February 11, 2010

Demographics Fool

The above is a terribly sized screen grab of something that is at least somewhat interesting; what I had expected to be a banner ad for Hubba Wheels turned out to be an ad for upcoming shows on Comedy Central. While Sarah Silverman is as hot or hotter than any Hubba Girl has ever been (and I really don't know who that other dude is in the ad), it was still a strange surprise and juxtaposition of Thrasher's badass and goats and P-Stone-ass reputation.

I'm not naive, and, for full disclosure, I do work for The Skateboard Mag, which doesn't take any non-skateboarding advertising dollars. I don't fault High Speed Productions; according to Plat Pal and now Madison Avenue ad guy, Neal Erickson, Thrasher is one of those coveted magazines that has a lock on the 18-35 male demographic. I don't fault Comedy Central or it's parent company Viacom; hell, they know how to enchant us (me and others) with the adventures of Snookie, The Situation and Co., but I just don't get how someone decided that that banner ad would look "right" on top of what is supposed to be the most core skateboarding magazine's website.

If Meza were to ask Phelps about the ad placement, I wouldn't expect Phelps to know who Sarah Silverman is, let alone, quite possibly, to know what Comedy Central is. Adderall and hellrides do take their toll. It's unfortunate that there is such a disconnect between High Speed Productions' direction and the "public" direction of Phelps, even if he is editor in chief only in name. I've grown to like the dude more and more over the years; he's an insufferable skate nerd/expert, and while all signs point to Burnett actually being the man in charge (read the comments), I just end up wondering who within High Speed decided this was a good idea.

All of this, of course, exists in a realm outside of the shitty economy, and thus, whatever keeps Thrasher going, is alright by us.

6 comments:

Jonathan Richman said...

Man, I have heard Jake Phelps drop the 'n' bomb a few too many times, not gonna lie, that is kind of fucking mega out of line.

Jonathan Richman said...

Also, he sounds soooooo fucking burnt, like, way more than usual!

eben said...

I guess as the ad director i'd be that dude. i don't really think of myself as deciding who can place an ad though. that is up to the advertisers. the only ads we've ever denied in the 16 years i've been doing this were the simon woodstock bf-ing rocco ad and a shorty's ad with a baby coming out of a cooch. oh, there was a gay personal someone wanted to run back when we did classifieds. woodstock skateboards got put out of business for the rocco ad by the way. it ran in big bro.

my opinion is to run things loose and wide open. if a corporate advertiser has the balls to place an ad next to our socially unacceptable editorial, more power to them. they grew some sack and deserve to be commended. the problem for me would be if we changed our harsh editorial to suit the tastes of mainstream advertisers.

the x games and dew tour are lame not because of corporate backing but because they don't show real skateboarding, the culture as much as the sport. if comedy central wants to support real skateboarding that is a good thing and doesn't diminish our efforts in the least. your thinking sounds very hippy 60's to me. all flowers and daisies and sensitive. we're fucking gangsta. don't be such a pussy.

platinumseagulls said...

I don't think somebody in the ad department at Comedy Central decided one day, "Hey, lets figure out how we can support skateboarding." More realistically, they saw the Thrasher media kit, and figured it would be a good advertising op. Nothing more, nothing less, no balls grown.

I do understand that its pretty dumb to whine about who advertises where, but the crux of what I was talking about was just how out of place it felt. Thanks for giving your two cents, no thanks for calling me a pussy.

Chips X said...

If I'm not mistaken the other guy, Dmitri Martin skates/skated, etc. That may have something to do with it. Eben, say hello to Adam C.

Namdev said...

I would much rather see Demetri Martin ads that have nothing to do with skateboarding than Hubba ads that have almost nothing to do with skateboarding besides making it clear that girls whose clothes haven't been removed have no place in skating. Though a Krooked ad is preferable to both.