4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

NBC’s CEO, Jeff Zucker, recently said that NBC will be stopping most pilots for fall quarter on.  The reason is because of the high cost to develop them ($10 million a piece) and the low turnover rate for a new season.  NBC points out to HBO and Showtime for their great shows that cost almost nothing compared to what Primetime spends.  “We need to have better writers and go with our gut-feelings more,” he voiced.  Well if thats true they need to start making shows more interactive in order to keep Gen Y glued.  Gut-feelings are crucial but NBC needs to make better decisions then copying other networks and bring back an anniversary season of Seinfeld.

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

NBC’s chairman recently said. “that the big shows on television may be a thing of the past thanks to new mediums.”  Could the Oscars and the Golden Globes be a thing of the past?  Not necessarily.   Especially with the big numbers the Superbowl brought in.  But it’s getting harder for new shows and returning shows to make big numbers with DVD sales options, iTunes downloads and web-casting.  I figure that just the budgets will drop to prepare for new shows this fall season.

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

What was Hershey’s thinking releasing a product that resembles Cocaine? Millions of dollars went into marketing this hilarious product even when law-enforcement and communities around America said, “It was a bad idea.” I feel like someone at Hershey’s loved the energy drink Cocaine and decided to go with a similar idea. Since the Cocaine energy drink failed and was pulled off store shelves, it was no surprise that this product was pulled too. Some of my Gen Y friends thought the idea was funny and brought vital issues to the table. For example the Drug issue in America and the problems that we still have with censorship over real issues. Unfortunately, since the product was already pulled most couldn’t even try it. Note to product makers: Don’t resemble illegal drugs, Americans can’t handle it.

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

After watching the Superbowl I figured the viewer ship would be high this year. A team that hasn’t been beaten all season taken down at the Superbowl. This was one of the most exciting games of the entire Superbowl ever. The epic fourth quarter drew in 105.7 million viewers, which almost topped the best viewed show in history M-A-S-H (106 million viewers). This was possibly one of the most watched sports games in the history of television. The game pulled a whopping 43.3 rating, 65 share overall this year. Thus more than half of all televisions we’re watching the Superbowl. What a game!

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4. February 2008 by bryan.lonn.

This years Superbowl was an exciting match between the Giants and the Patriots. I almost put money down on the Patriots. With their un-beat legacy and Brady as the quarterback, I figured all was lost for the Giants. But in the last quarter some astonishing plays by the Giants let the underdog prevail as the winner. Most viewers that tuned into this years game more than likely stayed till the very end of the game. Most Superbowls have a team stomping the other and the game is almost over by the first half. Since this game carried to the end I bet Advertisers hit their mark for all time slots. This years ads featured may funny and laughable ads, the Car.com shrinking-head and fire circle come to mind. We can’t forget that lovable child for eTrade that puked and had a weird clown in the background.

But my favorite ads of this years Superbowl directed to a Generation Y age gap, came from both Tide and FedEx. Runner-ups would include the Bud Light nerd bar skit, the Cashew nut ugly girl routine and the Bridgestone Richard Simmons workout. The reason I choose Tide and FedEx is because they went with both a creative and engaging commercial. FedEx used pigeons to move packages for a random company and soon realized they weren’t working and started attacking the local civilians. The entertainment value was high and well crafted from beginning to end. The second winner was from Tide and featured a human resource interviewing a potential candidate. Why this commercial is so well related to Generation Y is because of the push to the internet, to learn more and the creativity behind a hard-to-sell product. The ad features the candidate trying to talk about himself for the job when his stain trumps his own voice. Poor move to the possible employee but created a memorable experience full of laughs. These two videos exhibited what Gen Y wants: visual, entertaining, creative and non-traditional ads. I wonder what everyone else thought?

To check out all the Superbowl Ads go to:

http://www.myspace.com/superbowlads

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