MTV and VH1*

Last weekend's Live 8 concerts may or may not achieve their stated objective of coaxing more aid for Africa from world leaders, but they have already accomplished two very important things: getting MTV and VH1 to actually play some music (at this point reminding people that both of these networks began as music networks is like reminding people that IBM started out processing punch cards) and giving us some insight into the difference between the "personalities" of MTV and VH1.

For eight hours on Saturday, both networks ran identical Live 8 programming--identical, that is, except for the commercials that ran in between the concert coverage. Which means that Saturday's programming functioned essentially like a branding experiment: since advertisers were not buying space on unique programming, they were essentially buying the demographics drawn in by the networks themselves.

I watched Live 8 for almost two hours and catalogued the commercials on each networks, and the results were largely unsurprising. Companies buying space on VH1 think that your most important possession is your home, while those buying on MTV think that your most important possession is your CD player. VH1 featured ads for Verizon Broadband, State Farm, Furniture Row, and Sherwin Williams, while MTV had very long commercials for Slow Motion (a slow jams collection), Echoes (Pink Floyd's greatest hits), a Motley Crue best of, and an album by the Transplants. The MTV audience is clearly expected to be younger and more urban--that showed through in numerous ways, but oddly enough not in movies. Bewitched and Must Love Dogs, two standard issue romantic comedies, were advertised on MTV, while Hustle and Flow, a film about a pimp transitioning into a rap career, was featured alongside Hanes and Acura ads on VH1.

Both MTV and VH1 viewers like to eat at Dairy Queen, as that was the only commercial I saw that was shown on both networks. Both types of viewers get acne, though MTV viewers treat it with Proactiv while VH1 viewers use Neutrogena Acne Solutions. Both like music--MTV viewers use their iPods and VH1 viewers have XM Satellite Radio. Both like computers--MTVers need computers from Dell, while VH1ers need services to go with their computers like Verizon Broadband and Cox High Speed Internet.

Overall, MTV is attractive to advertisers who have "stuff" to sell. VH1 is both for stuff and the stuff to go with your stuff--the services and add-ons that separate the adults from the kids, plus all the stuff the kids can't afford. As Kent Brockman would say, "This barely qualifies as news."

*I was going to title this entry, "Raj Would Be Proud," but after having written it, I'm convinced that he wouldn't be. At all.