• by John Gaffney , March 5, 2003

My Big Fat Synergistic TV Show: Nothing creates media planning heroes like new success on TV. A new success that has quality programming and attracts a quality audience on TV is just about 11 on a scale of ten in today’s vapid programming world. “My Big Fat Greek Life” played that hand very well, according to Nielsen ratings. It also shows how the vaunted “synergy” word can go from concept to execution when done from a content-based perspective. CBS knew that the content for a sitcom related to the hit movie was rock solid. It also knew that an older demographic audience saw the movie. It knew sales of the DVD version of the movie broke records. So bringing this to the smaller screen was a logical progression. I see this as a better way to ensure quality than focus groups, or coming up with the most outrageous reality TV concept possible. Synergy means working together from content to ads. Not ads to content.

It’s Spanish To Me: I don’t understand why the Spanish language Crest ad that aired on the Grammys didn’t get more post-Grammy play in the press. A P&G spokesperson told me basically “that everyone was very happy with it and it will run again on the Latin Grammys.” Thanks for the knowledge. I thought it was a bold stroke from a very conservative company. Not a lot of those around in the ad world these days.

Parting Shot: I am soooooooooo done with celebrities who make commercials spouting pro-war or anti-war views. I say its back to the 60s. Back then you had to work hard to get heard. Had to have a sit-in or something. But these days “sit in” is just another phrase for a cable news talk show.