« "Cheeseburger in Dolphindise" or "Come Sunday," whichever. | Main| Live video banner with comments. »


May 06, 2009

They're playing Simon's song

American Idol may or may not be great television.  But there's no denying that it is freakin' brilliant marketing.  And tonight's results show is the ultimate example.  


A couple bazillion viewers will tune in and will happily sit through a buttload of traditional TV commercials, several "special appearances" by celebrities who all just happen to have something new to sell right now, and several plugs for iTunes.  By the end of the show, viewers will have absorbed sixty solid minutes of marketing content, all for a ten-second payoff.  (Even if the losing contestant has a name with lots of syllables - like Allison Iraheta - and even if Seacrest talks real, real slow, I'm pretty it wouldn't take more than 10 seconds to say the loser's name.)  Absolutely brilliant. Advertisers pay top dollar to run spots that each require more air time than the actual program content.  And I'm guessing that the weekly "special guests" are paying Fox for the exposure, not vice-versa.  Anybody know?

Simon is making noises about leaving the show after next season.  He's saying maybe it's time for a change.  What he's talking about, of course, is a change in the number of zeros Fox puts on his paycheck. And he should.  American Idol is Fox's gravy train, and Simon's the engineer.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341ce32a53ef01156f7cbed6970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference They're playing Simon's song:

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.

The Latest Podcast

Ad Age Power 150

As Heard On

Radio Talent Zoo

Categories

Audio Comments

Record a comment from your computer right now. Be pithy.

Archives

Recent Comments

Podcasting Links

Sites of Note

Talent Zoo Column

Everything I need to know about advertising I learned from Star Wars