Los Angeles Times Case Analysis Essay
WITHOUT SPORTS CAMPAIGN
OVERVIEW
Beginning with its 1979 cable-television launch, ESPN, Inc. (then officially known as Entertainment and Sports Programming Network), strove to build a brand that was synonymous with sports. After progressively acquiring broadcasting rights to college basketball and football and then, one after another, to each of the major professional sports leagues, ESPN became the dominant sports network on television as well as a cable-industry model for success. Indeed, the proliferation of specifically targeted cable channels in the 1990s and 2000s owed a great deal to ESPN’s example of successfully targeting sports-obsessed men. At the same time, the wide selection of channels that became available to most consumers made it ever more imperative that networks offer a clear …show more content…
Some did not find the spots to be funny and even thought that they were a bit unsavory. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, ad critic Denise Gellene observed, ‘‘In these spots, aimed at sports fans and cable programmers alike, The Rick comes off as a genuine sportsaholic. But his obsession lacks the zany quality of sports fanatics depicted in ads for other ESPN services. It seems The Rick needs to get a life—or at least a shower.’’ Despite the critics, The Rick was popular with ESPN’s target audience, and the campaign played its part in successfully launching ESPNews. CNN-SI, in the meantime, failed to catch on and was ultimately dropped. When ESPN tapped The Rick to promote the ESPYs, ESPN received some of the best ratings it had experienced in several years for the program. ‘‘The Rick’’ campaign also helped to advance the acting career of O’Malley. He starred in the disastrous sitcom The Mike O’Malley Show, which was cancelled after two episodes in 1999, but found sitcom success as the star of the CBS sitcom Yes, Dear, which debuted in 2000. O’Malley also landed roles in such films as Pushing Tin and 28
OVERVIEW
Beginning with its 1979 cable-television launch, ESPN, Inc. (then officially known as Entertainment and Sports Programming Network), strove to build a brand that was synonymous with sports. After progressively acquiring broadcasting rights to college basketball and football and then, one after another, to each of the major professional sports leagues, ESPN became the dominant sports network on television as well as a cable-industry model for success. Indeed, the proliferation of specifically targeted cable channels in the 1990s and 2000s owed a great deal to ESPN’s example of successfully targeting sports-obsessed men. At the same time, the wide selection of channels that became available to most consumers made it ever more imperative that networks offer a clear …show more content…
Some did not find the spots to be funny and even thought that they were a bit unsavory. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, ad critic Denise Gellene observed, ‘‘In these spots, aimed at sports fans and cable programmers alike, The Rick comes off as a genuine sportsaholic. But his obsession lacks the zany quality of sports fanatics depicted in ads for other ESPN services. It seems The Rick needs to get a life—or at least a shower.’’ Despite the critics, The Rick was popular with ESPN’s target audience, and the campaign played its part in successfully launching ESPNews. CNN-SI, in the meantime, failed to catch on and was ultimately dropped. When ESPN tapped The Rick to promote the ESPYs, ESPN received some of the best ratings it had experienced in several years for the program. ‘‘The Rick’’ campaign also helped to advance the acting career of O’Malley. He starred in the disastrous sitcom The Mike O’Malley Show, which was cancelled after two episodes in 1999, but found sitcom success as the star of the CBS sitcom Yes, Dear, which debuted in 2000. O’Malley also landed roles in such films as Pushing Tin and 28