Synergasm!
Get this: a paranoid, conspiracy-lovin', poser hacker uses a "WebLog" or 'blog' to report the creepy things going on in his backwater hometown! And he's a character from some TV show!
Astonished? So am I!
Hasn't this been done before? FreakyLinks, anyone?
Here's another example of how the marketing department doesn't grok tech.
A hokey, faux-cheese website ostensibly created by a character in the show is as useful as teaching archery to an orangutan. Great in theory, really must have impressed the bosses, but someone's going to end up bleeding.
A vast majority of viewership for television are blazingly tech-savvy; using TiVo's, BitTorrent, MythTV, and a slew of other contraptions to narrowcast their favourite shows. I've personally bought many DVD boxed editions of television shows, that are readily available 12 times a day on re-runs, just because I could. Despite its' otherwise luddite leanings, we geeks sure love our TV.
That's why it's important for the marketing arm of the broadcasters to cup their farts and throw it in our faces when it comes to speaking to the nerds in the audience. Just creating some cartoon fantasy of a website or blog and filling it with more nonsense than the script shows that either your writers are shitheads or your marketers are fuctionally retarded.
I imagine that a group of these helmet-headed business school coasters got together one warm afternoon and had a brain-storming session:
"How can we degrade both ourselves and the human race in general?"
"Hmmm, we could have the character in our show run a blog."
"Wow, that's incredible. Much better than my idea. I was going to say the character could eat live kittens while violating the corpse of a dead horse!"
"That's awesome too! Save it for sweeps"
"Hey, wanna go dry hump the company logo?"
"I'll tag team you, dude!"
Keep in mind that this show and blog come from Disney. The same company that wanted to make DVDs that would self-destruct after 48 hours. Clearly that company sold its' soul at the same time it sold Walt's frozen body to the dog-food plant.
Who says all bloggers are hackneyed, wannabe-writers with conspiracy theories?
Astonished? So am I!
Hasn't this been done before? FreakyLinks, anyone?
Here's another example of how the marketing department doesn't grok tech.
A hokey, faux-cheese website ostensibly created by a character in the show is as useful as teaching archery to an orangutan. Great in theory, really must have impressed the bosses, but someone's going to end up bleeding.
A vast majority of viewership for television are blazingly tech-savvy; using TiVo's, BitTorrent, MythTV, and a slew of other contraptions to narrowcast their favourite shows. I've personally bought many DVD boxed editions of television shows, that are readily available 12 times a day on re-runs, just because I could. Despite its' otherwise luddite leanings, we geeks sure love our TV.
That's why it's important for the marketing arm of the broadcasters to cup their farts and throw it in our faces when it comes to speaking to the nerds in the audience. Just creating some cartoon fantasy of a website or blog and filling it with more nonsense than the script shows that either your writers are shitheads or your marketers are fuctionally retarded.
I imagine that a group of these helmet-headed business school coasters got together one warm afternoon and had a brain-storming session:
"How can we degrade both ourselves and the human race in general?"
"Hmmm, we could have the character in our show run a blog."
"Wow, that's incredible. Much better than my idea. I was going to say the character could eat live kittens while violating the corpse of a dead horse!"
"That's awesome too! Save it for sweeps"
"Hey, wanna go dry hump the company logo?"
"I'll tag team you, dude!"
Keep in mind that this show and blog come from Disney. The same company that wanted to make DVDs that would self-destruct after 48 hours. Clearly that company sold its' soul at the same time it sold Walt's frozen body to the dog-food plant.
Who says all bloggers are hackneyed, wannabe-writers with conspiracy theories?
5 Comments:
A vast majority of viewership for television are blazingly tech-savvy;
Ok, I definitely have to argue that point. I don't believe that for a sec. Yes, there are a lot of people who watch TV and are tech-savvy, but the "vast majority"? I think you if actually stood Tivo user #'s up against the # of people in North America who own a TV, I don't think Tivo would have greater than 20% penetration.
Who do they make Oprah, Survivor, The Price is Right, etc. for? Certainly not tech savvy users.
However, for a show like Invasion, its built in audience is very tech-savvy. They're all refugees from X-Files, Alien Nation, V, perhaps Firefly and Babylon 5, or at least that's what the producers hope.
At any rate, you're right, it *is* just a kind of marketing ploy/publicity bit, cashing in on the "blogging" craze, but if they do it right and the show goes over well, it'll be an invaluable resource for fans who want to go deeper with the characters (or this particular character anyways) and find out what's going on "between the edits".
Okay, I agree I overshot my estimates on the number of viewers who know not to eat their keyboard. I have a fond habit of hyperbole. It's, like, a bajillion times better than fact.
However, I don't recall a time when I was impressed by any television show's online presence. Movies often do it very well. I suppose because they have perhaps a larger budget for advertising OR they need to get the publicity out there in one giant shot.
I recall Pi, Swordfish, The Grudge, The Ring, and a few others that had some impressive websites.
But for some reason, whenever its' television's turn at the wheel, they just steer it into a murky ditch.
Fanfic, tributes, communities, and obsessives aside, television has a lacking of personality on the web.
Then again, maybe I'm just disappointed they're not going as far as I imagine they should be. Or, I'm just bitter overall at television.
I tried to fire that electronic babysitter somewhere in the end of highschool. I suppose I'm still bitter.
Actually, just a couple of days ago I over heard a conversation between a couple of friends about the difference between doing special effects for TV and special effects for Film.
In Film, you have to be VERY anal retentive about special effects, because film is scalable and is blown up and magnified up on the big screen. Every little mistake, every little short cut or quick fix can be seen on the screen.
TV on the other hand, you have a much smaller screen and much shorter deadlines.
Film producers are like "go back and do it again, it's not perfect" while TV producers are like "good enough, what's the next shot?"
I think that "speed vs. quality" tension will always be there.
Holy Macinroe! Your posts have been spammed (not this one, dj is fine :) )
For a show like Invasion, I'd imagine something more than the blog that you've linked to. Yes, it can be cheesey chez, but that blog lacks the subtle polish the make it 'look' like an average blog, but still make itself stand out something more professional.
Degrassi high and many of the locally produced shows have great online co-promotions that make TV show promos work online. Although I have yet to see something as complex as AI out there since. Too bad you can't piece together the plot even if you have gone through every clue on the AI 'web'.
No worries Mike. Bitter is okay, because TV has been sucking the past few years. Then the movies tanked this summer (I am not much of a fan for loud-and-pow movies, sorry. As he would say 'LOUD- NOISES!')
Marketing companies just have to match the idea to the product. Brilliance come from everything working together. Just ask Pavel Bure when he was with Florida, or Paul Kariya when he was with Anaheim. Rocket Richard? Sure. Stanley Cup? Not even the playoffs.
Coach, you made a 'Brick' reference. That's AWESOME! Anchorman; over-rated as a movie; under-rated as an exercise in absurdist theatre. It's quotable sketch-comedy in a movie form.
Huzzah for Steve Carrel!
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