Sir Darryl loves to give me a hard time about not having cable TV. He just doesn’t understand how, in this day and age, anyone could possibly have a TV without having some sort of cable or satellite TV package. This fact has even been included in one of the many theme songs he uses for my segment on The Sir Darryl Radio Experience.
And I will admit, there are times when I wish I had cable TV. A large chunk of the NASCAR season now airs only on cable. Most of the Major League Soccer games air FSSW, with ESPN airing most World Cup games. And I would love to have access to BBC America (Doctor Who) and Syfy (Merlin).
But there is one very good reason not to have cable: there is no chance that I will ever accidentally tune into MTV while they are airing one of their insipid “reality” shows. Namely, Jersey Shore.
Unfortunately for me, not having cable doesn’t prevent me from having to hear about the cast’s exploits, as everything those people do are covered by every entertainment show and magazine in the world.
I may not be the only one who has had enough of these pretentious fame-mongers, though. Teenage and young adult clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch released a statement early Wednesday morning saying they would pay Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino and other cast members a substantial amount of money to NOT wear their clothes.
For the dirty minded of you out there, the fashion retailer is not asking the cast to pose naked for one of their quarterly catalogs. Instead, they simply want the cast to wear any brand of clothing EXCEPT the A&F brand.
We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans.
For a company that is well known for its all-but-written-in-ink “NO FAT PEOPLE” policy, you would think the cast of the Jersey Shore would be a good fit for their brand. The guys all have abs you could grate cheese on, and the girls can all rock bikinis. Except maybe Snooki. I’m not sure a bikini-top has been made yet that can holster her girls.
Then again, Abercrombie & Fitch may already realize what a good fit their clothes and the Jersey Shore cast is after all. At least, that’s how MTV sees it. The cable channel released its own statement Wednesday afternoon, claiming that A&F has come up with a clever PR stunt.
It’s a clever PR stunt and we’d love to work with them on other ways they can leverage “Jersey Shore” to reach the largest youth audience on television.
One of the only TV shows currently on the air seeing higher ratings each season, Jersey Shore debuted to an audience of almost 9 million people for its Season 4 Premiere earlier this month. I guess people want to see if the cast can stereotype and offend genuine Italians as easily as they stereotyped and offended Italian-Americans.
If MTV and the retailer do find a way to work together, then it may mean more A&F clothes being worn on the TV series. Or the cast could be displayed in photos in the A&F stores. Or *shudder* you could go into an A&F store and find ‘The Situation’ and the others live modeling.
Then again, it won’t be much of an issue for me. Much like I don’t have cable TV, I also don’t shop at A&F. Between being too old and too fat, I simply don’t fit their demographics.
Now if I could just do something about getting BBC America to air through one of my local TV station’s digital signals……….
So what do you think about the Abercrombie & Fitch press release? Do you think it’s just a publicity stunt, or do you think they really want the cast out of their clothes? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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