So I chooned into Late night with Jimmy Fallon the other night to witness the car crash of awkwardness, pauses and presenter self- doubt that we usually see. There was an added layer of uncomfortableness this time, though, with a skit that bombed for different reasons from the usual.
It started with Fallon donning a fake mustache, hilarious already right. He then said as follows...
"Does everyone know that new search engine'Bing'? It searches the Internet differently from the other ones. So we're going to play a little game here now we'll call 'the bing ding'.
A visual came up that read 'the bing ding...presented
by microsoft'. The audience laughed, presumably finding the idea of corporate sponsorship of a skit funny. Fallon then invited three audience members down to three computers adorned with the Bing logo and asked them a question and the first person to get the right answer would win.There were shots of the contestants searching the Bing website and it seemed pretty effective in getting the answers quick. We then got to see the college white boy winner grinning when he was awarded a laptop with that Bing logo on it.
So as it turned out, the whole thing was clearly an informercial, and actually was presented by microsoft.
Do you think this is the future of advertising on network television? Is this a desperate effort that is doomed to fail? Will consumers stomach this content or turn away from the provider?
There wasn't a shred of comedy in the skit, and I sensed an uneasiness or confusion in the audience, but you know what I did during the ad break:searched Bing. So maybe there is potential, even if it is as awkward as Fallon's charisma
Image courtesy of Bing.
4 comments:
Hi Bones,
This sounds pretty lousy. But why do you think it was a watershed moment?
Graham Kennedy used to do 3-4 min skits on this show where he took the absolute piss out of products/brands and people couldn't get enough of it.
I think it comes down to how it's done.
Integration and product placement that's laboured, irrelevant and compromises the entertainment is never going to work.
I wish I didn't say watershed because I do hate that word, but it's certainly the first time I've seen content on a comedy show purpose built around a product.
was Kennedy paid for those? This skit wasn't satirising Bing at all but I almost think making fun of brands like Kennedy did could work better.
I'm with Kate on this one - Idon't think it is something that is uncommon. We see it on many, many shows ranging from your Today network with Myer crosses and Fri night football with TAB prices. What is disappointing about your example is that this is the exact audience who will spot the placement instantly and declare BULLSHIT. Not good for Bing or Jimmy.
yer I totally agree. of course you see the man the myth the legend Karl Stefanovic doing tie ins and 'subtle' promotions on Today and the vomit inducing 'Random Acts of Kindness', but it did mark a bizarre turn for a tonight show that had a shred of credibility and cool to it. At least when Coco was at the helm anyway. I've seen this kind of stuff on Rove, but that's not meant to ever be funny anyway right? But this example just seemed like an awkward act of desperation, and barely tried to be funny, yet it still WAS effective on me. I'm just interested to think if people think this is what we're going to have to deal with across all television from now, at the expense of good content. I just finished a thesis on this stuff, maybe I'm just exhausted but I did find this example a bit sad. Lucky Fallon has got The Roots to steal back credibility.
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