NBC’s online-only drama "Coastal Dreams" ~ more maxipads than you’ll ever see on actual TV
Today a new word has joined us here on earth: “padvertisement” (with the British pronunciation of course). It means “an advertisement for a product using video as the medium along with a badly disguised aura of entertainment.” NBC and Stayfree maxipads helped spawn this one with their new online-only show “Coastal Dreams.”
Being a guinea pig for all things paradise is never dull. Today’s experiment came in watching the first six “episodes” (2 - 3 minutes long each) of this new and terrible “TV” show, which just came out this month at NBC.com.
“Coastal Dreams” has a craftless plot with a lead character named Zoe Charles and her best friend Stacey who leave Texas after Zoe’s crazy ex-boyfriend (and son of a Senator) tries to kill her. They go to California to “stay free” for the summer at Zoe’s rich cousin’s beach house in the town of Pacific Shores.
Everywhere you look on the website you see Stayfree ads and the Stayfree butterfly logo — even as a bulleted design element on the NBC sections of the site itself. The logo is a beautiful little meadow specimen made up of two cup-shaped sanitary pads (see below). In the site’s background you have the smog-filled sunny sky and blue Pacific.
You can’t even start watching an “episode” until you’ve watched this Stayfree commercial in which a water tower breaks and she has to stop the enormous flow with some kung fu movie moves and a maxi. See:
You can’t make this stuff up! It shows before each and every episode (i.e., every 3 minutes if you are watching more than one).
Then, throughout the show, they have little Stayfree butterflies placed on objects inside the storyline, which starts with and moves beyond an actual package of Stayfree:
I think that every episode that I watched alluded to this sanitary pad butterfly in some not-so-subtle ways. But maybe you don’t really care because there is eye candy for both the girls and boys. For example, they don’t waste any time getting this guy’s shirt off:
They also don’t hesitate to surround him in Stayfree ads. They’re everywhere.
This character is named Christian played by Charlie Koznick. He’s the real-life Minnesota skier with a California “myNBC” page and a surfified New Hampshire state motto: “Surf free or die!”
Where is the authenticity in any of these people or places? This show is padvertising at its finest. Can this really be a valid business model?
Now how will I ever get these stupid little butterflies to stop spinning around my head?
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Posted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under Advertising, Butterflies, Commercials, Hollywood, Internet Advertising, Sea and Oceans |
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