Ads are getting odd. TV tie-ins are no new thing for ads – you can look back more than 50 years and find them – but these are generally designed to promote just the products using the influence of the TV shows.
Now we have a Dr Pepper ad featuring the character of Dr Spaceman (played by Chris Parnell, who also voices Cyril on Archer) from 30 Rock that’s promoting both the show and Dr Pepper. That’s just confusing.
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
