Saturday, June 13, 2009

Lack of advertising

Tomorrow night Pushing Daisies airs its (unfortunate)series finale. Excluding those of you out there that are/were fans of the show, how many even knew about it? My guess is maybe 1 or 2. Why is this? Its because there have no ads running for it, yet ABC bombards you with ads for The Bachelorette, Wipeout, and even reruns of Grey's Anatomy.

It really is a sad case. Especially since they pushed Pushing Daisies down everyone's throat the summer before it started, then the writer's strike came, and it seemed as it they could care less about the show, despite it racking up awards and accolades. At the first sign of trouble, they cancel it. I'm not going to go on a rant about that, though.

Daisies isn't the only show to suffer from lack of advertising. One of my favorite shows from last summer, ABC Family's The Middleman, had a similar marketing plan. Every chance they got they were showing ads for it, then the show aired, and except for right before episodes aired, there was never any mention of it, unlike its counterpart(which is still on the air...hmmm...) The Secret Life of the American Teenager.

Now, think about the shows that get tons of advertising. Have you ever heard of any of them being in any trouble? Other than Chuck, I can't think of any.

Now think of all the shows that get little to no advertising. How many of them last? If you said few to none, then you are exactly right.

Now, I hate to say that a little thing as advertising an influence what we watch, but apparently, it does. The sad part about it is that networks seem to want certain shows to survive, while others are destined to fail.

Anything airing on Friday night, or worse Saturday night means it's not long for the airwaves. It didn't use to be that way, but then again, stamps didn't used to cost 29 cents.

A few shows that aren't getting the proper treatment are The Goode Family (recently moved to 7:30 CST on ABC), Bones (they change the time every other week, but it airs on Fox. they have picked up on its advertising, recently, though), and 1000 Ways to Die (it varies, but it airs on Spike). All are head and shoulders above most of the crap that is being advertised/aired this summer *Cough* Jon & Kate plus 8, Wipeout, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here *Cough*

I'm sure there are a ton of shows that many of you can think of that never got proper advertising, right? What are they? Why do you think they're not getting the proper treatment?

2 comments:

Lola said...

I think "My Name Is Earl" was cancelled for the same reason. I thought it was a good show, funny, interesting concept and I was shocked to find it cancelled.

Then again a crap show like "Two and a Half Men" is still on the air and in a time slot that is not appropriate for children and teens. Showing a faux lap dance and the character's reaction to the lap dance is not appropriate during the time that children are watching. I'm not a prude, but what happened to the so called family time, where networks aren't allowed to air adult themed programs?

Mystery Man said...

i can take "Two and a Half Men" in doses, but then I'm a big sitcom fan. note...I saud sitcom, not comedy. I like the canned laughter...lol

i know what you mena about it being a bit too risque for primetime, but these days i'm surprised they're not shoing baisc instinct to preschoolers, y'know?