Of course I watch the Super Bowl (for the ads, right?). But another alternative is to check out the Puppy Bowl. Produced by Animal Planet, it is in the 4th year running, and it offers an adorable alternative to watching grown men in bad padded outfits.
A long while ago, I got my degree in film theory from Columbia University. I was lucky enough to have James Schamus as my thesis advisor, who kindly tolerated my thesis focusing on Women in Prison films, dripping with feminist theory, Lacanian analysis and other semiotic psychobabble. When I graduated from school, I first took a production position at Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and found my way to San Francisco to take a job working with Don Johnson on Nash Bridges.
While that period of my life is long ago, and I have traded in “traditional” for digital and interactive, I still get a thrill of thinking that I was somehow distantly connected to Miami Vice even if I was too young to even consider working on the show when it first came out.
So imagine my excitement when I got my beta invite to Hulu and discovered that I can view each episode of Miami Vice for *free* on Hulu! I know what I’m doing tonight…
At first glance, Hulu seems like a great service, with access to some of the hottest shows around, including The Simpsons, 24, and Heroes, as well as some rather seemingly random ones like WKRP in Cincinnati.
While the overall content is currently small, there are plenty of shows to occupy your time through many months of a WGA strike. Partners include Fox, NBC Universal and other quality content developers, so I expect that the range of content will continue to expand as Hulu moves out of beta.
Similar to Joost, Hulu takes a “sponsored” advertising approach. One show I watched was sponsored by Intel, and another by esurance, so for the time being, it seems that Hulu is taking a one show-one advertiser approach. Which is probably bearable by most people who watch the programming.
Unlike Joost, you don’t have to install an application to view the content - you simply watch the content directly on your Internet browser. That’s probably going to be a big differentiator when it comes to user adoption. Even though it is browser based, the performance seemed ok, and rather zippy in delivery, but there definitely is a lower-quality level than what you see on iTunes downloads. Hulu also just introduced HD content - and while the HD programming is limited, it is another reason to play with the service while you are waiting out the writer’s strike….
Overall, Hulu is a great looking, clean and simple to use site that will definitely give Joost a bit more competition in the online streaming video space. I’ll definitely be using it until Big Bang Theory, Weeds, and Entourage return to air.
I saw this TV spot during a local commercial break for The Colbert Report in NYC. The spot stopped me in my tracks, as the hip hop styled local car dealership commercial is definitely not something you see everyday (or maybe you do if you live in NYC). The spot is well done for a local commercial with low production values, but the whole messaging of “we’ll give you a car even if you have bad credit” is a little disconcerting.
Apple just released their TV spot for the newly redesigned iPod Shuffle. The spot is great — and has a cool soundtrack featuring the song “Who’s Gonna Sing” by The Prototypes. The visual effect of having people change every time a shirt is removed is clever as well.
The spot also does not show the heads of any of the dancers, but only the torso of each person. This reminded me of a recent campaign that Hewlett-Packard did for their “Computer is Personal Again” promotion.
The spots are distinctly different in their tone, design, and messaging, but it is interesting that this technique is being used by another technology company while the HP spots are still in rotation. Perhaps it points to a new trend in featuring torso-only TV spots?
Suddenly Mr. T seems to be popping up everywhere I turn. First, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners recently created a Culture Fool campaign for Comcast starring the brawny mohawked man. Next, Joshua Davis at FITC mentions that he had the pleasure of being on the same plane with Mr. T to Los Angeles (tho Mr. T was in first class, and Joshua wasn’t). Then, this morning I get an email from “TV Land Insider” inviting me to send a Mr. T-mail. The instructions on how to send an email to are humorously overzealous if you have ever used the “send to a friend” function on a site. All this to promote Mr. T’s new reality tv show, I Pity the Fool, where Mr. T will go “into the real world to dispense advice, motivate procrastinators and rev up slackers.” Well, at least Mr. T is maximizing his comeback.