Watch Jimmy Kimmel, Matthew McConaughey Make Ad for Local Video Store
Jimmy Kimmel Live! returns to Austin, Texas this week for South by Southwest, and in the spirit of giving back amidst the festival’s corporate milieu — and keeping Austin weird — host Jimmy Kimmel and Matthew McConaughey teamed up to produce three ridiculous commercials for local video store Vulcan Video.
Kimmel first swings through Vulcan where he meets the proprietors, Bryan and Kristen, who show off the store’s extensive inventory, from large collections of Jerry Lewis films and Canadian TV shows to a copy of Hot Dog… The Movie, a film Kimmel fondly remembers from his youth. Vulcan also wowed Kimmel with their massive selection of VHS tapes, two or three of which still get rented out each day.
After hammering out the store’s advertising budget (“A few bucks”), Kimmel set to work and, two weeks later, returned to Vulcan with three fresh spots — on VHS, of course (“Tracking,” the host exclaims after popping the first tape in, “I missed tracking!”). After Guillermo gets tangled up in several mouse cords, Kimmel and McConaughey expound on the benefits of renting from Vulcan over streaming, and debate how many “alright”s are in the latter’s famous catchphrase, now repurposed as the store’s slogan: “Don’t be a loser, be a Vulcan Video chooser — alright, alright!”
In spot two, the pair focus on Vulcan’s free parking and the store’s impeccable service, specifically the half-price deal Bryan cut McConaughey on a copy of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation — starring Renee Zellweger and himself — after he couldn’t fit a sun-warped VHS into his player. And in the last ad, McConaughey uses his powers of persuasion to promote Vulcan as “classic,” “retro” and “vintage,” wrongly reminding viewers “May the force be with you,” before giving Kimmel the Spock special and knocking him out with a Vulcan nerve pinch.
Kimmel has a number of special guests lined up for his week in Austin, including Brad Paisley, Kevin Hart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. Meanwhile, Austin native Gary Clark Jr., will sit in on guitar with Kimmel’s house band Cleto and the Cletones.