Not the Same as it Ever Was Part II
Feb 9, 2009
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This year, an additional twist to this effort is to be more active in the social causes that families care about most and work with programmers to examine these issues. The Alliance will seek out and partner with pro-family, cause-related, nonprofit organizations. This direction, according to Schering-Plough's Meringolo, "could help us take existing content and turn it into a tool to educate people and initiate a dialogue on a number of issues impacting our society," including obesity, safe teen driving, bullying, etc.
"Whatever we do on this front has to be relevant to the audience," Meringolo says. "If it's not, it won't be a useful tool. The issues have to be handled responsibly. We don't have to solve all the problems. But we do want to get people talking about them in a way that connects a negative action to its consequences and gets people talking about solutions."
P&G's Gentile added that these collaborations with nonprofits could, in some way, be woven into the content and then be linked to more information or educational resources on the topic.
"We really see this as an opportunity because we feel there are going to be a lot of advertising companies that will want to get involved in something like this," he says. The pro-social message also is going to be a bigger part of the group's Annual Symposium, another core initiative, according to Millsaps of FedEx.
"We're going to be talking a lot more about social responsibility, which is something that's been on the radar much more often lately with companies in the entertainment industry," she says. "We'll be looking to expand the type of companies that will be involved in the symposiums in the future because they are realizing that they share a responsibility for the content that they create or distribute."
On the scholarship front, the Alliance has granted more than 50 financial awards to students at four universities: the University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount, Carnegie Mellon and Ohio University. The funds allow the students to intern at production companies and networks that actively are working on developing content with family-friendly themes.
"Family-friendly platforms are very compelling," says Sumana Rajagopal, global media manager for Merck & Co., Inc. and a member of the Alliance's executive committee. "The funding for scholarships is to get young writers and other creative people to realize that quality programming, whatever the medium, is not only appealing to families but to advertisers as well. We want that to be top of mind in the industry.
"And the thinking with the scholarships is to get young writers and other creative people to realize that a lot of very good shows appeal to parents as well as children and that these shows also appeal to many advertisers, which is something that people coming into this industry should be thinking about."
As with so much else with the Alliance these days, this initiative is getting a rethink. The group is looking to broaden the effort by making the TV-centric script development fund into a content development fund that will aid relevant content creation on a number of distribution platforms.
Another new step for the group will be primary research. In these days of marketing accountability, the Alliance wants to quantify for its members that family-oriented entertainment is good for business.
Marc Goldstein, president/CEO of GroupM North America and member of the Alliance's executive committee, adds that the research projects will determine "how best to reach the constituencies that we are trying to service. It will be a way of furthering our knowledge in the area."
Goldstein has been intimately involved with the group's annual awards show, which also had a transformation in 2008. The Family Entertainment Awards began as a relatively simple luncheon and later became a major television event. The show aired on The CW on December 12, 2008, and included A-list celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Ryan Seacrest and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Not all of the changes ahead, however, are in the hands of the Alliance. On January 20, the nation swore in Barack Obama as its 44th president, and, along with him will come a new chairman of the FCC. Changes in Washington may ratchet up the need to have more family-friendly programming and content available on as many delivery platforms as possible.
Another yet-to-be-determined element is the uncertain economy. In tough times, people typically get out less often, opting instead to hunker down at home in front of the television or, more recently perhaps, the computer. And that, State Farm's Gold observes, could have a positive ripple effect for the Alliance for Family Entertainment.
"Television, in general, has not been trending downward, and it's not likely to start trending downward in a recessionary environment when people are staying in more with their families," he says. "So this could be a good time to reach people with our family-friendly message."
Part and parcel with any bold, new direction is a degree of uncertainty. No one knows how the economy will impact viewing patterns throughout 2009. No one knows whether the Obama administration will have a different take than past administrations on the decent/indecent programming continuum. One thing, though, is for sure: The Alliance is ready to take on its new, broader role in influencing the continued diversity of programming.
"Over the past decade, this group has proven the importance of family-friendly programming on TV to advertisers, the networks and to the viewers," says Millsaps. "Now we're going to try to prove the same thing to a larger group of people. It's a very exciting time for us."
For more Family Friendly coverage:
Not the Same as it Ever Was Part I
Not the Same as it Ever Was Part II
A Hallmark of Family Programming
Wii Are Family
ANA Group Heads into its Second Decade
