As the baddies plot on board their rusty old clipper, our hero is planning his move beneath their hull."Hold on, you guys!" he cries as he manoeuvres his Sharkmobile for attack. Then, with the switch of a lever, the Captain unleashes two giant metal claws to grab and shake the gang's vessel, tipping the baddies into the icy sea.Mission accomplished, the Captain signs off with a manly wink. As the clipper sails into the distance, Captain and crew celebrate on the boat's upper deck with a hearty meal of fish fingers.Action movies, superheroes and computer games prompted Captain Birds Eye's face-lift, admits the agency, Ammirati Puris Lintas. Birds Eye, meanwhile, talks of the need to "contemporise" by injecting "futuristic" excitement."While millions of consumers still enjoy Birds Eye fish fingers every day, extensive market research has shown that a younger Captain would hold even more appeal for families," the company declares - though we could be forgiven for concluding that this has more to do with wooing mums than kids.Someone, somewhere has had an awful lot of fun dreaming this one up. It's well executed, too - the ad is slickly shot, with lots of thundering music, fast cuts and suspense. The shift from genial grandad to watery Action Man, however, is a quantum leap some may find hard to stomach..
As Good As It Gets, on general release When I grow up, I think I want to be James L Brooks. That would mean that in a 30-year career I would have either scripted, produced or been the driving force behind American TV's finest half hours: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Taxi and The Simpsons. I would also have written, produced and directed Broadcast News, a romantic comedy with a sharply observant edge anchored around TV journalism and its ethics. OK, so I would also be responsible for Terms of Endearment, but I would get round that one by saying that even if its sentiment made you choke, get a load of Jack Nicholson having a ball on screen, leaping around with Shirley Maclaine and winning an Oscar for his effortless efforts. Jack's back with James (and another Oscar nomination) in Brooks's new comedy, which has gladdened the hearts of everyone from American mass audiences to our own Ryan Gilbey David Benedict. WHEN Giorgio Armani tried to show his Emporio Armani collection at the Autumn/Winter '98 shows in Paris last week, his efforts were scuppered by the French authorities who said he had not made the correct security arrangements. Rumour abounded that this was a plot to prevent a powerful Italian showing his collection on French soil.
And perhaps Paris is right to be defensive about who shows there - French designers might once have been at the centre of the fashion universe, but not any more Last week, foreign designers dominated the Paris shows. This is the culmination of years of overseas influence, beginning with the Japanese, who moved in during the Seventies, when Kenzo, Issey Miyake and Comme des Garcons first moved their shows to the French capital. Then came the Belgians, who have been so influential since the late Eighties; the British, who are in the seats of power at Dior, Givenchy and Chloe; and now the Americans, who have taken control of the commercial backbone of Paris at Louis Vuitton, Celine and French-controlled Spanish company Loewe. Most of the next generation of new designers are Belgian, from the Antwerp School - Veronique Branquinho and Olivier Theyskens are hot new names who show great promise - and Jeremy Scott, Isabella Blow's latest protege, is American. French fashion's only real hope lies with Jerome Dreyfuss and his partner Gaspard Yurkievich.Fashion needs designers who push forward, bringing new ideas and new ways of thinking. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons is one such designer who refuses to compromise her vision, however difficult it might appear at the time. For next autumn, the theme of Kawakubo's collection is "fusion".
