Entertainment PR Blog by AMP3

I don’t really expect commercials or skits of much substance to come on while I’m watching Fox NFL Sunday or Monday Night Football – maybe nonsensical and silly humor made by the football pundits (who, lets face it, aren’t really funny to begin with), of which I usually don’t mind. However, there was one skit that definitely didn’t make me laugh, but rather cringe in disgust.

During the pre-game coverage of the Dallas Cowboys – Kansas City Chiefs match on Sunday, Fox NFL Sunday and Burger King showed a rather tasteless skit that featured Dallas Cowboys players Jason Whitten and Marion Barber along with and the Cowboys’ coach, Wade Phillips in the locker room taking cheap shots at quarterback Tony Romo and his weak performance on the field lately. Except, all of the rips and insults had nothing to do with Romo, but rather about his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Simpson and her supposed weight gain.

I can see how some people would find this funny. After all, the target demographic of 18-34 year old men who are tuning in for football are going to have a fratastic sense of humor. But the bigger hilarity in this is not only the irony that Simpson’s weight is in much better shape than the majority of American women (and not to mention, most of Americans themselves), but the fact that a fast food chain like Burger King would even dare make weight jokes in a skit that is sponsored by them. Isn’t that a huge oxymoron? That’s not even funny – that’s just plain dumb.

You can watch a shaky version of the video on YouTube: Fox NFL Sunday/Burger King skit.

- Sabina for AMP3 Public Relations

While I am probably one of the few humans in America who didn’t find her eyes glued to the TV set when “Jon and Kate plus 8″ was on, I’ll admit I was quite interested in the drama off the set when it was announced that Jon and Kate Gosselin were divorcing, halting the production of the show and putting the last season on a hiatus. Sounds like a PR nightmare for TLC, right?

Not exactly. Jon and Kate were splashed across tabloids for months, lashing out at each other – Jon saying Kate is a super-control freak, Kate ripping on Jon’s playboy behavior. Kate came on talk shows like The View and Jon came on morning shows to discuss the divorce. Anything and everything about them was covered, and the public loved being fed it. So in retrospect, not exactly bad in terms of PR, even though it wasn’t necessarily considered “positive.”

Now, TLC is ready to bring the show back, but not without some major restructuring on the show’s premise and the dismissal of one of the major stars, thus changing the title of the show. The new show title? Simply, “Kate Plus 8.”

Yes, TLC kicked Jon to the curb (rightfully so) – I’m guessing because he hasn’t exactly projected “dad material” with his partying and womanizing ways. TLC says that the name is to reflect on the divorce of Jon and Kate, as well as to highlight Kate as a single mother raising her 8 young children. Props to you Kate for not ripping your hair out (yet). 

But fear not Team Jon fans (what, like all 5 of you?) – Jon will be guest starring on the show throughout the season when he comes to spend time with the kids. 

Will people still watch it? It could go either way. The whole debacle could reel in curious viewers about how the show is going to pan out. Now, they could either stick with it or they could just tune in for a few episodes and slowly forget about it. Ratings and time will only tell. 

The thing about entertainment PR is that you have to be able to fix something that’s broken – and in some cases, that involves rebranding and restructuring to produce an improved product. Here, we had a painful divorce that unraveled in front of millions and completely shattered the ultimate premise of the show. TLC was smart not to bring down the axe right away, but instead took sometime to sit down and re-evaluate how they were going they were going to make their highest-rated show still stay on the air and make it work. 

- Sabina for AMP3 Public Relations