The Real American Idol Brand Killer
Everyone is talking about Sanjaya Malakar these days, the less-than-talented American Idol contestant who is now its most famous participant ever. And now I’m going to talk about it too. After all, how often do you have link bait like American Idol or Sanjaya Malakar plop into your lap like that? If Paris Hilton ever does commercials for the Wii, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get a couple thousand Diggs out of it.
The short version is this: Sanjaya is not what has put Fox’s biggest show at risk. Fox is the one responsible, for neglecting to understand the power of a disgruntled public.
Everyone knows how this show works, so I won’t bother going into the details. All of this hinges on is the show’s premise that callers decide the show’s outcome though telephone voting. Presumably, the show will always abide by the results.
As a result, they have given the reigns of their own product to the public, which includes all of us who have had enough of the show. And that is where things get really interesting.
Sanjaya Malakar is the equivalent of the negative blog comment for Fox Television. They have openly said, “let the people decide,” and in a brilliant, noble revolt, the people decided to hijack American Idol. Now Fox will have to either breach their own rules, or withstand the humiliation of having this tuneless kid be, “our next American Idol.”
And yes, Fox is getting a ton of exposure over this. It is doubtful their advertising rates are hurting for the moment. If Sanjaya does win, however, the end result of all of this will not be, “Wow! What an exciting season of American Idol that was!” It will be that the country rejected the show by picking the worst possible singer as the winner - just to make people angry.
There is an important lesson to be learned here. And it is a lesson that would not have been necessary five or ten years ago. Today, companies have blogs where the public can post comments, even negative ones. Product pages often have customer reviews, and if the product in question ever failed, the person it failed on will be complaining publicly about it. The same can be true of negative comments on a Myspace page, or a Linkedin account, or any of the several Web 2.0 products available to enterprise.
I say it often: Any press is not good press. Good press is good press. What American Idol has on its hands is not good press, but the threat of being forever remembered as the show that was destroyed by a public that could take no more pop music.Okay, so maybe that does make it good.
Well, good for us, not them. :)
See also: Sony, Blogging, and Shame
April 9th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
That’s the problem with the “wisdom of crowds,” really. They’re great at separating the average from the really bad, but not always at discovering the great.
Have a public vote on the best art, and the winner will a cheesy, sentimental piece. Have them select the best writers, and you’ll get cranked-out formula novels. And have them pick the best singer, and you’ll get, well, Sanjaya.
It’s not that people are stupid, it’s just that crowds tend to lean toward a pleasant average, rather than a compelling standout. The best singers always get voted off Idol. Just the way it goes.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
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