Has anyone seen the new Domino's ad? The ad features Domino's employees talking about customer complaints they have received in the past (the crust is like cardboard, the sauce tastes like ketchup) about their product and how they went about making it better. Color me stupid, and stupid is blue, but Domino's has been around since 1960 and is the second largest pizza chain in the United States behind Pizza Hut, so whatever problems they may have had, it wasn't for lack of customers. I am sure they have received complaints from time to time, any business does, and I am not here to defend their product, just to question the line of reasoning behind their ads. By saying that they are changing their product to make it better, what they are telling the consumer is that for the past 50 years we have served you shit. Now, however, we are going to make better pizza. Does that means the customers you admittedly screwed over by serving an inferior product now get to demand a refund on their orders? I am not saying don't tinker with the product or don't try to do things in a better fashion, but by just stepping out there and saying that you knowingly served an inferior product for half a century, it makes me less likely to spend money there. After all, who is to say in another 50 years you don't come out with an ad that says "Look, we fucked you over again, ha ha!".
I am watching the fallout from the Leno/O'Brien debacle that NBC created with a certain amount of amazement. Not amazement that it is happening, but amazement that anyone with half a brain didn't see this coming. I had argued in the past that putting Leno's show on at 10pm was a recipe for disaster and was NBC's way of doing television on the cheap. By throwing a talk show in that slot they were saying that they didn't want to spend the money on scripted programming that costs more to produce but also generates more viewers. Leno tended to generate the same number of viewers at 10pm that he previously got at 11:30pm, the difference being there are far more people watching TV at 10pm, so whereas Leno was winning his time slot at 11:30, he was soundly getting beaten at 10pm, and not by just network programming, but even some cable shows had begun to pass him in viewership. The loss in viewers also affected the NBC affiliates, who usually run a newscast at 11pm, and the local newcasts are one of the major money generators for the affiliates. Leno's show was chasing away those viewers, thus killing revenue for the affiliates. Meanwhile back at the ranch, O'Brien took over the Tonight Show hosting gig, and the problem with that is his brand of comedy is not what you would call everyone's cup of tea. While I admittedly like him, I know full well that his show would either have to be tamed down in the new time slot of 11:30pm (as opposed to the old 12:30am) because bits like the Masturbating Bear, and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog aren't going to play with the crowd that used to watch the Tonight Show, or it wasn't going to hold the same audience. Both happened, fewer of the more quirky bits that made him popular at 12:30am were shown and the audience shrank, to the benefit of David Letterman on CBS, who Leno regularly beat at 11:30pm. So now comes, how does NBC fix what it never should have broke? The plan seems to be to put Leno back at 11:30pm, but only for a half hour, and move O'Brien to 12:00am. But this is where the contracts come in, because of the deal NBC made with O'Brien, technically he can't be removed as the host of the Tonight Show, if he is, he's owed somewhere in the ballpark of about $48 million. But by moving the Tonight Show back a half hour they mess with a broadcasting institution, the Tonight Show has aired immediately after the late local news since its inception, back in the earliest days of TV. Only NBC could create a clusterfuck like this. While O'Brien's show trailed Letterman in the ratings, it was holding even with the 18-34 demos that advertisers love, so messing with the lineup could cost NBC money in advertising dollars as well, and Fox has said they would be interested in hiring O'Brien for the 11:30 slot should NBC either let him go, or should he leave of his own volition. The sad thing is, the most compelling thing on NBC right now are the jokes that both Leno and O'Brien are telling in their monologues about the very company they work for.
Some things I learned about the NFL during the first weekend of the playoffs; 1) The Dallas Cowboys are really good. When your starting running back doesn't even gain 10 yards and your #1 wide receiver is a guy who, before this season nobody had even heard of and you come out and just throttle an opponent like Philadelphia then I am impressed. 2) Wes Welker, not Tom Brady, is the MVP of the New England Patriots, how else to you explain how bad they looked against Baltimore. Sure the defense is a year older and a year slower, but that offense could do nothing without Welker in the lineup. And before someone dismisses this as a simple one game argument I am making, consider that last year Welker also made Matt Cassel look good, so good in fact that the Patriots made him their franchise player despite being the backup quarterback, and better still, the Kansas City Chiefs matched the offer from New England so Cassel could be their starter. And how has worked out for you KC?
Did anyone else see Senator Harry Reid's press conference where he was trying to explain away his "light skinned" and "no Negro dialect" comments regarding President Obama? I was watching in stunned amazement the other day at work as they were covering the press conference on TV. It was getting to the point where I was expecting Reid to just say "some of my best friends are black people". It was bad, very, very bad.
Another casualty locally on the radio dial as Ellis Cannon was let go by the city's FM talk station, 104.7 FM. Ellis is a sports guy and admittedly other than him and their contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the station does very little sports programming, with talk being the standard fare with the likes of Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, Savage, and Norry the main players. With Ellis on at 6pm, that meant the station would carry Michael Savage on tape delay. And while I didn't listen to Ellis all that much (I actually liked him better years ago when he and his brother did a show on the local ESPN station, 1250 AM), anytime someone loses a gig around these parts for more syndicated crap is has a certain resonance with me. The plan is to just move Savage up to his normal time slot (6pm) and carry his show live. Great, so a local guy loses his job so that we can have a man who once told a gay caller to his TV show to "get sick and die" on live here. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
One of the things that does bother me about my job, and to be honest there aren't that many, is the number of people that pick things up in the store, then find something else they want instead and rather than put the first thing back, just drop it wherever they happen to be, assuming that someone else will put it away for them. Maybe I am being petty here, but if I were to come into your home and shit in the living room and my reasoning was that, well "the shit is kind of close to the bathroom so you really would mind putting it in there for me", you might, just might, have a problem with that. So next time you are out shopping, please, don't be an ass. The people working there have far better things to do with their time than to pick up after you.
Okay, let's see if that puts me to sleep, but I doubt it.
I am an insomniac too...Plus I have to take the teenager to early morning Baseball Conditioning.
ReplyDeleteDomino's: Bizarre (stupid) market strategy. I didn't like their pies much but you couldn't beat the price. Kids and co-workers aren't as picky as I am when it's free to them. I would have marketed a premium pizza in addition to the original.
Late Night TV: Leno was doomed to failure...you echo my thoughts on the subject.You had the feeling he (Leno) knew that as we watched. Conan is best viewed late...I like him but the content is for when the kids are fast asleep...and adult brains are 1/2 asleep. I really like Craig Ferguson. I wish he would come on a bit earlier.
NFL? It ain't Baseball...
Harry Ried: I wish he would list "the Negro Dialects" for those of us who are woefully lacking in the study of linguistics.
Local radio: Going extinct other than the buy,sell,swap, and trade call in shows...locally ours is called "Party Line." It's fairly popular.
Not putting stuff back: I am anal about it. My wife is NOT. She used to work for Walmart. Part of her job WAS putting stuff back careless people just dropped. She feels she is creating a measure of job security for somebody. You can't reason with a woman.
I tend to agree that local radio is going extinct, at least in larger markets. The stations that see to be doing the best and suffering the fewest layoffs are the local hoemtown stations that still provide a local service, local news, the local high school sports, etc. What we are coming to learn is the big players, (CBS/Viacom, Clear Channel, etc.) really overleveraged themselves in buying up large amounts of properties in the larger markets and now the debt load is being passed to the employees in the form of layoffs. For the big players it is all about bottom line now, they are bleeding money and cutting corners at any available point, but the smaller stations that have a relationship with the local hardware store or bank, are the ones that are best weathering the economic storm. Size really doesn't matter, the ability to deliver content the listener actually wants does.
ReplyDeleteWhile I join your wife in having a WalMart career, albiet mine was brief, only a few months, to my knowledge no one was hired just to put stuff back that others tossed about the store. Rather it was just a tack on to the job they already had. It was something to do when your primary responsibilities were taken care of. As it is at my current employer. I would rather focus on having the goods my customers want on the floor than spend my time picking up after lazy asses. Every minute I spend on that task is a minute I don't spend on stocking shelves or ordering things we need.
I have noticed a relatively new phenomena... The the guy who owns the local radio station is also recording commercials for several other local stations in the area. He has an odd delivery...his voice is unmistakable.
ReplyDeleteI can't really comment about most of this.
ReplyDeleteHave heard a little about the NBC schedule changes, but don't watch any of the shows anyway.
I'm a good little shopper, if I don't want an item I always return to the shelf I got it from, and if I'm not in a hurry I have been known to put back other peoples items as well...anal I know lol
The guy doing the local spots could be a side job he has, maybe at at home studio where he does voice work. I know that my former program director had one in his home and did voice work for not just spots that ran on our stations, but other stations and TV as well. Or it could be that whoever is requesting the commercial heard his version of it and wanted it aired on other stations as well, rather than having other stations vopice the same exact spot. Usually that type of thing is left up to the advertiser, whatever they prefer.
ReplyDeleteAnother way that stations are cutting costs is by having the shows voice tracked, that is, having someone at a remote location record liners, breaks and what not and then send them to the appopriate station to plug into their list, a process that has become very easy with computers. One guy sitting at home can now voice track a number of stations, and as long as they have the elementary information (station call letters and market, playlist, and some trivial information here or there) it is as simple as a point and click. One guy now replaces a number of former DJs.