Tuesday, April 29, 2008

P&G wants you!

Procter & Gamble is conducting two phone polls, through the same number: (1(800) 331-3774). One asks about whether the company should continue to advertise on MTV and BET. This is in response to a number of complaints about the "inappropriate" content of music videos aired on these channels. The other is about the Luke and Noah ("Nuke") same sex romance playing out on P&G's As the World Turns these days. I've called twice now--yesterday P&G thanked me for my opinion and ended the call (you can press 1 for keep going with Nuke, 2 for ending the story). But in today's call I was informed that the information gathered in this poll will not determine story but will provide company executives with useful information. Guess they are anticipating major outcry no matter which direction they go.

The soapy blogosphere is all over this story, so I won't go into more detail here. But the old-fashioned nature of the phone-in poll strikes me as a bit odd--perhaps just a way to appease the protesters, making it look like P&G is addressing the matter as they proceed with a story that seems immensely popular with fans?

Update: Here's Ad Age's take on P&G's polls and their possible outcomes.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Reality bites

Light blogging of late, I know. But the above title popped into my head and I couldn't let it pass unused as a wrap-up of several points I've been meaning to make:

-- light on blogging = heavy on everything else. Real life is just too busy these days. Everyone bellyaches about late-in-the-semester crunch time, but gosh-darn-it, it's true.

-- Watching Bravo's Top Chef for the first time this season. I like, though it's no Project Runway. I think the biggest problem is the fact that we CAN'T TASTE THE FOOD. It's hard to have a strong opinion on the relative merits of the different contestants' creations when we can't taste them. Yet one can be as opinionated as one likes about the Runway fashions. Fascinated by the emerging tensions between those who cook all avant-garde and those without that sort of training/orientation. Having not watched before, I don't know if one approach tends to win out on this show, but I like the way these tensions about food and taste and cultural hierarchies inform so much of the contest.

-- I think David Cook is my new fave Idol. This is perhaps quite unoriginal, as the judges themselves have begun to fawn of late, but I don't watch this show in an effort to resist the mainstream. But I really wanted to mention the emotional gut-wrench of the tears and hugs these days at elimination time. The end of the elimination eps have been getting me all teary --it's like those speeches from the teams about how much they've learned about their relationships after the Amazing Race eliminations. Tear jerkers all!