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Sesame Street Recognizes That Advertising Is Content... On A Horse... Cow

Culture

from the i'm-on-a-horse dept

Tue, Oct 12th 2010 10:50am — Mike Masnick
Earlier this year, we talked about the viral sensation of the Old Spice "I'm on a horse" ads, which have since morphed into various other successful campaigns:
Not surprisingly, this has created a ton of parodies and spoofs... but what I wasn't expecting was that Sesame Street would do its own parody of a TV commercial:
Now, it should be admitted that Sesame Street has been getting a bit edgier lately, with the whole controversy over Katy Perry's "appearance" with Elmo, and the whole "sexy" Sesame Street Halloween costume thing, but still I find this fascinating. While there are some who are worried about the role of advertising on children's TV, this seems to be an admission by Sesame Street in recognizing that ads are content too, and it can use that to its own advantage. Lots of people love the Old Spice ad, so why not play off of that to get some attention to its own work?
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Filed Under: advertising, content, grover, old spice, sesame street

27 Comments

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  • icon
    ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 12 Oct 2010 @ 11:00am

    Adult service

    This strikes me as one of those tidbits they throw out knowing that the adults watching with their kids will get more out of it than the kids themselves (while not depriving kids of the confusing world of prepositions.)

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2010 @ 4:44am

      Re: Adult service

      Sesame Street has always done bits to appeal to the parents. They did an Amazing Race parody a couple of years ago that had me in stitches. I would say if you weren't parodied by Sesame Street, MAD Magazine or SNL your advertising agency is doing something wrong.

      When I was in High School in the seventies I would come home from school to find my Mom watching Sesame Street. She always loved the Muppets and it was better TV than the soaps.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Kingster (profile), 12 Oct 2010 @ 11:01am

    I'm surprised that Sesame Street hasn't been sued for copying (aka parodying) the commercial...

    Course, it may just serve to sell more Old Spice... To kids.

    "I'm on a rant."

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2010 @ 11:05am

    awesome

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2010 @ 11:15am

    LOVE IT!
    I think Sesame Street has had to update itself because of fresh competition like YoGabaGaba (which puts on an awesome live show).

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    weneedhelp (profile), 12 Oct 2010 @ 11:27am

    Cookie Monster

    has the best lines.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bartman, 12 Oct 2010 @ 12:11pm

    As a father who has to watch Sesame Street pretty much every morning, I gotta say, this is one of the best things I have seen from them in a while. Way to go, and I hope they do more like this

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    IronM@sk, 12 Oct 2010 @ 12:47pm

    FurTV

    ^ Please come back Mo Fo's

    signed
    Pussy Monster

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Gwiz, 12 Oct 2010 @ 12:47pm

    Dang. I saw the Sesame Street version yesterday and have been waiting for someone in the TechDirt comments to say "...on a horse" so I could reply with "...er...cow". Done ruined all my fun for today...guess I'll do some work now.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2010 @ 12:49pm

    Does Mikey Like?

    That Sesame Street video was funny when it had only 10,000 views. It went viral fast...

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Shawn (profile), 12 Oct 2010 @ 1:10pm

      Re: Does Mikey Like?

      Look at your comment. Back to mine. Back to yours NOW BACK TO MINE. Sadly, it isn't mine. But if you stopped trolling and started posting legitimate crap it could LOOK like mine. Look down, back up, where are you? You're scrolling through comments, finding the ones that your comment could look like. Back at mine, what is it? It's a highly effective counter-troll. Look again, MY COMMENT IS NOW DIAMONDS.

      Anything is possible when you think before you comment or post.

      I'm on a computer

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Rikuo (profile), 12 Oct 2010 @ 1:34pm

        Re: Re: Does Mikey Like?

        Can't wait for someone to counter "I'm on a Mac".

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          The Infamous Joe (profile), 12 Oct 2010 @ 2:27pm

          Re: Re: Re: Does Mikey Like?

          I considered it, but he said "computer" not "PC", so it wouldn't really fit.

          ..and mine would have been "I'm on a Linux Box." ;)

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2010 @ 1:07pm

    Sales of the word "on" have gone through the roof because of this ad.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    David Tusick, 12 Oct 2010 @ 1:34pm

    I somehow missed this. I didn't think this was a real sesame street production at first. My company runs a blog where we talk about these type of things in a business context and I normally catch these things. Thanks for the post.

    Do you have a twitter account?

    and if you want you can check our blog, you may like it. socialmedianaires.com

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Karl (profile), 12 Oct 2010 @ 3:27pm

    Sesame Street videos

    This is my favorite video starring a Sesame Street character:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOn1htjSZic

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Funny Ads, 13 Oct 2010 @ 7:01am

    I'm on a...

    horse ... Moooo ... a.. cow ! Funny!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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