Just in Time for the Academy Awards: The DDB Life Style Study® Discovers What Movie Lines Have Left a Thumbprint on America's Psyche

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Feb 25, 2011, 03:37 ET

CHICAGO, Feb. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As Hollywood prepares for the Academy Awards, without question the film industry's biggest night, many Americans have likely already made up their minds as to their personal Oscar choices. Some movie screenplays are so special that certain lines seem to capture the heart and minds of audiences everywhere, and some of those movie lines strike such a chord that they even seem to encapsulate audiences' life philosophy.

The DDB Life Style Study®, the nation's largest and longest-running annual consumer survey, asked Americans what movie line best describes their life philosophy. "We would have expected that in America, where people are often characterized as being overly materialistic, lines like 'Show me the money' would have risen to the top in our survey. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that people are much more likely to embrace unpredictability and sentimentality for their life philosophies," said DDB U.S. Chief Strategist James Lou.

Across all genders, age groups and ethnicities, the movie line that rises to the top, most reflecting people's life philosophy, is from the movie Forrest Gump: "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." The second most popular choice is from The Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home."

The total results are summarized in the following table:

Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get – Forrest Gump	26%
There's no place like home – The Wizard of Oz	21%
Carpe diem (Seize the day) – Dead Poets Society	8%
Get busy livin' or get busy dyin' – The Shawshank Redemption	7%
Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night – All About Eve	7%
Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn – Gone With the Wind	6%
Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth – The Pride of the Yankees	6%
May the Force be with you – Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope	4%
What we have here is a failure to communicate – Cool Hand Luke	4%
Show me the money – Jerry Maguire	3%
There's no crying in baseball – A League of Their Own	2%
Houston, we have a problem – Apollo 13	2%

About DDB

DDB Worldwide Communications Group Inc (www.ddb.com) ranks among the top five consolidated advertising and marketing services global networks, according to Advertising Age. Consistently one of the most awarded networks globally for creative excellence, DDB was Campaign's 2009 Global Network of the Year, the 2010 Spikes Asia Network of the Year, and captured both the Cyber Grand Prix and Film Craft Grand Prix at the 2010 International Advertising Festival in Cannes. With more than 200 offices in over 90 countries, the DDB Group helps grow the value and influence of leading brands around the world. We believe that creativity is the most powerful force in business, allowing us to develop the ideas that people want to play with, participate in, and pass along. We call this Social Creativity. DDB Worldwide is part of Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC).

SOURCE DDB Worldwide