I’m supposed to be working on something else at the moment, but feel compelled to write about the Grumpy Cat movie “Worst Christmas Ever,” that aired on Lifetime TV last night.
Honestly, I hadn’t planned on watching it, but being at my parents with the fireplace roaring, red wine pouring and a delish thin-crust pizza, we decided to give it a shot.
Source: Instgram.com/ihavecat
I won’t delve into the debate around Tardar Sauce’s treatment and/or overexposure. I can only say I’ve met her, her manager, mother and brother on several occasions and they seem like decent people and “Grumpy Cat” seemed. well-looked after and…well, herself. That’s all I can say without speculating.
My biggest beef and question to Lifetime (Which I asked on Twitter and have not received a response) is: DO YOU KNOW WHO THE TARGET AUDIENCE IS FOR THIS MOVIE? The answer? A resounding “NO!” as the movie’s star would say.
The folks at Crushable.com likened it to “Home Alone,” while one friend said it was like “reading text messages from 13-year-olds.” So one might be led to believe it was a movie for younger children. Two clues that wasn’t the case:
- The two-hour movie had 8pm time slot
- The commercial for Osphena, a pill for women with “vaginal aging” due to menopause resulting in “painful sex” that ran several times throughout the movie
If you must, here’s the commercial. “Enjoy” and imagine watching it with an 8-year-old.
While their tagline used to be, “Television for Women,” which would make a lot more sense for this spot (but not the movie). They changed it a few years back to “Your life. Your time,” whatever that means (likely mediocrity by committee resulting in a global, meaningless, non-specific generic tagline).
Regardless of who they thought they were targeting, menopausal women or the younger crowd, I found the media placement in poor taste.
If they thought the audience was in fact the “cat crowd,” then the media community and advertisers clearly continues to think of cat lovers and parents as older women (with dried up vaginas). As a side note, did you notice there were hardly any men in the commercial? Who were those hot 50+ year-olds having sex with…
Posts on the I HAVE CAT Facebook Page from those watching the movie real-time were from a range of men and women of all ages.
Given the movie takes place in a mall PET SHOP, it would have been nice to see commercials promoting adoption by the ASPCA, Best Friends or other like-minded organizations.
The two highlights of the evening for me (besides the fireplace, watching with my Mom, the pizza and wine) were:
1) Finally getting a follow-back on Twitter by Miss Tardar Sauce herself and not one of those copycat Twitter accounts.
2) The Friskies commercial that ran in-between vagina dryness spots featuring my favorite cats including Colonel Meow (RIP). I couldn’t find the :30 version they ran last night so here’s the full length spot from last year. Be forewarned however – that damn song will get stuck in your head!
Did you watch #WorstChristmasEver ? What did you think of the movie, and did you share my confusion over the target audience and find the vagina ads out-of-place?
And any idea why it would run on Lifetime and not the Hallmark channel or even Nickelodeon?
9 Responses to #WorstChristmasEver @LifeTimeTV Media Placement #Fail