Digging glee. Not the marketing

A story that I recently posted on Digg was an article I found in Macleans called “Not much Glee over these slushies”. It caught my eye because it is about the hit show glee (which I watch) and their recent “slushie” marketing campaign.

If you don’t know anything about glee, it surrounds a bunch of American high school students who are part of “glee club”, a sort of show choir. It would be a pretty typical PG sitcom, except for all the singing (and dancing) the characters (and family, and staff, and guest stars) do. Which they make sure to include whenever possible. Even if it doesn’t really fit with the plot of the episode.

I started watching Glee sometime during the first season, at my friend’s recommendation. Sure it’s pretty cheesy sometimes, and yea, the plot lines aren’t very consistent, but its fun. It’s usually a good laugh and you know each episode will have some pretty catchy songs, remixes or mash-ups (my favourite).

The reason I wanted to share this article is because it is talking about the strange (if you watch the show) way glee is being promoted and the author brought up some interesting points. Glee is just coming back now after the recent winter break and last Sunday there was a special episode that aired right after the Superbowl. Of course they were promoting it like crazy.

The Macleans article used a photo from the recent campaign, which shows all the main characters throwing slushies at the camera. See below.

Cast of glee, slushie-ing

Side note, did any other glee fans notice that this shot is so airbrushed that they somehow managed to make Corey Monteith’s character (center) look like he could actually be in highschool? He's really 28.

The campaign includes magazine ads, cover shots, billboards, you name it.

Sure, it looks fun, with all the characters laughing and making funny faces while throwing the colourful drinks around, but this is much different than what actually happens in the show. During the show (and what Macleans describes in their article) being slushied is not fun. Obviously. It is done to the kids in glee as a form of bulling (because only “losers” are part of glee, although some of them – like the cheerleaders and football players would be popular otherwise) by the highschool jocks, usually football players. It is humiliating, and god knows if those stains will ever wash out.

In the show, being “slushied” looks more like this. Eek.

But so what, right? Advertising is rarely accurate interpretations of reality, as Dove showed in their great “Evolution” commercial. So why does the advertising of a TV show need to match what actually happens in said show? 

Well what the Macleans article talks about is that while the show has been praised for its stand against gay-bashing and “the daily high school realities of bullying, discrimination and ignorance”, this show might be actually been promoting "slushie-ing". They reference an instance where bullies in a Toronto highschool actually used this technique, and they might have even gotten the idea from the show. Ouch.

The article argues the age old issue of whether people imitate what they see on television. I say sure they do. As far as the show goes, the bullies are very rarely punished for what they do (one of the gay characters, Kurt, was even bullied so badly he decided to leave the school) and since it always gets laughs on the show, I could see other teenagers in the real world doing it as well. (Hopefully with more consequences.)

So then why would the ads show that slushing is cool, if its not cool in the show, or in real life? I think this is a case where the marketing team is very disconnected from their product. The promotions are trying to make glee seem fun and carefree and with colourful images of young people joking around and having a good time, who wouldn't want to watch the show? 

Yay slushies, right?


Well maybe this makes sense, until you actually watch the show. Sure, on the surface it’s about young people singing, and dancing, (and having fun while doing so) but on another level they are all dealing with problems that many teenagers have, being popular and fitting in, and what happens when you don’t. I wouldn’t say the show necessarily “takes a stand” against any big issues but it does try to bring to light the serious issues of homophobia and sexism (among others), and tell young people “it’s ok to be different”.That's certainly no where to be seen in this marketing campaign. Do they think that won't attract viewers?

So are these silly promotions actually working? Should they be? I haven't seen the ratings for the Superbowl episode yet, but I'm sure if they did gain audience its because of left over fans of the football game or just the die hard fans who have been following the show all along, and were excited to see their first episode back. Or hey, maybe people did tune in just to see what the whole slushie-ing thing is all about. Did you?

Cast of glee standing in slushies. Ridiculous :P

See the original Macleans article here.

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*Update - According to preliminary data released by BBM Canada, the special Superbowl glee episode that aired on Global was the 9th most watched show of the week (Jan.31st-Feb.6th) with an Average Minute Audience of 2,161,000 people 2+. It had an impressive Share % of 23.6. 

This glee episode rated way above Flashpoint, which aired on CTV at the same time, and had an AMA of  1,317,000 (ranking it #25 of the week). You can check out the other ratings of the week here.

The Superbowl had an AMA of 6,537,000 in case you were interested. :)