Reality (a Microsoft/NBC production).
Apr. 18th, 2008 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chibi_trillianNBC is teaming up with corporations to produce product-focused shows.
I hate advertising. HATE. I don't generally watch TV because I can't stand the commercials (ironically, the one and only time I'm guaranteed to watch TV each year--the Superbowl--I watch primarily for the commercials). Most of America agrees with me, hence the popularity of using a TiVo to just fast forward through the damn things, and hence why advertisers are frantically looking for replacements for tradional commercials. That said, these shows are probably a terrible idea. People aren't completely brainless; they know when they're being pandered to and they know (unless it's a particularly clever viral ad campaign) when they're being sold something. And no show written by a committee of ad execs is likely to be worth watching. Chances are good these things will sink like Jimmy Hoffa with concrete galoshes. NBC knows this; that's why they're only putting them up online. The most they'll lose if these things flop is the production money and the server fees. But...
...what if they're good? What if these are awesome shows? I don't know if I'd watch them or not, even if they're incredible, because I'd feel like a corporate shill. One of them would have to be a sci-fi show, wouldn't it?
I hate advertising. HATE. I don't generally watch TV because I can't stand the commercials (ironically, the one and only time I'm guaranteed to watch TV each year--the Superbowl--I watch primarily for the commercials). Most of America agrees with me, hence the popularity of using a TiVo to just fast forward through the damn things, and hence why advertisers are frantically looking for replacements for tradional commercials. That said, these shows are probably a terrible idea. People aren't completely brainless; they know when they're being pandered to and they know (unless it's a particularly clever viral ad campaign) when they're being sold something. And no show written by a committee of ad execs is likely to be worth watching. Chances are good these things will sink like Jimmy Hoffa with concrete galoshes. NBC knows this; that's why they're only putting them up online. The most they'll lose if these things flop is the production money and the server fees. But...
...what if they're good? What if these are awesome shows? I don't know if I'd watch them or not, even if they're incredible, because I'd feel like a corporate shill. One of them would have to be a sci-fi show, wouldn't it?
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-18 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-18 04:51 pm (UTC)The companies behind these shows are industry behemoths like Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco. Do I really want to be watching a show that's going to try to sell me Vista, even if it is wonderfully well-written?