Golden Globes takes on a whole new meaning

By Steven Zeitchik

We know producers are under a mandate to up viewership for this year's awards shows. And there's certainly no shortage of ideas - from fewer awards to more blockbuster mentions -- being batted around that could do just that.

But there have to be better solutions than the one reflected by a fifteen-second burst that NBC ran during the NFL playoffs this weekend. The quick spot featured assorted images of glamor on the red carpet -- only they were mostly female celebs, and the camera lingered unsubtly on cleavage. Meanwhile, a voice-over intoned semi-jokingly about the value of this broadcast being in HD (though the spot ends, inexplicably, with a long close-up on Jack Nicholson's face).

Yes yes, the NFL playoffs, men, we get it. And maybe this does lure a few of the males the show has lost over the years, as the red-bloodeds come for the straplesness and stay for the weepiness. But really, overly tan cleavage -- this is the best idea that marketers could come up with?

Comments

[TT]

It's a shame that the Golden Globes don't air during the regular football season. Then, NBC would've had to make a decision between John Madden and Sunday Night Football, and Angelina Jolie and the Golden Globes...