Week 29:
American Airlines -- "Our Fares are Plummeting."
Trojan Brand Condoms -- "We're Bursting With Pride."
Dateline NBC -- "We Make it Happen"
Air Jordans -- The Greatest? You Bet!
This week's contest: Advertising slogans that still need a little work. Come up with an unfortunate slogan for any real product, service, or organization. First-prize winner receives a life-size inflatable moose head, plus a red playground ball, a value of approximately $ 55. Runners-up, as always, get the coveted Style Invitational losers' T-shirts. Winners will be selected on the basis of humor and originality. Mail your entries to the Style Invitational, Week 29, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or fax them to 202-334-4312. Urgent secret message to anyone still reading the fine print: Send us a photocopy of your awful driver's license picture. Worst pix win nifty, bizarre prizes. Thank you. All entries must be received on or before Monday, Sept. 27. Please include your address and phone number. Winners will be announced in three weeks. No purchase necessary. Employees of The Washington Post and their immediate families are not eligible for prizes.
Report from Week 26, in which we asked you to cast a politician in a famous TV or movie role.
Poor Al Gore. What a stiff. You cast him as Bernie the corpse in "Weekend at Bernie's." You cast him in the title role of "The Maltese Falcon." As the host of "The Ed Sullivan Show." As Hymie the Robot in "Get Smart."
We appreciated, but did not reward with prizes, some charmingly inappropriate entries, such as Strom Thurmond as Tony Manero in "Saturday Night Fever." Winners did not merely resort to cheap puns (Jack Kemp as Hud in "Hud"), nor rely on simple superficial physical resemblances (James Carville as Hannibal Lecter; J. Edgar Hoover as Fred Mertz).
And no, we will not dignify certain horribly cruel castings, such as the one submitted by Meg Nazdin of Rockville, about Marilyn Quayle.
Mr. Ed, indeed!
Fourth Runner-Up: Leon Panetta as Raymond in "Rain Man." (Gloria Chonka, White Plains, Md.)
Third Runner-Up: Donna Shalala as Pat from "Saturday Night Live." (Zinie Chen, Richmond)
Second Runner-Up: Yasser Arafat as Ringo Starr in any Ringo movie. START NOTE: wasn't this same notion in Reliable Source today?/sbf (Gary Patishnock, Laurel)
First Runner-Up: Al Sharpton as The Mayor of the Munchkin City, in a county of the Land of Oz. (William Moschke, Grand Rapids, Mich.)
And the winner of the peck of pickled peppers:
Warren Christopher as Kukla, of "Kukla, Fran & Ollie." (John Mazza, Forestville, Md.)
Honorable Mentions: Dan Quayle as the host of "Wheel of Fortune." (Gary Patishnock, Laurel)
Millicent Fenwick as Popeye. (Richard E. Brock, Adelphi)
Ross Perot as the banjo playing kid in "Deliverance." (Peyton Coyner, Afton, Va.)
Michael Dukakis as Rod Serling on "The Twilight Zone." (Chuck Smith, Woodbridge)
Bill Clinton as the kid in "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid." (Joyce Rains, Bethesda)
Joe Biden as Eddie Haskell in "Leave It to Beaver." (Deborah J. Curry, Alexandria)
John Sununu as Norm on "Cheers." (Chuck Smith, Woodbridge)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Granny in "The Beverly Hillbillies." (Tom Gearty, Arlington)
Antonin Scalia and Joe Biden as the crooks in "Home Alone." (Peyton Coyner, Afton, Va.)
Warren Christopher as Pruneface in "Dick Tracy." (Gigi and David Thompson, Vienna)
Barbara Mikulski as Babe Ruth in "The Babe." (Lynn Harding, Hyattsville)
Nancy Reagan as the velociraptor cq/er in "Jurassic Park." (Laura Hoffman, Arlington)
Deep Throat as Charlie on "Charlie's Angels." (Paul Kondis, Alexandria)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg as Gladys Ormphby cq/er from "Laugh-In." (John Crowley, Falls Church)
And Last,
J. Edgar Hoover as Mama Corleone in "The Godfather." (Mark Welch, Alexandria)
Next: It's The Eponymy, Stupid.