Lincoln rebranded

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Ford Motor Company has recently launched an advertising campaign for its Lincoln Mercury line of luxury cars. The Lincoln is being re-branded to appeal to a younger clientele for whom Lincoln might just be equivalent to the image projected on-screen by actor Daniel Day-Lewis, in Steven Spielberg's film, Lincoln.

I didn't see much that is Daniel Day-Lewisish about the ad's Lincoln. The way in which he emerges from a mist reminds me of the Twilight Saga rather. And why not? After all the Saga's wolf-vampire clan from the Pacific Northeast constitutes a defining moment in contemporary youth culture of America.

The best ad campaigns are those that capitalize on the past and the present as well as on complicated versions of both.

Re-interpreters

The screenplays of two recent films, Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln and Joe Wright's Anna Karenina, have been written by Tony Kushner and Tom Stoppard respectively.

Good sign--a reinterpretation of timeless classics by writers known for being irreverent (as well as gifted) toward tradition.

A.O. Scott rightly says in his review of Anna Karenina, famous works of literature--and to this might I add famous figures of history like Lincoln and Gandhi--need to be treated not as "sacred artifacts" and paid "anxious obeisance" and pointless "humility," but as "lumps of interesting materials" to be shaped by re-interpreters willing to be "strong" and "striking" in their rendition.