At the risk of this turning into a commercial-critiquing blog, I've got another doozy. It's important to note, though, that this is not a political commercial. Also, Jeff Crank lost the primary. I won't be mentioning him again.
So I'm watching the finale of Last Comic Standing last night (Josh Blue REALLY didn't impress me, surprisingly) when this commercial comes on for the local news. Come to think of it, there were dozens of commercials for the news, maybe their sales department is slacking too much. Anyhow, in the middle of the ad they used a word that blew my mind. They both said it and put it in print up on the screen.
HYPER-LOCAL.
As in "our coverage is hyper-local". I firmly believe that they need to fire their word guy. I can just see him sitting in his office, holding the memo from the higher-ups asking for a new word to depict just how amazingly local their coverage is. He's brainstorming out loud, going through a list like,
"Superlocal? No, too obvious. Uber-local? Too German. Local to tha maxx? Too hip. I've got it! Hyper-local!!!"
What exactly does this term mean? Am I going to see a report on the news something along the lines of, "The super fixed the hot tub for the fourth time this year at the XYZ apartment complex. Management says electric prices are to blame. And another domestic disturbance broke out between Billy Stationwagon and his live-in girlfriend Cindi Missingtooth. Police were on the scene and were able to resolve the conflict, but neighbors predict the tenuous peace won't last two weeks." Now THAT'S hyper-local. But as this is a big city, how long are they going to make the newscasts?
In the same commercial, they were harping on how when news happens, they react, not overreact. Baloney. The whole news industry is built on overreacting to scare people into continuing to watch the news. And they're saying, "that's everyone else, not us." Okay. But I think it would be refreshing to see a station embrace their overreaction. Sending reporters out on location to just run around like maniacs in front of the camera and eventually fall over. It would be great. Honesty and commitment like that would definitely garner my attention.
In other unrelated news, it's a great day to be a Twins fan. Paul, there's still plenty of room on the bandwagon. It's World Series or bust.
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