You Go Girl - Helen Mirren Rebukes Tinseltown for Ageist, Sexist Fixation

Mirren knocks Hollywood for Obsessing over Youth & Young Men

Walking Dead Writing Staff takes a Hike

I'm not exactly getting the jump on this story, but the writing staff of AMC's hit zombie series, The Walking Dead, have been fired.  En masse.

Writers being fired from shows -- hits and otherwise, isn't exactly front page news.  Entire staffs from new hit shows are a bit of an anomaly.  The series had an order of six episodes this first season.  Even before last night's finale, the show was renewed for a 13 episode second season.  Six million viewers tuned in for last night's record breaking season one finale.

Season two's built on the premise of relying entirely on freelancers to get the job done.

Having worked on scripted TV shows for a number of years, managing 13 eppys with no in-house writing staff... um, yeah, Frank Darabont, the showrunner can expect to live in his office for the next year.  Cause that's what it's going to take to pull that off.  Since he'll be doing all of the development, writing, casting, budgeting, final say on production and editorial choices, not to mention all those hiccups that happen during day-to-day operations, dealing with the studio and networks... yeah, welcome to hell.

Now, not being part of a TV writing staff currently, the idea of freelancing is very appealing.  But being the realist I am and knowing there are all kinds of folk lining up to take those vacated spots... a combo platter of writing staff and freelancers is more than likely.

Ah, the business of show.  Don't you just love it...?   

Good Golly, Ms. Molly

Okay, I've been a bit remiss -- alright absent of late.  I've got a great excuse -- er, reason.  I've been working on a few things, and with super laser focus, have been doing great things (in my mind).

Truth is, I've had some family issues to wrangle, and unfortunately, this is an ongoing situation.

Remember when you were a kid and couldn't wait to grow up...?  Well.  Here we are.

To quote a line from a silly though pleasant movie, "Chin up, young person."

The Gift That Keeps On Giving...

Social media has arrived.  It's achieved critical mass.  Old Spice spokesman and now bonafide celebrity, Isaiah Mustafa has helped reinvigorate a brand that has languished in the male grooming products category for years.  With Mustafa's contribution, in addition to the brilliant ad agency behind this campaign -- Wieden + Kennedy, this Proctor & Gamble brand has seen an increase of sales to the tune of 107 percent.  Quite the feat.

Or is it?

Per AdAge, with SymphonyIRI, "(Old Spice) has been consistently gaining market share, even though that's only been enough to erase a deficit for the brand built up earlier.  In the 52 weeks ended June 13, it had a roughly flat share in a category that grew a robust 8.6 percent." 

Further, "Some other men's brands also have been making substantial share gains of late, including P&G sibling Gillette and Beierdorf's Nivea. And the thing Old Spice, Gillette and Nivea have in common isn't Mr. Mustafa, but rather multiple national drops of high-value coupons.  They included buy-one, get-one-free offers from both P&G brands and up to $4 off a single bottle of Nivea Men from Beiersdorf, reflecting unprecedented levels of promotional intensity in the category."

All these stats are a bit hard to swallow -- especially given all the ads we've seen, and yes, enjoyed.  We were engaged.  In fact Mustafa and company shot a series of 186 clips -- a two-day marathon of YouTube personalized videos in answer to Tweets from Old Spice's popular Twitter feed.  The videos generated more than 34 million aggregate views and a billion PR impression in a week, according to P&G.  In a single week, views of the personalized ads surpassed the nearly 29 million viral video views of Mr. Mustafa's four TV ads since February.

I could go on, but bottom line is P&G has won with a carefully crafted campaign, some say gift, that's created awareness, watercooler worthiness and just plain old enjoyment.  We have been and will continue to talk about Old Spice as long as they keep up the good work.  Some of us even buy the products.

And that's really what it's all about, right?

YouTube Dips Toe and $5M into Content Creators...

Looks like Google via YouTube wants to help some of its more prolific and brand identified content creators create, well... better content.

They've created a $5 million fund to assist producers who may not have the wherewithal to upgrade production values with equipment, actors, writers, even directors.  The first class to participate is by invitation only.  Google will roll out the invites to a broader audience if this model proves to be successful.

And to be fair, Google's not doing this out of the kindness of their hearts.  There's much money to be made here.  Display advertising, a $20 billion business, is something Google wants a bigger piece of.  Google is on track to book as much as $600 million, all of it from display advertising -- on YouTube.

For more specifics, read the AdAge article here -- http://bit.ly/aJHz8Z

Let's hope other video distributors will be just as incentivized to help their producers help them.

Screenwriters Find Work is Dwindling...

I'm not that surprised about the above headline.  Things have been bad in the industry since the 2007 WGA Strike, but lately with the Great Recession, it's put even more of a strain on an already dire situation.

It's tough all over, and if you really want a career in the biz, writing or otherwise, you need to come prepared to do whatever it takes, legally speaking of course... because your dream to write for TV or the movies may not happen the way you want, in the timeline you want.

Don't wait for someone else to validate you.  Do it yourself. 

Here's the LA Times Article if you want to take a look -- http://bit.ly/bpPAPE

Love Chronicles Secrets Revealed...

Having followed Rockmond Dunbar's work over the years, it's nice to see him get roles which, hopefully, allow him to explore a series of characters, covering a wide spectrum of complexity.  Don't know if we'll necessarily see that in this upcoming release (July 13, 2010), but it's nice to see these actors in what appears to be a lighthearted, romantic comedy.

Here's the trailer --