Not Effexive: This celebrity-disguised-as-pharmaceutical-endorser trend has gone off the hook. First, Lauren Bacall hawks arthritis drugs on the Today show. Rob Lowe’s on the box for some other
drug on CNN. And I saw this tactic take its ugliest turn on Friday night. First of all, let me say I am not a fan of Access Hollywood, ET or Extra. I thought after Sept. 11 viewers would re-evaluate
the trivial nature of their content. They didn’t. Anyway, in an unguarded moment Friday, I’m watching Extra with the wife, and on comes an interview with Delta Burke and husband Gerald MacRaney. What
has Delta been doing lately? Turns out she’s been depressed. Real stuff. Hiding under the bed depressed. Depression is no joke and I don’t mean to make light of it. But what happened next was
laughable. A weeping Delta, we find out, is the chairperson of Go On And Live (GOAL). GOAL just happens to be sponsored by Wyeth who makes Effexor. Effexor (cut to logo on screen shot) was the
anti-depressant that “with therapy” helped Delta get well. Cut to a weepy Delta Burke urging viewers to get help if they’re depressed. “Go live your life,” she says. This is the kind of surreptitious
garbage that will degrade the integrity of TV content in the mainstream American consciousness. Yes, I know Extra ain’t exactly 60 Minutes, but I’ll bet a few million people think it’s a lot more
relevant to their lives If you’re going to interview Delta Burke, interview her because she’s making some kind of creative endeavor, not because Wyeth thinks it’s a great idea. Someday, just maybe,
the American consumer will see through these tactics. In the right hands, sponsor integration can be entertaining. In the wrong hands, it’s going to anger the consumer.
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Columbia Records: I riffed way back in June that the music industry and the radio industry doesn’t give a damn about me (being 43, two kids and suburban.) Turns out they do, kinda. Great piece in
the Sunday New York Times about how Sony marketed the new James Taylor record. Things have reached such a point that Sony with all its power couldn’t guarantee radio play, or video play for it. So
they ran TV spots on channels like Food Network, where they expected the JT demographic to congregate. Then they got some participation from the artist with in-store appearances and select TV
performances. It worked. October Road sold 500,000 copies since Sept. 1, and credit goes to Sony for having the creativity to get that laid back suburban audience that I represent. Gotta tell you
though, I bought Never Mind The Bollocks by The Sex Pistols in the same trip as my JT purchase.
Prognostications: I don’t think it will be a huge surprise when the Publisher’s
Information Bureau numbers that come out this week show big ad page increases for September. The encore will be tougher. I expect fall fashion issues to crank September numbers. But October is going
to be tough.
