When NBC aired its "Brotherhood of Man" promotion before the Super Bowl on Sunday, it provided a useful take on the network's biggest strength...and its potential weakness.
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Author Archive
The Brotherhood of NBC
Problematic Promotional Moments
What happens when the television production schedule leads to promotions which are out of date by the time they air?
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The Productive, the Constructive, the Bizarre: Adventures in Student Evaluations
A recent article about Yelp! in The Atlantic has me thinking about student evaluations. 'Tis the season, after all...
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Egregious Product Placement? New Regulations in the UK
The UK now allows product placement in television programming, and their regulations on those placements perpetuate a false dichotomy regarding the logics and goals of product integration.
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The State of Reality TV: Producing Reality on Joan & Melissa
WE's new series, produced by and starring Joan & Melissa Rivers draws attention to the artifice of reality TV, but in the fourth episode, the mask slips and reveals something that may be...possibly...perhaps..."real"...
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BET’s Got Game
Tonight, The Game, a sitcom originally produced for and aired on The CW, premieres its fourth season on its new home, BET. The story behind that move leaves me wondering about the future of "diversity" (whatever that might mean) on broadcast television.
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Report From: Flow 2010
The ability to facilitate dialogue not only within roundtables, but among them, seems to me the greatest strength of the Flow conference model.
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Egregious Product Placement: The Closer & Hershey’s
Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on TNT's The Closer loves candy. And Hershey's loves The Closer. Is it a product placement match made in heaven?
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Summer Media: Castle
Kicking off our new Summer Media series with ABC's charming Castle.
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Egregious Product Placement: Sex & the City & HP
What does it mean to have a beloved character's tastes change in favor of product placement opportunities? Fan backlash to product placement might disrupt the narrative, but it's probably not a bad thing for the advertiser.
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NBCU’s ISM FTW?
NBCU is offering "integrated sales marketing" to advertisers at this year's upfronts to bolster poor ratings during the ad sales push...but will it work?
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Egregious Product Placement: Toyota & Bones
The inclusion of Angela's Toyota Sienna in the script of a recent Bones episode demonstrates an unusual alignment of product placement and ad campaign.
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Quirks, Viewers, Commerce are the Real QVC
There's so much more to QVC than chirpy hosts, costume jewelry, and the bloopers you see on The Soup. One fan and scholar attempts to explain and redeem the oft-mocked shopping channel.
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Egregious Product Placement: The Biggest Loser
Subway. 24 Hour Fitness. Extra sugar free gum. Ziploc. Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes. NBC's The Biggest Loser is the home of some of the biggest product placement deals on television.
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What Do You Think? Holiday Episodes
It's December, TV fans, and you know what that means: holiday-themed episodes. Now, we're not talking about holiday specials like "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown"--we're talking about when your favorite TV characters celebrate the holidays to hilarious or moving effect. What are some of your all-time favorite holiday episodes?
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