Ok, so for the first time in The Pitch’s short life, I agree with their decision!  As much as my inner Canadian would have loved to have seen The Hive take the prize, they didn’t.  Even more interesting is the fact that the viewer poll on AMC’s website shows that 82% of the fans agree with that decision as well.  So what the heck do we talk about?

Even twitter seems to have died down over the past few days (compared to previous episodes).  But why?  I have a couple of theories:

Evil-doers:

First of all, everyone loves a bad-guy, right?  I mean, we as a viewing public love the drama of it all.  Much like sports, it’s just in our nature to want to cheer for someone, and of course having an oppressor makes it that much easier!  Not surprisingly, AMC & Studio Lambert know this.  And that’s why characters like Jonathan Cude, Liz Paradise, and Ray Johnson steal the spotlight.  But this episode has no evil-doers.  The closest thing we have is when FKM takes their employee’s cell phones away.  Although, some would say that was a blessing!

Underdogs:

To make things even more interesting, when the clients pick agencies that we (the viewing public) don’t agree with, we get even more enraged.  Now we are forced to pick an “underdog”.  I mean, who doesn’t love an underdog?  Just think back to WDCW; “The Democracy of Good Ideas” sounds almost like the American dream.  How can you go against that?

The unfortunate thing in this episode is that there wasn’t a clear underdog.  Other than the fact that one agency is from Canada and the other is from Texas, they seemed to be equals ready for some stiff competition.  Even though, when all was said and done, everyone still had their favorite, they probably weren’t jumping up and down for them at the end.

The Brand:

What about the brand?  What role does that play in getting the viewing public out of their seat?  Personally, I use Subway and Waste Management on a regular basis.  Do I take them for granted, most certainly “yes”.  Do I enjoy their brands, of course.  But, I don’t wear Waste Management t-shirts nor do I don Subway hats.

So for this brand, Clockwork Home Services, it seems like it should be even more exciting.  I’m sure that if my toilet was overflowing, I’d be jumping on the phone immmmediately!!  So, brand excitement should be there this time, right? Or was something else missing?

Creativity:

Here’s where the rubber meets the road!  Right out of the gates, Clockwork home services says, “don’t come back to us saying that we need to combine the brands”, “we are keeping these brand images”.  Wha, wha, what?

You could have just sucked the air out of the room, from a creativity standpoint.  That makes this really tough.  Take a minute to think about those logos.  Can you remember one in particular?  I can’t, and I’ve been knee deep in this stuff for at least two weeks.

So, even though all of my fellow sales and marketing professionals out there were probably yelling at the T.V. when it happened; The Hive took a big risk by going against their clients stated desires.  They saw that sticking with three separate brands limited their creative options and presented them with something they clearly weren’t interested in.  This was either brave or dumb; I’m voting for brave. (but I’m a little dumb

Of course, we now know what the final outcome was and what the client chose.  And it was good.  I will definitely remember “HELP”; not sure how that “helps” clockwork, but I’ll remember it.  Maybe it will have more of an affect once they start repeating the commercials every five minutes for the next two months?

Don’t Give Up Fans:

Anyway, between evil-doers and underdogs, winners and losers, we still love the sport of it.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s just as fascinating to consider the reasoning behind the decisions.  The personalities involved in choosing who wins and who loses is complex.  Even the quality of the presentations play an important role in the final outcome.

So, never fear, because you just can’t go through life without coming across those evil-doers; without rooting for an underdog, or without declaring a winner and a loser.  So, stay tuned for the next episode of The Pitch, because every sport has a slow game; even reality t.v.

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