PBS has gotten very creative with their marketing efforts to celebrate their 50th anniversary. Last month, they started a campaign by placing parody ads all over New York City Subways.
This brilliant move took a publicly-funded swipe at Bravo, TLC, and the general state of television today.
Today, PBS came out with part-two of their TV salvaging salvo, a bunch of fake trailers for fake Reality TV shows. More from The Wrap:
New York’s PBS station thinks reality shows have had enough time in the sun.
WNET has rolled out three parodies of overbaked reality shows for its latest ad campaign, including one for a whole family of tanners.
The ads are designed to initially trick viewers into thinking the shows are real. WNET, also known as Thirteen, previously rolled out subway ads for fake shows including “Married to a Mime.”
Each ad, created by the agency CHI & Partners, contains the message, “The fact that you thought this was a real show says a lot about the state of TV.” Thirteen is trying to make the point that it is one of the last outlets left for quality, educational television. And since they’re public television ads, they also include a link for viewers to donate.
“We’ve been experimenting with humor as a way to cultivate new viewers and donors,” said WNET president Neal Shapiro. “And these spots are really fun.”
PBS using humor as a way to not only advertise for their own cause, but to slam the crap TV that has taken over cable the past decade is a definite win for the good guys.
Kudos, PBS.
