Best/Worst Network Promo Campaigns

[Vee]

Girl, keep up! The "I'm Not in Love" promos were for the first(?) PC novella arc, "Fate." Eve becomes involved with Ian and Kevin and Lucy reunite. I was feelin' it.

 

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I don't think later ABC ever had better promos than the "Escape" campaign with Natalie/Cris, the sadly-aborted Liz triangle on GH and I think Greenlee/Leo/Laura on AMC.

 

 

I also always liked this campaign even if the story was bad:

 

 

Edited February 11, 2019 by Vee

[j swift]

I think we've developed some interesting data:

1) We clearly prefer actual pop songs versus songs written for commercials

2) Recurring male narration, both for the familiarity of repetition and the idiosyncratic tone of CBS-Clarence saying "The Guiding Light" and ABC-Ernie Anderson's sticcado delivery

3) Hair tossing, lots and lots of hair tossing  

Edited February 11, 2019 by j swift

[Vee]

I forgot this promo:

 

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Edited February 11, 2019 by Vee

[Darn]

 

I love you.

 

Wow that ATWT promo really shows the ABC-ification of CBS at the time (that song If You're Not The One by Daniel Bedingfield was also added to my rotation at the time due to that commercial...or maybe it was used in a Danny/Michelle scene on GL? I can't recall).

 

The Liz/Jason/Zander promo is great too even though I don't care for either pairing.

 

 

 

Good. Because it's bad and I hate it.

Edited February 11, 2019 by Darn

[Vee]

Yeah, the promo is better than the entire story in virtually all these cases.

 

I find 90% of CBS campaigns in the '90s and 2000s to be horribly embarrassing tbh and always have. All the weird posing and vamping with cheesy music and poor Peter Bergman saying "get it on!" But then I didn't grow up with them, which may explain why I still have a perverse fondness for the incredibly silly and extremely '90s "What!!! In the Name of Love" campaign that was previously mentioned:

 

Poor Hillary B. Smith!!!

 

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The crosshairs on the third to last promo!!

 

[Franko]

I'm casting my vote for "Love in the Afternoon" 2.0. Or is it 3.0, counting NBC's promo? Anyway, the one from 1983 or so to 1985 or so. "Loooove in the Afternoon" as opposed to "Fall in love/in the afternoon."

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I never get tired of watching these promos. The announcer (not Ernie Anderson, @j swift, but iconic in his own way*), the music, the soap hierarchy (not too surprising that AMC and GH would often share promos) and the charmingly odd occasional interjection from a non-soap.

[j swift]

On its own "What (in the Name of Love)" is a booty shackin' bop, but played back to back, that high note on "are we doing" becomes torturous

 

Imagine how many times Hillary B. Smith and her contemporaries had to do those quick look to the camera moments for promos through the years?  I bet they all have stiff necks and poor startle responses.

[Faulkner]

This was embarrassing.

 

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[Vee]

I just always crack up at how it's like "WHAT!!! In the Name of Love" and then you can hear the dude going 'what!' occasionally throughout.

 

The GL attempt at a "Hot Enough for You" Daniel Bedingfield promo featured an even less exciting couple which sadly cannot be embedded, so click here.

 

I could not get through ten seconds of "Where The Boys Are". I love Cat Hickland but once I saw her bopping around singing I'm like nah I'm good, thanks. This is the same reason I avoided those awful SoapNet singing promos like the plague so PLEASE NO ONE BRING THEM BACK.

Edited February 11, 2019 by Vee

[Franko]

I forgot to explain my asterisk -- ABC's daytime announcer isn't Ernie because Ernie had a much deeper voice.

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A unique promo campaign and classy as hell.

 

From the classy to the unabashedly trashy.

 

 

[j swift]

You are correct sir

 

However "still the one and we're really alive/still the one as the '80s arrive" is a terrible lyric 

 

Almost as bad as "in the heat of the day/there's a different kind of fire" - how many kinds of fire are there? Isn't that like saying there's a different kind of water? 

 

I was trying to find my other favorite ABC promo where they would show a scene from tomorrow's episode and you would have to guess the next line.  Does anyone recall those ads?

Edited February 11, 2019 by j swift

[Franko]

Daytime Dilemma! Give me a second and I'll post one of those.

(I consider myself an equal opportunity soap fan, but ABC's promo game was on point.)

Play along at home (or work).

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[j swift]

NBC did have good print ads, even if the commercials weren't great

 

ABC's print ads were always corny

 

 

[Planet Soap]

Great thread. CBS daytime late 80s-02ish to me had the best promos..."Don't Blink & Don't Look Away", "Get It On", Clarence the announcer, "Everything is Everything", "Turn on the Light Guiiiding Light" were some of their best. 

[j swift]

I had no idea you were THE SoapFoxKirby, thank you for all of your postings 

So much fun, you even found the final one in the series, thank you

 

If SoapPromoKing replies to this thread we'll have a YT classic soap trifecta. 

 

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Edited February 12, 2019 by j swift