So in addition to Mad Men and every other AMC drama, I also watch AMC’s latest (but not last) foray into reality programming called “The Pitch.” The Pitch is part of a troubling trend in AMC programming towards cheap and easy reality shows (like Kevin Smith’s deathly boring Comic Book Men and the upcoming Small Town Security) and in fact the network plans to unveil no less than four reality shows by the end of the year. All of this is a pretty drastic—-and unwelcome—-change for the network that only a couple years ago prided itself on having no reality shows. AMC’s marketing loudly trumpeted that what they do best is drama, and personally I’m thrilled that at least one basic cable network that claims to know drama actually does (sorry TNT, but except for Southland, none of your shows are worth watching and are the exact same type of police procedural mediocrity we can watch seven nights a week on CBS).
Still, The Pitch is far better than your average reality show and that’s because it focuses much more on the competitive, quasi-game show aspect that make crafty business shows (like ABC’s Shark Tank) so addictive. Of course, where there’s an addiction, there is a heavy amount of frustration to go along with the excitement.
The Pitch promotes itself as a real world Mad Men, meaning that it follows two advertising agencies as they compete against each other to land a big account every week. There are two different agencies going after a different business’s advertising dollars every week and it all comes down to which agency has the best, you guessed it, pitch.
This in itself isn’t a bad idea for a reality show, and AMC certainly knows how to milk the setup for every last bit of creativity and tension. In fact, I’m surprised at how invested I get in which agency wins, even though AMC (to their credit) never paints one agency as villainous or tries to get you to root for one over the other. Who you want to win largely depends on your own personality, giving you much more freedom of choice than most reality shows with their boo-hiss crafty villains and sympathetic (i.e. pathetically stupid) “heroes,” and I’ve seen some episodes with people where we could both present a good case for why we wanted which agency to win.
However, in my opinion, the wrong agency has won nearly every week on this show. [Not every week, but about two thirds of the time.] Typically, we’re faced with one agency that has a harmonious working relationship and endless creativity (the agency I always pull for), and they regularly get trounced by a bickering bunch of hacks who come up with some “bright idea” that amounts to user-generated viral videos.
Nearly every week, the agency that relies on the tired method of having a company’s user essentially do their jobs for them seems to win, which makes me wonder why these companies don’t just forgo an advertising agency and ask Facebook users to do their latest marketing campaign for free since it’s almost exactly the same difference. So sadly, the agency that comes up with a great, buzz-worthy pitch (the agency that pushed Subway to do “zAMbies,” BooneOakley’s truly inspired “Make Life Pop” campaign for Pop Chips, which is better than that company deserves in all honesty) almost routinely loses to “Hey, let’s go to YouTube, see what people like, and just ask them to do that for this company!” mediocrity.
It confirms all the worst things you’ve heard about advertising, why it sucks to be in that business, and why more and more Americans fast forward through commercials whenever they can. But you know, if I really wanted a weekly sermon on such a shallow message, I think I’d just as soon watch Mad Men and actually get involved in some actual drama. So watch The Pitch if you’re a reality junkie but begging for shows that won’t kill your brain cells, but just don’t expect to love it if you’re already watching AMC programming.
everythint in this article is completely true. every week i would see companies pick the easiest and clearly cheapest campaigns. i mean come on ” the worlds longest viral vid for pop chips” yawn..and the finale was even more disapppointing.