[BC] SB44 Ads, other observations

[Grady Moates]

> OK folks...
>
> Nomination for the best ad:

    Coke/Simpsons - Agreed.

> Runners up:

    I cannot believe you missed the one in which the dog
slips off his no-bark collar, slips it onto the neck of
the guy on the park bench, and then barks at him.

> What were they thinking 1: CBS committing a full 1/3
> of the spot inventory to promoting primetime shows. . .
> incessantly. I can't imagine Sumner Redstone and Les
> Moonves allowing that unless they simply could not
> sell the slots and didn't want to lower per-cost
> indicating a fire sale.

    Make lemons into lemonade.  This is what good
radio stations do all the time. . . the blimp won't
float without a certain amount of lighter than air
gas in it, and what's lighter and gassier than spots
for prime-time sitcoms?  Whether the audience admits
it or not, commercial-free programming is limp and
sounds like a failure.  When I was programming Top-40
back in the day, in hours that didn't meet minimum
spot-load (in my book, 8 minutes in an hour) I'd add
a few entertaining, well-produced national spots for
automobiles, airlines and the like (clients we'd
never get in our wildest dreams) for free, because
it gave the station the aura and excitement of a
winner.  Management didn't complain, because I
delivered the numbers.

    However, I also can't believe that you didn't
laugh your ass off when Neil Patrick Harris showed
up holding the sign inviting Ladies to C. B. S. --
"Call Barney Stinson".  That will really end up
being clever when the payoff happes on Monday
night.  It's funny on a number of levels, not the
least of which is NPH's avowed sexual proclivities.
This paragraph also belongs in the section
above. . .

> What were they thinking 2:  Surround sound audio
> NOT stereo compatible.

    Uh, the things TV doesn't know about sound fill
a shelf of books entitled, "Don't Run A TV Network
Until You "GET" This".  I have a friend who is an
engineer at a major TV station here in Boston, and
we talk about the systems there all the time.  It's
amazing the sound gets on-the-air at all. . . and
if I'm not mistaken, the downmix is the responsibility
of the local stations. . . the network isn't sending
it from the sky.

    Remember last season when the big flap happened
because the sound truck guys were mixing in canned
audience response to "make the game more exciting"
and it became so apparent that people complained and
there was a big government investigation?

> Live or Memorex--The WHO. . .  Memorex.  Not much in
> the way of close ups to Roger Daltry. Those which I
> caught clearly indicated his mic was NOT live some
< or a lot of time. Drums too were off sync.

    Yeah, I caught that too. . . but I think it was
just a video/audio synchronization issue. . . I see
the video jump several frames all the time, and the
mix was WAY to lousy for that to be pre-recorded. . .
any decent sound mixer understands the relatioship
between the lead and backing vocals, and makes sure
that the lead vocal is 2 dB or so hotter than the
mix of backing vocals, and yet Roger's voice was
regularly lost in the vocal submix at inappropriate
times.

    Also, the vocals should slip down behind the
instruments at various times during the songs, as
if the instruments have become so powerful that the
vocalists simply cannot overcome them. . . it's a
way of generating artificial excitement that is
time-honored and effective.  Reaching the climax
of the show and having the vocals be floating up
above the instruments made the whole thing seem
anticlimactic.  And with the budget the NFL and
the networks have, it should have been easy to
get it right in the rehearsals, and program the
fader moves into the digital desk, and then the
only thing the mixing tech would have to do is
make minor corrections as the show progressed.

    And another thing, with the budget the NFL and
the networks have, why did we not have destruction
of the amps and instruments at the end?  Oh,
right, that much exertion might have resulted in
the destruction of a musician or two. . .

> Why does the NFL do this?  It's SO fake and IMO
> degrades the reputations of the performers. Even
> then, neither could hold a note to save their
> lives at this point....even taped. Put someone
> on stage who could give them a show for real.

    Names!  We want NAMES of performers who can
pull off that audience mass-sing-along response
that The Who got.

> But given the Janet Jackson faux pas, who can they
> trust these days?  There isn't a super star out
> there who can hold a candle to power rockers of
> yesteryear and KNOW they won't cross that line?

    Performers who cross that line do it because
they have no confidence in their own performance,
and have to add the "sizzle".

Grady