Idea of the Day: Marketing tv

Good ads (and sometimes even bad ones, like McDonald’s recent Fillet-o-Fish campaign) invariably entertain, engage and/or horrify us. At the best of times they represent art and in the worst cases they leave us scratching our heads, or just plain disgusted. Those things are all captivating!

With the advent of some really cool viral, buzz and new media advertising, things are getting even more interesting. I think it’s time for a reality-based Marketing TV channel…a behind-the-scenes look at how marketing is made. Sound farfetched? I thought the same about “The Apprentice,” might have felt that way about HG tv at one point, and still can’t believe some of the dribble that makes it on air in the first place. Meanwhile, the show “Mad Men” (a fictitious look back at the glory days of Madison Avenue) is winning awards. Why not bring the concept up to date and into the real world?

Think of it this way: from the Budweiser Clydesdales to Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” through The Energizer Bunny and Miller Lite’s “Great Taste Less Filling” all the way up to Verizon’s “Can Your Hear Me Now?” stints, a lot of thought and competition goes into crafting successful advertising campaigns. Surely you can think of some of your own all-time favorites, right?

Wouldn’t it be cool to see how companies like McDonalds deal with their RFP’s, to capture the pressure and ingenuity at each agency behind the scenes, find out which campaigns were in competition with each other, and judge for ourselves what we think the winning ideas should have been? New advertising represents uniquely evolutionary ways of reaching people. When the ad itself becomes the main focus, as with Boone Oakley’s remarkable viral YouTube video we wonder “How did they do that?” laugh, cry and want to watch more.

Plus I love the double innuendo of knowing that marketers would try their best to take advantage of product placement in a show that’s about marketing in the first place. We all know we’re being marketed to, anyway, so why not put it all out in the open and bring consumers deeper into the process?

The Wizard no longer has to stay behind the curtain to work his magic.