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Tackiest promotion ...
Sometimes I agree with Matt Roush and sometimes I don't, but I really have to take issue with his comment today that promotion for a show which reveals a forthcoming death "is unquestionably the tackiest of all promo gimmicks."
Agreed, revealing spoiler information in the promo (with no warning & little chance to avoid it) is bad. But for me (at least so long as they don't reveal exactly who gets killed and how) then it can do the intended job of making me interested and determined to watch that episode. And sometimes seemingly "revealing" information like that isn't (I'm thinking of the NCIS promo a few months ago that showed Gibbs & Maddie in a car underwater, then Gibbs on the dock seemingly not breathing - those scenes were actually taken from the pre-titles sequence, so you were supposed to know that before the episode started)
Far worse IMO are the trailers that string together unrelated scenes to make you think something drastic or important is happening, when it doesn't bear any relation to the episode at all. Fox used to be terrible about this last year when promoting House - you'd see something like Chase talking about making a mistake and then Cuddy saying something about firing someone - but actually they were two seperate conversations about totally different subjects.
Another promo tactic I find really annoying is where they show the two or three funniest lines from an episode in the trailer. Frequently the lines are not that funny in isolation - they need the context of the show itself, and yet if you've seen it in the promo, the actual moment falls flat.
Which do you think?
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Mar 21, 2008 9:04 PM
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Thank you for putting into words how I feel sometimes when I watch promo's for some of my favorite shows. It's irritating when there is such build-up for something big to happen and then *BAM* nothing. I feel like I've wasted my 30 minutes or hour for absolutely nothing. I'm a busy person, I work nearly 12 hours a day Monday thru Friday, and I value my TV time. I want it to be filled with quality, but instead it's spoiled by flat jokes, major plot twists exposed or a big fat letdown for lack of storyline.
That's partly why I'm grateful for DVR, because I finally understand why people skip right through the commercials/promo's.
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Mar 21, 2008 10:31 PM
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Yes! It really irks me when the only 2 or 3 good laughs of the show are in the promo commercials. Talk about a let down.
I watch television almost exclusively from my dvr now. I'll even start watching a show 1/2 late, just to speed through the commercials. When people talk about commercials because they're either funny or terrible, I can't even relate. Thank goodness for my little buddy, the dvr. It not only saves time, but relieves stress! 
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Mar 22, 2008 12:02 AM
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