{"id":7742,"date":"2007-03-05T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-05T13:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pharma-mkting.com\/pharma-marketing-sitcoms-as-brand\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T01:26:24","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T01:26:24","slug":"pharma-marketing-sitcoms-as-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/pharma-marketing-sitcoms-as-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharma Marketing Sitcoms as Brand Extensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>ABC said Friday it had ordered a pilot for a comedy, tentatively titled “Cavemen,” that features the characters used in a series of ads by Geico, the insurance company.<\/p>\n

You know the ads: “So simple a caveman can do it.”<\/p>\n

“We sell car insurance; we don’t make TV shows,” says Ted Ward, Geico’s vice president of marketing. He is obviously happy, however, to be given the opportunity to extend the brand: “We are excited to have an opportunity to do brand extension.” The advertising copywriter who helped create the cavemen ads is writing the pilot.(See “Why Advertising’s Cavemen Are Going Totally Hollyrock<\/a>“).<\/p>\n

Recently, we learned that at least one pharmaceutical company has created a “documentary” film to appear in theatres near you (see “No Oscar for Centocor PR Effort<\/a>“). So, it may not be too much of a stretch to envision TV sitcoms based on characters created for drug ads.<\/p>\n

Here’s a few project pitches for Drug Brand Extension Sitcoms that I hope CBS, Fox, or even HBO will “greenlight” and thereby make me rich.<\/p>\n

Scenario: In exchange for ripping up the paper IOUs of a few deadbeat Hollywood directors I whopped in Texas Hold’em, I was able to get an appointment with a few TV studio execs to pitch my ideas. The following is a transcript of a recent pitch I made to “Sidney Greenlight,” an executive at a TV studio to remain nameless.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mack: Sidney, thanks for your time, which I won’t waste with small talk. My idea is a sitcom featuring Abraham Lincoln and a beaver. I call it “Abe and the Beav,” you know, sounds kind of like “the beav” from “Father Knows Best,” so it’s got that old-time homey appeal, right?<\/p>\n

Sid: Hmm… sounds good. But I don’t know about the beaver. Too sexual.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mack: Yeah, right! Let’s lose the beaver. In fact, forget Abe also — too Republican, right? Here’s another idea — a bee with a French accent that’s always bothering people around the home when they are doing chores or playing frisbee — get it? Bee, frisBEE? Uhm…anyway, I think the French are back in favor, don’t you think so?<\/p>\n

Sid: I can’t relate to no f**king insect!<\/p>\n

Mack: Sure, sure, I get what you’re saying. How about this? A moth! No,no, that’s another insect, right? But it doesn’t sting, does it? That makes it OK. See, the moth flits from house to house at night and there’s a story in each house — kind of a “24” thing — each year’s episodes represent one night in the life of the moth — they only live one night, right? I think I’m right about that — flitting from house to house, kind of a Desperate Housewives subplot going on. You know, the moth finds women in bed at each house?<\/p>\n

Sid: Too late night. We need family stuff!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mack: Yeah, yeah, late night sitcoms are not doing too well — “Lucky Louie” sucks, right? How about this — I call it “Pipe People of Paradise.” Kind of a “Robots” movie knockoff, know what I’m saying? They’re cute, not scary, and they like bird watching and they always have to take a leak! No, they’re always afraid of leaking! That’s it. What do you think?<\/p>\n

Sid: Mack, I don’t know where you come up with these characters and ideas! You must be nuts! Get the hell out of my office!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABC said Friday it had ordered a pilot for a comedy, tentatively titled “Cavemen,” that features the characters used in a series of ads by Geico, the insurance company. You know the ads: “So simple a caveman can do it.” “We sell car insurance; we don’t make TV shows,” says Ted Ward, Geico’s vice president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[354,86,1183],"topic":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPharma Marketing Sitcoms as Brand Extensions - Pharma Marketing Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/ec2-54-175-84-28.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/pharma-mkting.com\/blog\/pharma-marketing-sitcoms-as-brand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pharma Marketing Sitcoms as Brand Extensions - Pharma Marketing Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ABC said Friday it had ordered a pilot for a comedy, tentatively titled “Cavemen,” that features the characters used in a series of ads by Geico, the insurance company. 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