil in the neck. He looks at the mirror,
and sees a swollen boil on his neck. Later, Denis comes back to his workplace,
and tells his boss that he wants to resign. His boss tells him to take some time off instead,
because he's acting irrational due to the stress the Pimple and Boil advertisements gave him. Denis
tells him that he wants to remove his mind and body from poison, and encourage others to do
the same. Suddenly Denis collapses because of the boil in his neck. His boss tells him
that he was once in a similar situation before, and eventually, all the stress burnt him out,
and he started going crazy. He tells Denis to take a vacation, and come back when he's ready.
But Denis walks out of the office, unfazed. In the evening, Denis cries out in the bathroom,
waking up his wife from her sleep. He tells her that he has done everything to remove the boil,
but nothing worked. She tells him to go to sleep, and they can go to the hospital in the
morning. He refuses and heads to work instead. In the morning, Denis wakes up, and sees that the
boil has grown a face, and begins talking to him. He has a panic attack and slips in the bathroom,
causing the glass to shatter everywhere. He gets up and runs around the house,
shouting loudly. His wife sees this, and immediately calls the doctor to have him
checked out. Denis tells her that his boil has grown a face, and it talks to him. She reassures
him that all of the things he has been hearing and seeing, are all just caused by his stress.
The doctor arrives; but Denis continues to run around while shouting. The doctor and his wife
chase him into the backyard, where the doctor manages to catch up to him and sedates him.
The wife suggests the doctor cut off the boil, but he convinces her that if he did,
there might be certain psychological after-effects that might affect Denis. He tells her to call an
appointment for a psychiatrist, and have Denis take tables every two hours to keep
him under control. The doctor reassures her that everything will be fine before he leaves.
Denis wakes up, and his wife gets him to take the medicine. She tells him that everything went fine
with the doctor's visit, and the talking boil is only in his imagination. He hears the boil
talk to him again, so he starts to whistle to drown out the sound. Everytime the boil talks,
his wife can hear it as well, and thinks that it's just Denis. He tries hard to cover up
what the boil is saying, but once it insults his wife by telling her to stop trying hard with her
false teeth and bad breath, She gets mad. Denis tries to tell her that it is the boil taking,
not him. but she refuses to believe his smelly man-shit, and quickly tries to dial the doctor, to
see if a psychiatrist is available to see Denis. He then leaves the kitchen immediately.
Later that evening, Denis tries to record a video of him explaining to his wife about the boil;
and in order to prevent the boil from hearing him, he wears a cardboard box on his head. He
tries to talk on camera about the mechanics of a holocaust, that will be caused by hamburgers.
but the boil wakes up and asks for a cigarette. Denis agrees and quietly leaves the room to get
a cigarette. He searches through his wife's handbag, but doesn't find any cigarettes,
until one of the cleaners his wife hired, tries to leave the house. but Denis stops her, and asks if
she has a cigarette and a lighter. She gives it to him, and Denis' wife comes back from her shopping
trip. She tells Denis to get ready, because they will be seeing the psychiatrist later.
During the session with the psychiatrist, Denis refuses to let the psychiatrist speak with the
boil, because he believes that it doesn't qualify to have its own opinion. He tells Denis to lie
down on the bed, so that they may begin. He asks Denis about advertising, and Denis tells
him that advertising has moved to the greatest means of communication, which is television,
and polluted it with greed. He then asks Denis about the things the boil said to his wife the
other day. Denis tells him that the boil talks like a TV advertiser, that tries to convince
you to buy new things. The psychiatrist asks if there is a voice of authority in his life, Denis
tells him about his grandfather, who got arrested but died before he was born; the boil comments
about his grandfather, which sends Denis into a panic. The psychiatrist tells him to calm down,
so that he can take a look at the boil. The psychiatrist removes the bandages around
the boil. Denis passes out, as he sees that the boil looked exactly like him. They roll him to
an operation room, and the psychiatrist tells him that the boil cannot read him, but it is he who
can read the boil, because it is a part of him. The boil knows what he's thinking, because Denis
projected some of himself into the boil. The night before the surgery, the boil strikes
a conversation with Denis. He tells Denis that he knew all about his grandfather,
because he heard it from his wife the other day. The boil suddenly takes control of one side of
Denis' body, and overpowers him, managing to switch places. The boil then strangles Denis.
The next day, the boil takes complete control over his body, and gives the presentation that
Denis was struggling hard to complete. During their wedding anniversary party,
Denis' wife starts noticing that Denis is no longer acting like he truly is,
and thinks that something is up. She tells her friend about a dream she had, that she cut off
Denis' head with an electrical knife. Later, The boil is in the washroom talking with Denis,
who has turned into a boil. Denis pleads to the boil to let his wife see the recording he made;
but the boil refuses, saying that Denis will soon wither away in a few days.
After the party, Denis' wife tries to speak to him, while the boil is sleeping, hoping to get
some answers. but Denis does not respond. She then finds the recording Denis filmed,
and starts watching it for answers. But The boil wakes up, and stops her from watching the rest
of it. He proceeds to convince her that he was going mad in that recording, and that nothing
he said should be taken seriously. The movie ends with the wife leaving,
unable to bear the new personality of her husband. The boil runs off into the countryside
on the Ferrari horseback, and rides off into the sunset, advertising his way of freedom!
This's Daniel CC movie channel! Stay safe and enjoy your day!