Octagon First Call

Vicks used some creative language to get around legal hurdles in their latest marketing campaign. Today’s newspaper features a full-page advertisement starring tennis superstar Serena Williams. The promotional play in the ad is a sweepstakes to watch Serena play in the most historic tournament in the world … Wimbledon. But instead of saying so (which they can not do because Vicks is not a Wimbledon sponsor), they are offering “a trip to Wimbledon, England to meet Serena Williams and watch her play a match.” Ambush marketers are always looking for a loophole, and Vicks found it here. PS - Also a nice tie-in with her corporate partners Nike and Wilson (product placement in the ad and part of the prize packs).

FOX has already canceled the much hyped racing drama Drive. For the past two months, Drive has been promoted daily, and almost continually during smash hits 24 and American Idol. You can’t beat that! But if a show is a bad show…then, well you see what happens. It was canceled this week after a third straight dismal performance (under five million viewers in prime time).

It’s tough to be fired as a spokesperson when you can’t even respond to the criticism - especially if you are an animated character. But kudos to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. They have asked the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to stop using Shrek in their promotion of kids exercise PSA’s in advance of the May 18 Shrek The Third movie launch because of the amount of high-calorie and high-fat promotions the green character is already associated with. Movie partners include Skittles to Happy Meals to green Cheetos. The HHS said the campaign has resonated well with kids so far, and while they will take it off the air during the movie promotion time period, they will air it again in the future.

There are a number of TV shows that have found success in growing their audience by marketing online, providing behind the scenes clips on dedicated websites and even making full episodes available after their network airing. The peripheral support web content provides to an existing network show may soon become more than just an added value piece of the production puzzle. Media heavyweights like Michael Eisner are wagering that the technology and audience already exists for the content to stand on its own. Eisner’s production house is backing first run content like the 80-part (yes, that’s a lot of webisodes) murder mystery “Prom Queen” across the web. You won’t find Prom Queen on TV but you also won’t find it on just one web site either - in addition to www.promqueen.tv, the show is available on a number of different video hosting sites, MySpace included. Eisner and the show’s sponsors (a cell phone maker, hair care product and a teen targeted summer blockbuster film among them) are embracing the viral tendencies of the medium, integrating product placement and hard to skip ads within each 90 second clip. The technology is there (check out the high quality video streams on the site) but the audience is not the…yet. With what seems like little or no budget to market this series it truly will have to “get viral” (as Prom Queen’s favorite anarchist Curtis, played by Mills Allison, says in episode 3) to achieve critical mass. If web based shows like this gain in popularity, can viral TV a star then make? Individuals trying to get big on MySpace (Tila Tequila anyone??) or doing the Numa Numa dance have yet to successfully extend their fame past 15 minutes, but scripted, professionally produced webisode series’ COULD be a real platform to brand building exposure - for the actors, the show and the show sponsors. If you post it on the internet, will they come?

Instead of flipping through the channels on your television, you may find more compelling shows now on the Internet. AOL has just announced its new line up of “interactive gaming and non-scripted programming,” that features many of television’s top talent. Leeza Gibbons will host the game show Million Dollar Bill and Brooke Burns iLand to name a few. Reality-style television will not be the only option. Suave and Sprint have created In the Motherhood, a series of comedic webisodes starring Leah Remini of CBS’ King of Queens. The series script is based off of stories about motherhood submitted by the sites’ users. The show is a great platform for which advertisers can build their marketing campaigns targeting moms. Make sure to catch the premiere on May 11 on www.inthemotherhood.com. Advertisers are catching up with technology savvy comsumers and creating new online content to market their brands. If any of these shows create noteable traffic, they can expand into something greater on television.

Once again, the power of reality TV is showing its true colors. MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson, who was eliminated in the first week of Dancing with the Stars, is taping a CBS game-show pilot in the coming weeks, entitled Do You Trust Me? Is he following in the footsteps of Nixon speechwriter turned game show host/comic Ben Stein or sit-com actor turned reality star turned game show host John O’Hurley - or maybe both? Although Carlson seems an unlikely host for a reality game show, his duties will involve interviewing contestants about their motivations and playing strategies; a skill Carlson has developed on his previous shows. Carlson, who hosts a weekday interview show called Tucker on MSNBC, was formerly the host of CNN’s Crossfire and PBS Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered.

Not that this should surprise anyone, least of all we in the celebrity world, but celebs are people too - and they make mistakes. Big, ugly mistakes. Like punching a Seattle hotel security guard (Jason Wahler of Laguna Beach fame, arrest number 4 in nearly as many months). Or inciting a riot at a Vegas Strip club, which led to a shootout (Pacman Jones, Tennessee Titans cornerback, 5th arrest in 2 years). But really, who HASN’T been arrested at least twice this year on a felony or assault charge? These alleged incidents are examples of what seems to be an ever increasing trend of celebrities behaving really, really badly. Celeb headlines involving felonious activity, assault and drug or weapons charges have lately become as commonplace on news sites as the scandalous extramarital indiscretions and talk show host name calling (Rosie, you look so tame!) we are used to have fueling our celeb gossip. It’s tempting to hypothesize that our celeb obsessed culture has fostered a consequence free ideology that many celebrities subscribe to. It’s also useful to examine the friend and family support systems (or lack thereof) that have so often failed to transition what are often young adults from a phenom athlete or actor to the next level, where power and it’s misuse lay waiting.

State Farm has sponsored the 50 Million Pound Challenge to help African Americans lose weight and stay in shape. The insurer has enlisted a bevy of celebrities to spread the word including Michael Strahan, Patti LaBelle, Yolanda Adams and Dr. Ian Smith. The country’s largest auto insurer surely hopes this program will be an opportunity to further reach African American consumers. The online community that has been set up should provide just that - State Farm supplies professional diet/fitness tips and an online community to support reaching personal weight loss goals - in return they’ll have built a (healthy) database of contact information for their targeted demographic.

Everyone has been asking me this morning about Zach Johnson and the value of his Masters victory yesterday. Zach sports more than five logos on his clothing/hat; including RSM McGladery (tax/accounting), AEGON (insurance) and Transamerica (a wholly owned subsidiary of AEGON). Often times these sponsors use the athlete as a business-to-business play and the logo is just a throw-in as part of the deal. As for the money. Zach won $1.3m in Masters prize money but the value of his win was easily 10x and maybe 20x the 1.3m number over his lifetime. It will include lifetime exemptions to Major tournaments, global corporate outings and let’s not forget about the bonuses from those five logos worn this week too. Four incredible days of golf can define ones career. It just did for Zach Johnson.

TMZ.com, owned by AOL Time Warner, has become the most popular celebrity news site according to Nielsen. Launched less than 16-months ago, TMZ.com had close to 8 million unique visitors in February (People.com was a distant second with 4.2 million). The top 19 celebrity news sites have seen a 40% rise year-over-year (February 2006 to February 2007) and TMZ.com has increased 151% in that time period. And speaking of numbers/ratings, American Idol and Dancing with the Stars (DWTS) are back at it. Idol ranked #1 (Tuesday) and #2 (Wednesday) last week for total viewers and DWTS finished #4 (Monday) and #6 (Tuesday). Idol viewers on Tuesday eclipsed 28 million. CSI (#3) and House (#5) were the two non-reality shows in the top six.