« Naked, shotgun-wielding chick not included | Main | You'll need 3-D glasses for Super Bowl XLIII »

My kingdom for a decent TV viral campaign

Kings

NBC follows the lead of HBO and Showtime in putting forth yet another TV campaign that blurs the line between reality and the fictional world of a show. A campaign for Kings, a drama that tells a modern-day version of the Biblical story of David, has been flitting its symbolic butterfly wings around the holiday advertising. Fliers around New York and L.A. proclaim, "Post no bills by order of the king" (first thought: the Burger King?), and online teasers from the king lead you to the fake news Web site of the kingdom: UNN Reports. Nice concept, horrendous follow-through. Those who make it to the Web site have almost nothing to explore. Amid a host of links that don't work, there are only two stories to read. Apparently, the kingdom of Gilboa is as boring as Nascar without any crashes. Or maybe they put all the money for the news network into the development of a two-minute trailer whose overblown dramatic tone is at odds with the glibness of the ad copy. Are there no decent ad agencies in the whole kingdom of Gilboa?

—Posted by Rebecca Cullers

January 6, 2009 in Cullers, NBC | Permalink

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Hey Tim and Rebecca -- have you guys seen Disney's spots for Hero Rising? The campaign isn't fully baked yet, but they're taking a similarly theatrical approach to promoting their new TV series "Aaron Stone."

Posted by: Scott Hepburn | Jan 6, 2009 12:00:08 PM

Post a comment





The opinions expressed in comments are those of the individual poster. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Adweek or Nielsen Business Media. Comments of a promotional nature or comments that are otherwise inappropriate may be removed.

 
© 2009 Nielsen Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.