I saw this TV spot while watching -- wait for it -- "The Real World: Cancun" this week, and, until the very end, I had absolutely no idea what it was a commercial for. The answer actually surprised me (please excuse the ad prior to the ad):
Promoting "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" without actually showing clips from the movie? Very interesting approach, MTV. It totally worked on me, too, because I was hooked for the whole two minutes.
Interestingly, there are teams of college kids who have "real" Quidditch matches: players from the Emerson and Middlebury college teams appear in the commercial.
Looks like fun -- at least, until the first time someone takes a broomstick to the crotch.
[I'd make an athletic cup/Goblet of Fire joke here, but I'm above that. Ahem.]
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Very interesting take, I kind of had an idea of Harry Potter when the famous music played in the beginning. What I'm wondering is, what about the Golden Snitch?
There are about 200 schools with quidditch teams now, and the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association sponsors tournaments and games between universities. You can see more information here: collegequidditch.com.
As to the Golden Snitch, it has been adapted to be a cross country runner dressed in all gold, who leaves the field at the beginning of the game, and it is the seekers' job to find him. He has a tennis ball in a tube sock hanging from his shorts, which is what the seekers need to take from him to end the game and win 30 points. The Snitch is allowed to do almost anything to avoid capture.
Go UMass!