As many know MTV can be seen as a bastion of cutting edge marketing and advertising techniques since they cater to an ever changing younger demographic. As I was watching MTV I saw a new “advertisement” in between commercials. One could call this a station identification, or a promo, or perhaps even a trailer. In fact it seems to be a hybrid of all of these things. First off. Footskating 101 is an actual film that came out in in 2007. But somehow MTV showed an interest in the film and most likely collaborated on a series of spots which are still being shown on MTV about footskating. As a sidenote Puma also teamed up for the chances of viral glory and sponsored special footskating shoes. You’ll notice their logo appearing in many of the MTV spots as well. Since the film’s budget (including marketing) reached only 1 Million it is seemingly impossible that they could’ve afforded daily advertisements about the film without some sort of help from MTV. Especially 2 years after the release date. My guess is that MTV wanted to look hip and up to date (which is really all they do) and agreed to combine spots for the upcoming film with their own station identifications. MTV gets to put their name on something which is hip and young, Puma gets to make another niche shoe, and the creators of Footskating 101 get free publicity. Everybody’s happy.

Now to the film. The film created a new fad which was simply skateboarding without the board. While skateboarding was created by individuals which then became a mass marketing phenomenon, Footskating is a marketing phenomenon which intended to create a fad. On their website they even encourage young people to shoot and upload their own footskating videos in order to compete to be the “Footskater of the month”. Thus, getting free publicity and buzz for their film under the guise of user generated content. In this respect the marketing team was quite clever in thinking about the power of viral videos on the web in order to hype a product. Not exactly creative or revolutionary because every company on the planet would love to have a video with their logo go viral, but nonetheless effective.

Here you can see some user generated content “competing” to be the footskater of the month.

Now let’s get on to the MTV spots for Footskating. These are 30 second long promos following the life of various anti-authoritarian footskaters in which they go on at lengths about consumerism and create a parody of those who believe that certain trends, music or movements all sell out at a certain point. In some of the spots there are even ad execs which go on to say that “ad execs are the new footskaters”. Now, to someone who analyzes and interprets media the jokes are simple, but to the MTV audience not so much. I don’t think the average teenager watching these (I don’t even know what to call them??? Spots? Promos? Advertisements? Station Identifications?) has the slightest clue about the nuances going into the message which they are trying to convey. If one really looks at these spots they are a parody of those who believe in authenticity, DIY culture, the underground, or the obscure. Which is absolutely fitting because while MTV seeks out the newest thing, they are also walking a tightrope because anything that gets on MTV is also labeled as being Sold Out. They effectively kill everything unique that they touch and turn it into a product. So MTVs footskating spots are a series of infomercials making fun of those who believe in the underground, and mocks those who wish to preserve it. Since they are catering to a demographic which wants to hear the safest and most mainstream music this makes sense. They want those who love mainstream music to laugh at those who criticize it. It’s the old “Anti Marketing” Market.

I’m anti-establishment

Sponsors. In this ad we see the main character making fun of sponsorship. Forget that the spot is “sponsored” by MTV, and most likely Puma.

On Magazines and Blogging

In closing you can take a look at http://mtv.tv/footskating for more information. It may not come as a surprise to you. But the link which is being flashed on the screen at the end of these spots doesn’t even exist