Discovery Channel - PRNewser

Ask NASA About the End of the World This Afternoon

Patrick Coffee — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:47:08 +0000

Even if you do happen to be one of those fortunate few who live under a large rock, we have no doubt that you’ve still heard some of the eschatological nonsense about The Mayans and December 21, 2012, aka “122112″: the cosmic forces of good and evil will throw down, the brown dwarf planet Nibiru will destroy the Earth, Menudo will get back together, etc.

It’s all funny in a sad sort of way–and we have no doubt that it’s already inspired a few low-budget Discovery Channel documentaries. But the highfalutin “scientists” at NASA take all things related to The End of the World very seriously–and they want you all to know that it will be OK.

(Of course they would say that…)

Anyway, NASA clearly believes that it has a responsibility to inform the impressionable public and avoid the risk of wide-scale Doomsday freakouts, so two weeks ago the organization launched a modest PR campaign designed to debunk all the sourceless rumors and keep the holiday shopping season moving along as planned in accordance with the wishes of our faceless corporate overlords.

Cash-strapped NASA doesn’t have the time or money to produce anything like a fancy TV ad (we kid, we kid), but the sci-fi nerds who obviously run the organization did find the time to create a couple of web pages addressing the most frequently asked 2012 questions and allowing a supposed “astrobiologist” to write a bunch of TL;DR answers on the very same topics.

That’s not all, though: things are about to get real at 2 PM today.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Party Affiliation Affects Brand Preference (Ugh)

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 13:09:58 +0000

Today in Almost Certainly Meaningless News: Many Americans consider their political affiliations to be a private matter and prefer not to discuss related issues at family gatherings in order to avoid fistfights; most would almost certainly insist that party affiliation has nothing to do with the products they buy.

But a recent survey by the respectable YouGov Brand Index indicates that political leanings and brand preference are at least somehow related:

The top ten most favored brands for:

Democrats	Republicans	Independents
Google	Fox News	Amazon
Amazon	History Channel	Craftsman
Cheerios	Craftsman	History Channel
Clorox	Chick-fil-A	Discovery Channel
Craftsman	Johnson & Johnson	Google
Dawn	Lowe’s	Clorox
M&M’s	Cheerios	Lowe’s
Levi’s	Clorox	Johnson & Johnson
PBS	FOX	Cheerios
Sony	Discovery Channel	M&M’s

Some of these “revelations” are so obvious as to be annoying: Lots of registered Republicans watch Fox News, and lots of registered Democrats listen to NPR. Next you’ll tell us that most registered Republicans prefer Mitt Romney to Barack Obama!

Most of the list is just confusing.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Shark Week Takes a Big Bite out of Social TV

Elizabeth S. Mitchell — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:44:18 +0000

According to AdAge, Discovery Channel execs first conceived of their big-name summer staple “Shark Week” during a hotel room brainstorming session way back in 1987, when cable was still new and the channel itself was only two years old. Desperate to attract viewers, they noticed that shark-related programming always precipitated a ratings jump. In a moment of inspiration, former executive Steve Cheskin reportedly blurted out “shark week”, leading founder John Hendricks to respond with a smile and a eureka-like “that’s it!”

Now, a quarter of a century and a generation of shark enthusiasts later, “Shark Week” is cable’s longest-running promotion; it has consistently attracted more than 20 million viewers since 2003. Even more impressive is AdAge‘s report 35% of all cable social-TV activity recorded during “Shark Week” this year was directly related to “Shark Week” programs. This trend may have something to do with the fact that the programming attracts fairly young, tech-savvy viewers: Scott Felenstein, senior VP-ad sales at Discovery Channel, told AdAge that the average “Shark Week” viewer is 31 years old, roughly 8 years younger than Discovery’s usual audience, making it a hot topic on social media and a potential goldmine for advertisers.

“For Discovery, it’s the Super Bowl,” said Felenstein.

Check out the Trendrr graphic below for a fabulously colorful and shark-infested depiction of this year’s “Shark Week” cable social-TV activity: continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

VW Beetle, Meet Great White Shark

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:34:56 +0000

The Discovery Channel and Volkswagen got creative this year to promote the 25th anniversary of the ever-popular “Shark Week“: They enlisted engineers to create a framework model of the famous VW Beetle that doubles as a shark cage, allowing divers to literally drive along the ocean floor and check out the great white action above (while keeping an eye out for those pesky bottomless crevasses).

This unique meeting of a classic car and America’s favorite saltwater predator has been in the works for a while, with Discovery gradually releasing a series of teaser shorts. But the first official video is worth a glance:

Looks like another win for Deutsch LA, an agency that can seemingly do no wrong.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Article About Swag Shows that Swag Kind of Works

Tonya Garcia — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:05:03 +0000

We here at Mediabistro opened The New York Times today and saw something very familiar — a fire engine red stiletto pump. One that is exactly the same as the two at left, currently resting on the desk of our TVNewser/TVSpy blogger Merrill Knox. The one on the left is a size 9 and on the right, a size 7. But the fact that we have two gives us the one up on The NYT.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.