Leftovers
Reality TV: Ultimate Oxymoron
No guide to a marketing Revolution is complete without discussing the role of television for marketers, as consumers wrest control of the remote. First, a look at how reality TV’s mucking up so much. Not only has it destroyed networks (one author hosted a TLC network show while that network imploded) but it has made advertisers fearful for good reason.
Watching Being Bobby Brown got us thinking that Bravo’s programmers are on rock cocaine. Sure, we viewed it, but we clucked at the spots and thought shoddily of their advertisers. We understand that celebrities must stay alive by displaying their own reality—aw, Farrah—but networks are glomming onto this in the most carried-away way. Bravo has a slogan called “Their Drama. Our Reality.” Neither sentence is true. Yet they seem to think Bobby, like Queer Eye, is something we can’t live without. It makes no sense. Bravo was an Arts & Entertainment network when it started—super high brow and deservedly laudable. Having Queer and Dog Show Mothers on the same schedule devalues their currency.
Bravo is in the shitter today for displaying a totally cheesy Battle of the Network Reality Stars, and that settled it: this network will likely have the most astounding public death. (We cringed audibly when All-Star Reality Reunion popped up weeks after this putrid first offering.)
Bravo, too, illustrates a huge flaw with the inane habit of a daily-changing slogan: Tuesday Night Reality Check. Watch What Happens. Move Over, Nick & Jessica. Such desperate attempts at attention-getting say one thing: our movement is overdue.