I pitched the notion of an annual TV time capsule to The Canadian Press last week. The idea is to “bury” several things related to TV at the end of every year so that future generations can discover in 50 years what was what in 2014 and beyond. Came up with 20 items that went into this year’s suggested capsule, including a tossed Leafs sweater, a Rob Ford bobble head and a battered Cosby Show DVD box set. You can jump to that story here.
The capsule, of course, isn’t real but maybe it should be. There are several other things I’d bury right now if I had a real place to stuff them.
One would be the promotion campaign for Shaw/Rogers new digital service shomi, or at least one poster from their bus shelter campaign. There’s one near my mom’s house in Etobicoke that seems moire like a billboard for how not to promote a new product.
The ad is supposed to be promoting shomi’s exclusive Canadian rights to Jane the Virgin, one of the most critically acclaimed new series of the season. It is a loose adaptation of a Venezuelan telenovella and stars Gina Rodriguez, one of the brightest young stars of the season.
None of which you’d know from this poster. There’s just this large photo of Rodriguez, and from my car window at least, no mention of her name or the title of the series. Canadian commuters, one assumes, are just supposed to be all up to speed on Jane. Since The CW is barely a presence in Canada, I’m not sure how that was supposed to happen. If this is one of your exclusive content carrots, and you’re trying to get people to spend money on a new content platform (against an aggressively-priced competitor), why take such a muted, plain Jane approach? Into the capsule!
1 Comment
No need to bury a recording of promo boy announcing “Canada Lives Here” on CBC Radio. In 50 years time it will still be repeated ad nauseum – every hour of the day .