Blurring the Lines

I don't usually watch SNL and I  missed the super bowl, so I'm a bit behind
on this one.



Basically, SNL produced a series of Pepsi commercials for the soda giant starring it's popular McGruber character, a bumbling McGuyver parody. The three commercials increase in what I'll call "Pepsi awareness" and clearly makes fun of itself in the process:

"Are you sponsored by Pepsi or something?" the real McGuyver asks McGruber during the ad that ran during the Super Bowl. "Maybe I am,"  he responds.

BUT, innocent though the skits/commercials may seem, the first of the series in particular sets an uncomfortable precedent for the cross between entertainment and advertisement. As more and more films begin to feel more like two-hour advertisements (I'm looking at you Transformers), in ten or, more realistically, five years maybe that's what they will be.

Although these SNL slots still rub me the wrong way for that exact reason, I can't really say anything negative on NBC's part: the actors were paid separately for the ad, apart from their SNL wages. And the NBC logo did dissappear during the advertisement that ran during the SNL broadcast.  And, short of running a tag along the bottom screaming "HELLO! I AM AN ADVERTISEMENT!" the network couldn't really do anything to make it clearer, especially in the second and third ads.

Really, it all comes down to media literacy. Most formats of mainstream merchandisable expression--movies, music, television, even magazines--already play host to any number of product placements and as advertisers get smarter, so should we. You can't really blame them for trying to pull one over on us--and, sorry, all the re-branding jargon and attempts at a new image aside, Pepsi wouldn't have done it if that wasn't one of their underlying objectives--if we don't have the smarts to see through it. Being able to spot a liar is an invaluable skill that will only become more important as the advertising industry becomes more and more clever, and that's just one benefit.

As for myself, Pepsi can co-opt every good SNL character and it still won't make me like soda. So at least there's that.

America's got....something

[Originally posted July 9, 2008]

I don't have cable.

I’ve never been that big of a “T.V. person.” I always prefer to be out and about, doing something instead of being entertained by a big shiny box. So, throwing money every month for an abundance of channels just seems like a waste.

The downside, though, is that when I do feel like vegging out are only a handful of channels to choose from, half of which always seem to show infomercials—the lack of cable cannot stop the power that is HSN!—or televangelists. So, on a Tuesday night in what do the TV gods have for me? That’s right. America’s Got Talent, baby!

First off, for those of you who have never caught this lovely trainwreck, it’s a talent contest a la American Idol. There are judges, a host and open auditions. Only, unlike Fox’s filthy juggernaut, AGT contestants range from singers to pole dancers to baton twirlers and what the fuck was that?!?!

But that’s not the best part. Like any good reality contest, there are the perfect has-been judges: Sharon Osborne, David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan as the trademark Brit (did I mention the show is produced by Simon Cowell?). So we’ve got absurd American talent being judged by two people from the U.K. and The Hoff (who, sadly, America wouldn’t really want to claim). Oh! And it’s hosted by Jerry Springer. So fabulous.

Now see why I love this show?

You get to see The Hoff get turned on by every contestant (maybe you don’t want to see that…), Sharon Osbourne love almost everybody and Piers do his best impression of Cowell. And America’s oddities are on display for all to admire, laugh at or hide from. Art it certainly isn’t, but it sure is trash television at its most entertaining.