Program scripts from week of December 1, 2013
My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Celebrity Endorsers
It was just about a month ago that I commented on a couple of commercials that I really liked. That included two tequila commercials involving Ray Liotta and Kiefer Sutherland. I haven’t changed my mind about them but I have done a little more thinking about the genre of commercials. Specifically the celebrity endorsement.
What really got me going was someone noting that since the Ron Burgundy character started touting the Dodge brand (or Yodge as Ron calls them) sales of certain models have jumped by nearly 60%.
All because a FICTIONAL character endorsed them. A fictional character who, let’s be honest, is more than a bit of an idiot.
So what I’m really thinking about when it comes to celebrity endorsements is - Why do we care?
Honestly, why would having Ray Liotta be the front man for an adult beverage, or any product, make a difference to us? Most of us are smart enough to know that we’re supposed to think that if we use that product we’ll be as cool or sexy or smart or good looking as the celebrity in the ad. But we don’t seriously BELIEVE that, do we?
For the record, there is nothing you or I can do to be as cool as Ray Liotta. Nothing.
It doesn’t matter what car you drive, toothpaste you use, adult beverage you consume. It won’t make you anything that you aren’t already. But they keep trotting out celebrity endorser after celebrity endorser. I have to believe they do it because we keep buying it. And that’s really kind of sad.
It’s sad because these endorsers aren’t any smarter than we are. Most of them aren’t even better looking than we are. Trust me, if you had a team of experts making you over you’d look great too. In fact this is mostly about money. Pay the price and get the celebrity of choice pumping your product. Stop paying and they won’t mention your product or service again.
Seriously people, you’d buy a truck because Ron Burgundy told you to buy a “Yodge”?
Really?
As much as folks like Google would like to believe that they are truly in the running to be the “big dog” of the digital world it’s hard to say anyone has surpassed Microsoft at the top of the heap. Just think about the number of computers running the Windows operating system which is approximately 90% of all the personal computers in the world, then add in the alleged one billion users of Microsoft’s Office suite and I’m not sure anyone has any more claim to being the 900 pound gorilla in the room. Toss in fun little things like the Xbox and suddenly Microsoft looms large.
So when one of the founders of Microsoft starts talking about breaking up the monster we should probably all perk up our ears. Paul Allen, who founded the company with Bill Gates, is now talking about just that. Allen says that Microsoft should spin off products like Xbox because they are not the core of the business. Billions of dollars could be suddenly brought into play by turning Xbox and the search engine “Bing” (and it’s advertising revenues) over to new corporate ownership. That would allow Microsoft to focus on what it’s always done. There’s still tons of money to be made on operating systems (even if the percentage of new computers running some version of Windows has declined each of the last several years) and on what’s called “enterprise” software. That’s software aimed at corporate or large organization users in simplest terms.
Now I’m the last person to be offering business advice to anyone, let alone a multi-national corporation, but I suppose that it makes sense at the surface level.
At the same time the real experts in this field seem to feel that the days of the classic software based computer program is rapidly coming to a close. Add in that a larger percentage of even that business has been shifting to open source software and suddenly the decision looks less logical. Why cut loose divisions that continue to make money so you can focus on the one that probably can see the end of the road?
It will be interesting to see what direction the new top dogs at both Apple and Microsoft intend to take these two titans of the digital world.
On Death and Dying
When I first thought about discussing the death of TV character Brian Griffin and the furor that followed I was planning on sending an order down to the Department of Snark for a little extra this. As I’ve spent some time thinking about the death of characters on television I’ve found myself on the other side of the issue.
Brian Griffin, in case the name means nothing to you, was the talking dog character on the Fox Network’s modestly successful animated show “Family Guy”. He was hit by a car and killed last week. The fandom went nuts the following day. Now I’ve never watched “Family Guy” but it seemed a little over the top to me.
Then I started thinking about the death of TV characters over the years. There are three primary reasons for characters to die. The first is that the actor who played the character actually dies. Thus, “Sesame Street” had to deal with the death of Mr. Hooper or when “NewsRadio” had to deal with the death of Bill McNeal when actor Phil Hartman died. The second reason is when the actor gets into a fight with the producers. Most recently we saw the death of Charlie Harper on “Two and A Half Men” when Charlie Sheen went all, well, Charlie Sheen a couple years ago. Killing off a star would seem to be a tough decision but it’s been done before. In 1987 Valerie Harper was fired from the show that bore her name and her character was killed after a hold out over salary. Got to wonder if the name Harper is jinxed.
Of course the final reason to kill a character off is as part of the story. Edith Bunker died on “Archie’s Place”, Chuckles the Clown died on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show” resulting in one of the funniest episodes of all time. Dan Connor died on “Roseanne”, Susan Ross died on “Seinfeld”, Bobby Ewing died on “Dallas”. Ok, maybe that’s not a good example.
The ultimate character death for me though is Henry Blake on “M*A*S*H”. The story goes that the cast was not told what the closing dialogue was going to be. So when Walter Burghoff’s character “Radar” O’Reilly makes the fateful announcement in the operating room the shock on the face of the cast isn’t acting. It’s a powerful moment.
So since a tear forms for me every time I see that episode I don’t suppose I have any room to criticize fans of “Family Guy”.
Tell me when Brian’s wake is and I’ll come and raise a glass in his memory.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
