F ake reality television makes for great advertising
Images via Gawker
In the wake of reality stars like Honey Boo Boo, or the 28th season of The Real World, new shows like Knitting Wars or Married to a Mime might not come as much of a shock. But here’s the kicker – both of these shows are fake. In a rather inspired campaign, a PBS affiliate created five New York City subway posters for fake reality shows with the tagline, “The fact that you thought this was a real show says a lot about the state of TV.”
It’s a brilliant ad campaign that wraps a wake-up call into its call-to-action, and brings to mind some of the better April Fools marketing gags of the past.
As testament to the message of the ad campaign, we came up with a few of our own faux titles; how about Say Yes to the Worst Four Hoarding Housewives? Or Garbage Men? That’s got to exist out there, somewhere. Rattlesnake Republic? Hang on, that one’s definitely real.
Who knows, in two hundred years perhaps our descendants will be crowded around the holo screens watching Toddlers & Tiaras in Space. Still, as long as there are ad campaigns like this around at the same time, we can’t say we’d be too displeased.