You may have thought Internet marketers had every website and
online niche cornered already, but now Procter and Gamble have created
yet another way to catch you while you’re surfing.
The soap opera and soap moguls aim to wash Web 2.0 brains and
clothes. The company is now going to offer Crescent Heights, an
online sitcom/soap opera for your viewing pleasure.
The series is aimed at
young surfers and ring-tone freaks and is about a recent college
graduate
(Ashley) who moves from Cheesehead country to
LA.
The 3 minute episodes are packed with drama with occasional
and almost
subliminal Tide
appearances. I can just see a 4 car pileup in mid town with the drivers
still catching these segments as the cop writes the ticket.
Still, we
have to admire innovation even if it does come from dinosaur
mentalities and methods I guess.
Slippery When Wet
I tell you, these soap people are a slippery bunch (pun
intended)
when it comes to turning us into square box zombies. It was only a
matter of time before they devised a way to pack the cell phone with
even more brain numbing numbness.
According to Kevin Crociata, Tide’s
associate marketing director: “We want to speak to people about more
than just laundry.” I stumbled across this news in a NYT’s article by Bob
Tedeschi,
the story calls attention to the new wave of TV 1.0 metamorphosis into
our Web mediums.
According to Crociata the reaction so far has been
great and as a test reveals its influence purchasing
capabilities. Is that a slick way of saying: “You will buy soap?”
The Guiding Light
I had hoped I had escaped my Mom’s seemingly endless
regurgitation
of dramatic character interactions back in the 60’s – but evidently
there is no end to the chain of drama.
P&G started the soap
opera
disease back in 1955 (oddly the year I was born) with Guiding
Light
– TV’s longest running soap. Even back then subliminal or subtle
symbolism played a role as the “light” in the title refers to candles –
which made P&G a household word since 1837.
I guess the guiding
light for many traditional companies is simply to apply technology to
tried and true methods. Crescent Heights is being produced by GoTV Networks
for the die hard soap fans amongst you.
Soap 2015
I can’t help but conjure images of online TV series ripe with
shameless advertising gimmicks. Imagine Ashley looking down at her Apple iPhone and
seeing her boyfriend cheating on her via a friend’s podcast.
Then she
spills Maxwell House on her blouse from The Gap’s
online store and quickly dashes some Shout on the
stain and pours the Tide
in the Kenmore washer.
Meanwhile, the cell phone user has driven 3
miles at 60 MPH into the wrong neighbourhood – where some real drama
might take place. Technology has come a long way, but there is a ring
of “old world” in the melody of the mechanics.
I can almost see an army
of solar powered door to door salesmen lined up outside my eco-home
now. Cell phone soap operas! Cell phone soap operas, I think I am
already hooked – I used to like The Young and The Restless.
Phil Butler is a contributing author discussing the social networking world, his work can be found on Profy.com
