I’ve been thinking since last week of writing about the Ladders’ amazingly dumb TV commercial, but Laurie Ruettimann beat me to it. Good thing, too, because I’d never have been able to come up with something like she did. (Note to self: Write smarmier. Can I write smarmy without becoming smarmy? May be only one way to find out.)
Anyway, I kind of hate to give the L any more publicity than they deserve, but you can’t appreciate how bad this is without seeing it.
So then I start to read about MTV’s new series Skins, which is causing all sorts of angst among grown-ups and youth alike for its portrayals of teenage drinking and, well, skin. I haven’t watched it, and I probably won’t. Not because I’m prudish and uptight, but because I never did drink well when I was in high school, and my exposure to skin was even worse. I just don’t want to go back there.
Anyway. Between the L’s dopey ad campaign and MTV’s apparent misreading of its advertisers, I’m wondering whether a lot of media people actually have lost touch with their audiences. I don’t know whether kids like Skin or not, but with advertisers pulling out, that’s not a show that’s going to last long. As for the L, one marketing manager I know watched the commercial with her ad agency and told them that if they ever submitted anything even close to it, she’d fire them.
All to the good. Because the next step was them throwing Survivor’s losers to the sharks. Literally.
