9 posts tagged “television”
The thing about secrets that confuzzles is that the people who own them don't think they'll come out. Even when they themselve reveal them. Simon Foster, for example, fell on bad times after going on a the British show "Wife Swap" and having his character defined by being in a relationship whether both partners had girlfriends. So there was embarrasment, then divorce, then substance abuse and job loss and, finally, either suicide or a tragic drug accident. Which, thanks to his bit of celebrity, will remain forever unsecret via the internet.
Marketing is the massage. Again. Always claim to have knowledge of the unknown, because it is so much cooler to say you are using secret Urawaza rather than claim you're relying on Heloise's hints. To one up your friends, family or enemies even further, claim your life hacks are stolen from the "Ito Family Dinner Table" (second post) and hope your audience isn't familiar with Japanese television ... or the internet.
You now have the opportunity to help General Electric, parent company of NBC, reap some advertising dollars and, at the same, time, expose your deepest darkest audiences for first a web audience and -- hopefully(?) -- a national, perhaps international audience. Goodie!
"Fears, Secrets and Desires" launches with viewer supplied info this spring and the juiciest bits will be reconstructed (with "creative reinterpreation") for a TV audience beginning October '08. Will people send in their own secrets or those of others? And, after the creative reinterpretations NBC spells out in the fine print, still be the submitter's secret?
I didn't get it at first, but a pattern is emerging as the secret is, fortunately, getting out. First, Geraldine Ferraro claims that Barack Obama being a more successful candidate than her fave was due to the darker hue of his pigmentation. In a vacuum that would have been easy enough to dismiss, but now comes the shocking revelation by a tv actress that press reports of her weight loss are due her using the secret power of the sun to "tan" or, possibly also, Spanx secret undergarments. (Who now will reveal Obama wears those as well?) Forty-plus years ago the secret was offered in song. But, as with many secrets, many listened, nobody heard.
Revealing celebrity secrets is the "moral responsibility" of the press, according to VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" Pinsky. Gossip sites shouldn't be in the tell all to sell soap and titillate eyeballs. They have a higher calling. Interesting. Intriguing. A bit of a stretch .....
Are you ready for your close-up? Your 15 minutes of fame?
ABC News invites you to spill your secrets on national television to Lee Woodruff (famous mostly thanks to her husband). No compensation other than whatever you get from taking a stab at celebrity. As for someone who should have a fork stuck in her celebrity, Lynne Spears, Britney's mom is scheduled to fling her book into the marketplace Mother's Day 2008. It will, no doubt, be a tome that promises to reveal secrets such as (as if this wasn't already revealed) she doesn't think she is as horrible a mother or parasite as her daughter's behavior (and sometimes her own) often indicates.
It is the best of all ways to keep the secrets you really care about. Admit to something inane -- a "Murder She Wrote" addiction, for example -- as a way to placate the seeker of your darker secrets.
Remember to learn the whole secret before attempting to use its power. Only knowing a part -- for example learning burglary secrets from the boob tube without sticking around to find out how to keep from getting caught -- isn't as helpful as at least one man thought.
A highlight (?!) of the new British television season will be the Jerry Springer-hosted "Nothing but the Truth," where contestants will be skewered by a lie detector as they admit to what are supposed to be their deepest, darkest, most intimate secrets. Don't count on it. Prizes offered; hilarity guaranteed ... sort of like a live fish flapping on the floor until it runs out of air.
