For those of you fortunate enough to have not worked in the media, entertainment, or business fields, there's a nasty little idea called "branding" that executives get all hot and bothered over. Basically, branding is a way for companies to define themselves (think Sci-Fi's shift to SyFy) -- much like your self-professed "cool uncle" will say he's "down with" this or that.
Occasionally, networks will gather their biggest stars to film ensemble promos, with the intent of helping brand the company. They don't always achieve the results they're going for. SyFy's "House of Imagination" implied that nerds are no longer allowed in their club, and featured the network's stars parading around a trippy house that doubled as the world's coolest party. ABC crammed its stars into the "ABC House," which featured Matthew Fox and Teri Hatcher spouting off awkward lines that were scripted by marketing dunces. These are silly and harmless examples that viewers can chuckle off, but the latest network promo is one huge ball of WTF?
Fox has gathered some of its big names (via clips from various episodes) to participate in a branding promo, and instead of placing it in a house or at a party, the network chose... a strip club. Created by Fox "Redband" (meaning it's naughty!), the "Welcome to the Club" video features House's Hugh Laurie, Olivia Wilde, and Omar Epps; Bones' David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel; and Fringe's Anna Torv, among others. Also, it makes absolutely no sense.
It's hard to say what Fox was going for with this, but if they were going for "What the hell did I just watch?!" they nailed it!
Oh, just watch the video for yourself... I'm so confused.
Looks like they were going for Grindhouse... I seem to recall them going for Grindhouse on their Friday promo at one point to must be the same creative exec behind this one. Does anyone else remember the promos they had for Sara Conner Chronicles and Doll House on friday nights? To e clear when I say that they're going for Grindhouse, I mean that they're aiming to replicate the double feature movie Grindhouse which in and of itself was aiming to replicate the Grindhouse experience of old arthouse movies. You can see it in the intentional film grains they have at the beginning of the clip. In particular they seem to be aiming for that movie cause there's a strip club scene right near the beginning of its first film Planet Terror I think is what its called. You know the one directed by Robert Rodriguez. Rent it if you haven't seen it the music was good I think it was also composed by Robert Rodriguez.iDowdit was anything else that they were going for.moreless
Um... what time is this ad shown?
nice
i dont watch these shows but...thas pretty clever if this i all from diff shows...but yea..is this a reg. Fox promo or is there a Fox Red Band channel?
This is a combination of clips from the shows. You must not watch any of these shows. I don't know where they are taking them but wait yes I do know. They are using hot scenes from these shows and trying to get a new audience for these shows. More people watching never hurts good shows.
If you don't understand it I assume you haven't seen all the episodes of the shows. I kind of like how it made it seems like they were all in the same bar, even if it was fairly tasteless sex does sell. Seemed more like someone's fanvideo though rather than a Fox promo though. Eliza Dushku from "Dollhouse" was in there as well.
this is.. wrong. just wrong... O_O
WTF???!!!
I agree. Definitely WTF worthy.
Does anyone else miss when the WB did these kind of promos back in the mid to late 90s? Those promos will always be the best ever. God, I miss those promos.
It is odd. Though I did remember all of the scenes and when they were. It just leaves me indifferent.
I think the problem is just that it raises such a WTF? attitude. The grindhousey promos for Dollhouse/Terminator worked wonderfully and despite trying to work a similar "sex sells" angle came across as fun and cool rather than cheap and desperate. Kinda like the differences between 70s exploitation and strip clubs in general.
What episode of Fringe did Anna Torv make out with a stripper?! And what was I doing that was more important than WATCHING THAT?!I am gonna have to remember that...
Never have I ever seen something so tasteless before. Another network to add on my list of huge sellouts. It has accumulated to Fox, The CW, Cartoon Network, Disney, VH1, MTV, & MTV2.
Also Rap pretty much is killing the music industry.
Then there's Twilight + Twilight 2 making every girl scream in delight at the names of each character.
Tsk. What a generation we have.
They should have made it more general perhaps for those that don't watch all of the shows.
If its just a promo for House I do get it. There was a dream sequence in one episode where House was imagining Cutty stripping for him. But if its just a general Fox promo then it doesn't make a lot of sense. Although very cool tho'. I like the flaming drinks. Its way cool or hot, its all-temperature promo. And TyRok22, they're not saying anything's 'wrong' with it, just that it makes no sense.
Yeah... I didn't get it either...
I don't see what's wrong with it...I thought it was a pretty slick promo :D
liked the flaming glasses at the beginning but I remember most of the clips so it was kind a bad their. Not as weird as the carousel in SyFy.
i like itand yeah im a guy
Obviously, all of the clips are from the shows, various seasons used. It is a WTF, sort of. I assume they are after the male demographic with this video. House and Bones probably have a higher female demographic. Some ad exec probably shot his mouth off and said something about the shows not having enough male viewers. It's a bad promo, but nothing to get excited about. And the flaming tower of shots that House lit, was pretty darn neat. :)
I would've preferred that all the cast stars actually be in the same strip club. But all they've done is take clips from different episodes.
its bad enough they have that lie to me and house comercial where they just chopped some ep clips and put them together it looks like crap.
that channel just needs to die
they're right. my only reaction to this is:W, T, F.
They're going for sex sells? You know, that thing that TV stations do ALOT.
Bizarre. I guess you had to be there........
Wow. That was weird. This looks more like a documentary on the Fox's Fall season after party.
Welcome to the Player's Club!!!
Definitely a strange promotion in comparison to the other two.
@champson1, i have seen all the episodes they showed in the video. It's a cool video, nothing weird about.
Well, if the point of it was to catch our attention, they certainly succeeded.
I have to agree with Badfluffy, HBO has the best shows of the moment, althoug FOX has 2 or 3 very interesting as well.
Trying to be HBO? Obviously everyone is falling for their trick... nothing happens or will ever happen in these shows that is even remotely sexual! They don't want to be HBO, that would mean making quality tv, they just want HBO's buzz and here you give it to them!
this was in fact the worst ever commercial for anything i ever seen. they just lump scenes together...the one that HBO did for their sunday nights was so much better. search for 'Stay Home Promo' on you tube if you guys are interested and fans of HBO current shows...Fox needs to do better man...can't Fox get the actors to do a genuine promo? House and Brennen reasoning with each other will be hellish fun!
obviously they are going for viral and you bet it's going to work! Also unsurprisingly it's an effort to inject sex in shows that are absolutely devoid of sexual elements or eroticism...
Really... the guy who thought of this has got to be completely nuts o_O
Weirdest commercial ever....
Nice... Especially Lisa Edelstein stripping.:D
that was wierd! :S
Also, reading the comments...people, these are obvious clips from the shows and not some weird strip club "what about the children" Fox thing. Don't comment if you don't watch the shows and can't recognize the clips. Oh wait, you're going to anyways.
"clips" is what I mean. Freudian slip hahah :o)
looks to me like it's just the mashup of all the various strip clubs strips from the shows. what exactly is so hard to figure out?
So what were they trying to plug? And why was that song so annoying?
I Liked it, Fair to say it would not probably bee aired during the mid day. Its bold, nothing we didn't see before (just watch all previous seasons of the shows) and maybe on of the best show pullers this year. With SyFy it was mainly directed to the network itself. With this for promo you can see witch shows their hoping for. Fox this time I must say you nailed it.
Uuhhh What the.. interesting I suppose.
wow...wtf
You see, this is why CBS has the number one show right now. As for Sci Fi, I don't classify myself as a nerd but they have pretty much ruined the network with crap like Sanctuary, any of the reality, Warehouse 13 and everything else they come up with.
They couldn't ~actually get them all together for real? Instead of clips?Remember those old WB promos when they got all their stars together? Now, that was good.