Boxcutters » advertising

The Pointlessness of Tweeting at the TV.

Glenn Peters — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:27:29 +0000

One of the most annoying things about living in a sharehouse was trying to sit through the television news with my tedious housemates. How much fun it was to hear their very considered commentary about “the media this, the conspiracy that, I was reading in Pilger’s blah blah the other day…” Manufacturing consent? Here’s some consent. It’s Monday. I’ll let you take this $4.50 and go watch that Polish agridrama at the Nova. I need quiet couch time to watch Married With Children*.

Years later, and the Smug People of the Land Of Smug and their idiot cousins have broken into my lounge room through their twitter accounts.

TV shows are encouraging it. Watch this. If your job title has the any of the words “digital”, “social media” and “interactive” in it, you might want to apply some of this wonderful stuff after looking at those links so you can concentrate on the rest of this article.

But who really cares what @frogface78 has to say about The Block‘s Josh & Jenna’s performance on Millionaire Hotseat? And as far as we at Boxcutters know, you don’t get a Season’s Pass to the Canberra Press Gallery just because Q&A printed your Oscar Wilde-like witticism on the screen about Penny Wong’s supreme debating skillz. No matter how smartly you tweet, you’ll never be as famous as Jeff Jansz.

Nope, nobody cares. Not even the three or four people who retweeted you.

It’s just a ploy by the marketers behind the shows to make you feel like you’re a loving part of their terrible product. And hopefully while you’re feeling loved by their terrible product, you’re more likely to swallow another hour of their terrible product the same bat-time, same bat-channel, tomorrow. Why would I know this? Because I work in advertising. It’s what we plot in our offices almost everyday. Not that we know what we’re doing or exactly why we’re doing it, but the going wisdom is that we need more @frogface78s talking about our terrible products. It makes us money.

Which brings me to this funny little thing that happened this time last year at the footy… (Yes, every thought I ever have brings me to something that happened at the footy. Deal with it.) This time last year, I was talking to the CEO of an AFL club at his corporate lunch. He was proudly telling me about a brand new thing where supporters like @frogface78 can get their tweets shown on the big scoreboard during the game. The conversation went something like this.

CEO: “Twitter during the game can bring fans closer to the game and their fellow supporters. It’s interactive!”

Me: “Isn’t yelling HOLDING THE BALL YOU WHITE MAGGOT SCUM with 70,000 other like-minded fans interactive enough?”

This Twitter at the footy thing lasted one more week, only to be replaced by more betting ads.

I just fell asleep while I was typing that slightly endearing anecdote. And I had a dream. And the dream was set in the 1980s. After school. I was tweeting. Here’s the seven tweets that were selected by the station producers to be put up there on the screen.

They’re so gonna do it!! #purrrrfectmatch
Here’s an idea Professor. Build a boat. #gilligansisland
Marcia, Marcia, Hell yeah! #pickofthebradybunch
Johnno & Danno have the coolest jobs eva! #wavelength
I’ve never seen so many logs. #beachcombers
Is that Bud Tingwell in Catweazle? #deadsetlegend
This show never lives up to the theme tune. #nannyandtheprofessor

So have I convinced you to put the computer down and give your television the respect and undivided attention it deserves? Probably not. Have I given you enough argument holes to tweet or point out in the comments box below? Definitely have. Will I, even though I’ve written over 600 words against the idea of tweeting at the TV, stop tweeting at the TV? Of course not.

I’m as sucked in as you are.

* I know. Married With Children was on Tuesday nights.

Ep 217: Quentin Crisp telemovie, BBC changes

Josh Kinal — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:40:26 +0000

In Things You May Have Missed, John introduces us to An Englishman in New York, the continuation of the story of Quentin Crisp. We discuss the changes going ahead at the BBC and also look at whether or not the Golden Age of Television has now passed.

If you have questions about the state of television, let us know by email or on the SMS-gift-deposit at 0458 288 837 (0458 CUTTER)

Twitter users: Follow us!
Josh is @sealfur
Brett is @bbox
and Boxcutters as a whole is @boxcutterscast

For some more information about the BBC’s digital channel cost-cutting, see these items:

BBC faces strike threat over job losses from the Belfast Telegraph

; and

BBC slashes Web budget from IT World.

We mentioned that Shaun Brown is still unhappy about the funding situation at SBS.

Also, you might be interested in seeing the full list of Logie nominations for 2010, but you probably won’t be.

Maybe you’re trying to find our list of shows in the Golden Age of Television.

Ep 188: Human Giant, Pink and Penguins

Josh Kinal — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:21:42 +0000

This week was a total mess but we did manage to talk about Human Giant, not buy Optus ads and read out some wonderful letters.

Enjoy the chaos:

Don’t forget that you can buy Human Giant – The Complete First Season from the Boxcutters Store.

If you want to get more of a taste, check out some embedded action after the jump.

Human Giant: Job Interview

Human Giant: Mother Son Moving Co.

Human Giant: Catching a Predator

SBSTWO launches tonight

Josh Kinal — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:03:39 +0000

SBSTWO launches tonight. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the promo they’ve been running:

At least they’re not lying about what it’s going to be. More of the same. How does a television network that is already supposed to be fulfilling a special need, provide more specialised content?
Considering the recent criticism of SBS’s new direction, perhaps SBSTWO will be the channel we all expected SBS 1 to be.

Freeview launches new campaign: More for free but at what cost?

Josh Kinal — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:20:41 +0000

We’ll be discussing this new Freeview ad on this week’s Boxcutters. It launched last night. Watching it is all the homework you need to do this week.

Ep 177: Alexandra Tynan, Gloria Jeans and Ingham Chicken Ads, Ladette Quotes

Josh Kinal — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:05:52 +0000

This week, Alexandra Tynan, the designer of the Cybermen, joins us in the studio to talk about costume design and creating a science fiction icon. Also, we have a couple of I Don’ts Buys Its sent in by listeners (see the clips below).

There’s some great Doctor Who stuff available at Amazon UK:

Remember that every time you make a purchase through the Boxcutters site, you help Boxcutters survive.

Also, check out our US-based store for some excellent TV recommendations.